Reply to TJ top 1.5 percent

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "TJ top 1.5 percent "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous] Significant achievements would mostly be based on extracurriculars. Some middle schools have excellent parental support for teams and clubs and at other middle schools opportunities for clubs are completely non-existent. Not fair to penalize a kid for attending a school that doesn't offer anything. And lastly teacher recommendations are also completely open to bias. 
[/quote]

The question is about whether they are taking the top students within a school.  All these kids would have the same extracurricular options as they are going to the same school.  This year, there were some kids who did very well at a statewide level on some of these activities, who were rejected, while kids who were cut from the team were accepted to TJ.

[/quote]

Unless you know every detail of the applications of all of these kids, you don’t have a leg to stand on in criticizing the Admissions Office for who they select. It’s not your role to have an opinion on who should or should not get into TJ.

As has been mentioned earlier, many of these teams are “coached” by volunteer parents who decide who is and is not selected to be part of these teams based on factors other than skill/intelligence/competence.

The same is true in youth sports. Sometimes a kid who didn’t make the travel team in 8th grade for whatever reason ends up being the star of or a major player for the high school team.

And here’s another factor to consider: Every year, there is a significant number of students who simply write on their Student Portrait Sheet that they don’t want to go to TJ. It is an easy out for students whose parents are obsessed with TJ but who don’t want it themselves.

There is no way for the parent to find out that they did this and it explains more perplexing rejections that you’d think. It’s entirely possible that your kid has told you all along that they want to go but torpedoed themselves without you knowing.[/quote]

Not talking about my kid here.  Other students at the school, the top students were passed over for pretty weak students.  Some were waitlisted, others rejected.  I doubt the 'write they don't want to go option' but it would explain a rejection.  TJ application office is not aware of these extracurriculars and ability level beyond GPA and some essays.  It's possible they accepted the kid because they wrote about their passion for stem and being hurt when cut from the team, and rejecting the student that says they qualified for nationals.[/quote]

Or maybe the kid wrote a compelling essay about STEM that didn’t discuss the activity that you happen to think is important, but that really isn’t all that important.  Maybe instead of regurgitating accomplishments the kid wrote about how they solved a particular problem, or approached an interesting issue, or overcame an obstacle, in a manner that suggests they have the potential to not only do well at TJ, but also contribute to the school.  Or maybe the kids who you describe as “top students” aren’t particularly good writers—a problem even for a STEM school, as the ability to communicate ideas clearly and effectively is critical regardless of the underlying subject matter.  Simply put, unless you have access to the essays that were submitted, you really have no basis to say someone is “pretty weak”—and quite frankly that description is insulting to the talented kids who were accepted.[/quote]

Access to the essays is irrelevant.  I am sure TJ did a good job of applying their scoring methods to the applications they received.  
Some of the kids who were accepted at our school recognized the situation and declined admission.

I think someone being a bad writer should not be disqualifying.  This is for admission to a high school, and high school is really where they should be learning how to write essays.
That said, the top student who was rejected is a very good writer.[/quote]

What “situation” did those kids “recognize” that caused them to decline admission?[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics