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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m in Loudoun. My child and all his friends were admitted to TJ. Some of these kids were waitlisted on Loudoun’s Academy of Loudoun (AOL). It seems TJ was easier to get in than AOL, at least for them. I was actually very surprised. Quite a few kids from Loudoun will decline due to the long commute. [/quote]

Congratulations. The new admission system guarantee the top1.5% students from each middle school to be admitted. So as long as the kids are the top 1.5% of their school, they will get a seat.

In the past, given TJ is STEM school, it is strictly testing score plus other academic achievements, such as math count , science Olympia etc. the strong schools who provide better academic education win big, such as Carson and Longfellow, and schools outside Fairfax and FCPS middle schools without AAP centers don’t have too much chances due to weaker STEM and math education.

For those admitted students from non traditional TJ middle schools, the major factor to be considered is whether the kids can advance very fast and undergo high pressure environments. Regardless how TJ is admitting students, inside TJ, it is still test score based student performance system. In the past two years, more  students admitted from non traditional TJ middle schools due to diversity objective, however they performed mediocre or poorly at TJ compared to traditional TJ middle schools. This makes it easier for students from strong middle schools to stand out with the new admission system. Before admission rule changes, Carson + Longfellow often have 150-200 students get admitted to TJ, now they probably decrease to 50-80[/quote]

So instead of taking the top performers across the county they take it from each school, even if the school has dumber students?[/quote]

- there are no dumb students, the admitted students are all smartest in their school. It is only that some schools didn’t prepare them well for the very competetitive study environment like TJ. So if these not well prepared student can not close the gap quickly with students from Carson/Longfellow after entering TJ, the gap will be wider over time.

- election has consequence, in current political environment, racial diversity is one objective for TJ as a public school, even at the cost of lower STEM performance than before. With polarized politics national wide, and one party dominating NOVA politics, there is little chance that TJ will shift its current policy back to be race blind.

- Another factor worth mentioning is: before admission policy change, there were many middle schools have very little applicants due to historically they had no or very little students admitted to TJ. Now almost all middle schools have more applicants than their quota. This will severely decease the unused quota flow down to the top middle schools in FCPS. So Carson/Longfellow will further see decrease in admitted students in the near future

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