Reply to Va. committee passes bill banning admissions discrimination

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Reply to "Va. committee passes bill banning admissions discrimination"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If you are a very good athlete with a cooperative attitude, you'll play. Sports do vary as to tge degree of subjectivity but again if you are really good you will play. I was a 4:07 miler in high school in the 70's and never worried about making any team. I ran shorter events as well which were largely dominated by black athletes and frankly athletes from all over the globe, and  knew of no Division 1 school that recruited me for scholarships  cared about my race. Be good enough ia racket and results will obtain.

My kid went to TJ and went on to graduate from Princeton in three years. I came from a poor dumb jock single mother background and wouldn't have ever thought of test prep or anything like it. My focus was just as with athletics - support your kid and instill them with confidence and let them succeed or fail.  One problem with TJ - and no one likes to talk about it - is that it is not a place to go if you struggle to get in. It won't just be difficult and trying, but results will not be that great. This is not addressed to any racial group but to all students. I am not sure some parents quite get this. And it applies to colleges, too. Go to a place that is suitable for your skills and prep level - the enterprise of getting into reach schools is a racket. I saw this in undergrad days - my school was the only top 10 school on the east of the Mississippi which gave athletic scholarships, and the offspring of millionaires who bought their way in did not prosper. I thought the chase for prestige very limiting.. TJ`s historical math profiency is daunting- my kid took calcium in 9th grade and was far from alone. The county can dilute the curriculum but you will still have a cadre of high achievers which pressurizes everyone. Achievement is not a zero sum game - certain groups do better than others. The East African athletes I competed against were just beginning to dominate, and not at my expense. They were simply better. And as a generalization they were great students as they knew the value of an American athletic scholarship. [/quote]

PP responding. Your narrative is quite compelling and extremely important for parents who feel like they need to invest serious resources to optimize their chances in the TJ admissions process.

I would only make one point in reply - you participated in a largely individual sport: track and field. My analogy was expressly for team sports, which I consider to be a much more relevant analogy to the elite classroom environment. In a place like TJ, collaborative problem-solving is the mark of a truly successful student able to maximize their contributions to and their dividends from the TJ experience.[/quote]

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