Reply to TJ 1.5% accepted?

Forum Index » Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Reply to "TJ 1.5% accepted?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Does TJ automatically accept the top 1.5% of each middle school? When you have many more than 1.5% taking the same classes and getting all A’s, what happens next?[/quote]
The top 1.5% doesn't refer to GPA or courses taken.  
All kids applying to TJ write a bunch of personal essays and a problem solving essay.  The essays are graded, and the kids' scores are based on the essay scores, unweighted GPA, and experience factors (FARMS, IEP, ESOL).  The unweighted GPA is not a huge factor, and they don't even look at courses taken or math level.

If a school has 600 8th graders, then it is guaranteed 1.5% of 600 = 9 TJ spots.  The 9 kids with the highest scores are offered admissions.  [/quote]

But the highest scores are not the smartest  or most prepared, due to the new system eliminating math level, objective testing, courses taken and teacher recommendations,  correct?[/quote]
That is correct.  They may be the smartest.  They may not be. The ranking is mostly based on the essays and experience factors.[/quote]

The idea was to get as close to a lottery as possible, which was the solution that the FCPS board tried to push the hardest.

Put a low threshold so that many would qualify and then try to keep the information available on the student to the minimum possible. Then, you get closer to the desired "should represent FCPS demographics". The main problem for FCPS board from achieving this is because of self selection bias and the pool of students who are applying do not represent FCPS demographics.

Just like most opportunists who took advantage of the riots in 2020 to pursue their own interests, FCPS board did the same. [/quote]

I believe that some of the changes to AAP and TJ were forced by lawsuits from the NCAAP. The County wants to show that the programs are inclusive, hence the local school norms and the 1.5% for each MS. The County really can't do much if kids don't apply and it is clear that the County is not automatically accepting every Black or Hispanic applicant who meets the criteria, a parent just posted that their child was waitlisted from a non-feed MS.

Asian students remain the largest group of applicants, and the largest demographic at the school. There is no surprise there. I won't be surprised if we see a decline in the number of kids applying from the non-feeder schools as there are kids who return to their base schools or struggling in the classes at TJ. I don't have a huge problem with there being a path for kids in taking Algebra 1 H in 8th grade, not every kid who enjoys STEM and is strong in STEM fields figures that out early enough to take a faster math track. Not every MS offers as many sections of Geometry or Algebra II, a good number don't offer Algebra II. Penalizing kids who are smart and interested in STEM because of the ES/MS path that they in isn't fair. I do wish that they had a better system for identifying the top kids coming out of the feeder schools so that there was a bit more weight on the level of math a student is in. That said, I still believe that some of the kids who should have been accepted wrote something in their essays to make it clear they didn't want to go to TJ. The kids who do that are not going to announce that they did it publicly, they are looking for a way to not attend that their families cannot blame on them.

[/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