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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The problem for Arlington students is that the new TJ admissions system was designed to correct a situation unique to Fairfax County, but it doesn't work in Arlington with our middle schools being so different demographically and our spots being so limited. In Fairfax, the school board was trying to address the fact that the majority of TJ students were pulling from a small number of middle schools in the Mclean area. They created a system where each school got a number of "allocated" spots (1.5% for each middle school, where the students were only competing against each other within the middle school), and then after that the remaining students went into a common pool where they could compete for "unallocated" spots. When Fairfax gave extra points based on FARMS/ESL/SPED factors, it meant that many of the allocated spots went to students with those factors. But there were still a ton of unallocated spots available to the Fairfax kids. As a result, Carson still sent 47 kids to the freshman class, Longfellow 30, etc.

In APS middle schools, we only get the 1.5% allocated spots (~ 4 per middle school), but the same admissions criteria is applied. So if you have kids applying who are getting a bonus bump for FARMS/ESL/SPED, then it can be very hard to overcome that advantage on the essay points alone. Additionally, in APS, there is not as much opportunity for 8th graders to distinguish themselves on GPA. Fairfax uses a grade scale that includes A-, so the kids who are straight As have a higher GPA weight than the kids with A- averages. As you know, in Arlington, everyone gets an A between 90-100, so all the Arlington kids have the same GPA, even if in reality some kids are getting 90s and other kids are consistently getting 99s and 100s. There is also no advantage to being on the Pre-Alg/Alg 1/Geometry track anymore. (Under the old system, Geometry was a requirement.)

At least for APS, it would be fairer to pool all the Arlington applicants together for evaluation, and then all students would be equally advantaged/disadvantaged by the demographic bonus points. As it is now, the impact hits differently based on how diverse your middle school demographics are and who applies. That's just a fact, regardless of your political thoughts on the subject. 
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The grades and experience factors are a small part of admissions.  The test/essay questions are the big part of the new admissions - that's it.

Someone upthread mentioned that they didn't want TJ because their kid wasn't the right type of kid to go to TJ, didn't go to math competitions, etc.  The change in admissions was partially designed to change that stereotype and reopen the school to more kids, to kids interested in math and to kids interested in science rather than just math competition kids.  Seems to have been successful, too.  Although the stereotype may take a while to fade in people's minds.  [/quote]

It is not true that experience factors are a small part of admissions. As part of the litigation, text messages and emails were produced in discovery (and covered in the local press) where FCPS school board members and senior administrators openly discussed setting the points high enough for experience factors to meaningfully shift the demographics of the school. That was the basis for the lawsuit, with the plaintiffs alleging that it was anti-Asian. You might not agree with that political interpretation, but you can't dismiss that the experience factors matter a lot. You can find all of the texts and emails online-- it is not a secret. [/quote]

We get it. You don’t like the admissions change. Enough. That wasn’t the question. Go post in AAP with the rest of the TJ haters. [/quote]

It’s extremely useful to understand the admissions process when comparing HS.   We faced the same decision recently and came out against choosing to apply to TJ for many reasons.  But it’s absolutely fair to the OP to understand what you are getting with TJ—as opposed to W&L IB or private school.

And so we are clear, you apparently work at Syphax since I’ve now decided to scream Syphax every time APE comes up.  [/quote]

But you don't understand the process and you are giving wrong information on this thread.  That's not helpful.[/quote]

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