Reply to IOWA test results and it's correlation to TJHSST

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The activities the poster listed above are not all going on at the same time. Some are only seasonal, some only meet once per month. On any particular day or week, he would only be doing one or some of those activities.
My own child did one extremely time-consuming sport in middle school, not a laundry list of once-a-week or once-a-month activities. Just the one sport, for two hours or so every day, more on the weekends. His teachers hadn't even realized how much time he spent doing his sport until he asked them for recs, and then they were surprised at the high levels of achievement he managed both in and out of school. They knew that a kid who could maintain that schedule would be able to handle the schedule at TJ without much trouble.

Kids should do what they really like and enjoy and then write about that. Admissions just wants to know a little of what the child is like and that he can string a sentence together.[/quote]
Isn't sport a seasonal activity as well?[/quote]

My child's sport was year-round, including summers. Many high level athletes train year-round.

[/quote]Each child is different in what activities he/she pursues or how intensely they are pursued. A sport activity can be very intense and so can activities like spelling bee, math count etc. I know some students who spend hours each day just on spelling bee preparation for example. It all depends on how committed the child is for a particular activity.    [/quote]

Right, my point is that whatever excites the child is what they should be spending their time on, whether it is a number of activities for a few hours each per month or one or two that take up a large percentage of the child's out of school time.

Participation in time-consuming non-academic activities while achieving at a very high level at school shows that the child is very intelligent and very organized, good qualities for a TJ student to exhibit. I was just pointing out that there is no requirement to do a particular set of activities and that [b]high achievement in one non-academic activity is perfectly acceptable.[/b]
[/quote]Saying I am a very good soccer player and soccer is my passion is unlikely to earn many points in demonstrating commitment, curiosity and passion for science, technology, engineering or math. That kid probably should go to a high school with a good soccer team rather than TJ.[/quote]

Not if the child can demonstrate how he relates his sport to science and is a high achieving student even with all the time spent on the outside activity.  A high ability math student is a high ability math student no matter what he or she does after school. And yes, I've known a few kids whose main activity was a non-academic one, went to TJ, did quite well, and went on to top 10 schools, including Ivies. A few are still there and doing fine as far as I can tell: I know that they weren't among the 15% who needed Algebra II help as freshmen.
[/quote]How would a kid in middle school relate his sport to science when he hasn't yet taken physics, physiology, anatomy, calculus, statistics, bioinformatics etc. ?[/quote]

They don't need to write a thesis, just the child's own perceptions. They are, after all, 12 and 13 year olds. I'm just saying that there is no magic formula of activities that a child needs to do to be accepted at TJ. When a kid really enjoys an activity, they tend to get the most out of it. My own observation is that kids who are excited about whatever activities they choose tend to have a good experience if they end up at TJ.

[/quote]

I agree that "When a kid really enjoys an activity, they tend to get the most out of it." However, you are being optimistic and giving too much credit to the admissions' committee. The committee has a specific scoring rubric to score the application package including the essay/SIS in a "holistic" manner and each member may have few minutes at most to read/score hundreds of essays/SIS. I don't think the committee members will score an applicant being passionate about 1 sport and someone being passionate and possibly doing well in mathcount, science olympiad and robotics the same way.  I think the committee is under an obligation to look for : High ability, aptitude, and interest in math, science, and technology, Intellectual curiosity and self-motivation to pursue scientific research, Desire to be challenged with an extensive curriculum focused in math, science, and technology as well as "diversity in student body" among other things under FCPS 3355.12.  [/quote]

I am not trying to argue with you, I am just saying that there is no fill-in-the-blank, one-size-fits-all check off list of activities that kids need to do in middle school if they are interested in TJ. I personally know of a about a dozen kids who participated in one very time consuming athletic activity and they had or are having successful high school careers at TJ. I've known kids like this going back to 2002 and a few of them are students there now. They are all outstandingly bright young people who have a strong work ethic and great time management skills because of their athletic participation. Walking in the door at TJ doesn't mean you have to drop all other interests and only engage in math and science activities! 
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