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]If any TJ parents on here can honestly say their children stated or discussed nothing except for 1 sport the child was passionate about on both the essay and the SIS and was accepted to TJ, please let us know. That would be surprising.  [/quote]

In the questions relating to outside activities, they ask the kids specifically to answer about just one activity or one accomplishment. My child at TJ and a number of others I know wrote mostly about one specific athletic activity that is highly time consuming. These are kids who are highly academically accomplished, in addition to being very strong athletes. Not all the questions refer to outside activities, some ask about school, also, but even those ask the child to focus the answers on one accomplishment or interest for each question.

TJ students have many different interests. The school is not looking for kids who have zero interest in anything outside of math and science.

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Ok, but you are not saying the kids only discussed 1 sport activity. They must have discussed other activities as well. I am not sure why you would want to give the impression all those kids only discussed 1 sport activity and nothing else and were accepted. That is misleading.

This is directly from the admissions office website:

For the SIS:

3. Think about what you have done to help show that TJHSST is a right fit for you. 
[b]Remember, TJ is a STEM focused school and the SIS helps us figure out which 
applicants would be the best fit for the school.[/b] [i]Have you shown an interest in science, 
technology, engineering, or math prior to now?[/i] What have you done to pursue that 
interest?

Sample essay prompts:

“Please discuss in detail an activity in science, mathematics, or technology in which you 
have been involved in the 6th, 7th, or 8th grade that has had a significant impact on your 
interest in science, mathematics, or technology.”

“If you could invite three individuals who have had an impact in the fields of 
mathematics, science, or technology (either present day or in history) to come together 
for a group discussion with you, whom would you invite? Why would you invite each 
person? What questions would you ask them?”
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I was discussing the SIS. That first essay prompt could easily be answered by discussing an in-school activity; it does not ask that the activity be an out-of-school one. I do know kids whose only extracurricular was an athletic activity. Obviously these kids were interested in and highly accomplished in math and science at school or else they would not have applied to TJ.

There is no need for middle school kids to restrict their outside activities to just math and science. Kids can deeply pursue interests in sports or music or arts outside of school while achieving in math and science at school. Again, TJ kids have many interests in addition to math and science. Of course, they love and are highly accomplished in math and science, but that is not all they do.

[/quote]

Just to add, the point is that kids don't need to be only involved in the math and science competition-type activities. Again, they should do the things they love and that level of interest will show in their essays. I do know of kids that only wrote about one outside activity that was very important to them and that activity happened to be an athletic one. Should every kid run out and do the same? No, the point is for kids to get involved in what they like the most. It does no good to do things just to get into TJ.

[quote] ...[b]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[/b]. 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! [/quote]
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