Reply to How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?

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Reply to "How does one prep place account for 25% of TJ Admissions?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I mean, my point was ostensibly that the admissions process needs to change to combat this behavior and make it irrelevant to the selection process. I don't blame the families who use the advantages that they have - I'm saying those advantages need to become irrelevant.

And yes, students who have parents that are specifically invested in getting into TJ have a huge advantage over students whose parents are highly academically motivated but are NOT specifically invested in TJ from an early age. That's a problem that needs to be solved.[/quote]

It is definitely ideal to have the admission process that is immune to prepping, but I do not think it is easy to come with one. There is a reason why standardized tests are popular - it is easier to conduct at a large scale and also it eliminates the teacher/evaluator bias to a large extent. However the downside is, any standardized test can be prepped. Even if the test comes up with uniquely logical questions each year, there is still an advantage to those who prepare for such questions. Even interviews can be prepped if you know what they are looking for. Any approach we take, I am not sure if it is every going to be completely fair to every one. Genuine question - If you were in charge of admissions, how would you do it with out diluting the magnet school program?

There are two types of kids that get into TJ i.e. 1. Really smart kids who don't really need to put much effort 2. Above average kids, who make up for their lack of genius level intelligence with their work ethic/discipline and willingness to work extra hard. May be TJ needs both types of kids. In my opinion, hard work, persistence and discipline often trumps intelligence in real life and the few that have both become leaders. I am in a STEM field, and in my experience, I prefer to work with a smart hardworking team player compared to an arrogant genius who refuses to listen and work with others.

I am curious to see how TJ is going to reform their admissions. I have many questions - 1. Will they limit asians to 5% based on the county demographics or will they assign quotas based on parent's country of origin ex: Indian, Chinese, Italian, Mexican etc.  2. If they do school based quotas, are they going to admit equal number of kids from AAP center schools and non-center schools? If so, an AAP kid who chooses to go to base school rather than center school, has a higher chance of getting into TJ? Or do they assign quotas based on which base elementary school (not AAP center) their house fall under for a true geographic representation? What if asian kids still tend to dominate the admissions with their geographic zone? :).  What if the kid moves from over represented school to under represented school just to improve his/her chances? 3. Is the lottery system truly justified and how do you ensure that it does not eliminate truly deserving kids? 4. Is it practical to conduct interviews for every applicant and/or depend more on the teacher input and still ensure that there is no race/gender bias?

Let me give a small example. This year, my DD got into AAP with both cogat and nnat above the cut-off with some home based work samples and her teacher encouraged us to submit samples if we have any. I am sure the teacher gave good referral as DD is very social and likes to impress teachers. My neighbors kid, who had similar scores as my DD (with slightly better quant score), did not get into AAP. They didn't bother with work samples and apparently teacher (not the same teacher as my daughters) referral isn't great which may be because the kid is very shy and doesn't talk much, but he is very smart. The third example is also another neighbor, whose kid's score were below cut off, but got into pool and then admitted into AAP with parent referral and good work samples. How do you justify there is no bias in AAP admissions and its 'holistic' approach? In my opinion, AAP is a bad idea and I don't like the way it segregates the kids at such a young age.

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