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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I was at the Virginia Science Olympiad Division B and C last Saturday and it was a joy to see soooo many great kids who are genuinely excited about all things science.  You had to see the fire in their eyes!

As I sat through the awards ceremony, I thought - TJ admits decisions must be getting made right about now.  They should send an officer to the event, and extend automatic offers of admission to all gold medalists in Division B (middle schoolers). That won't tip the scale by much - there's only 23 disciplines, and some kids medaled in more than one. So it's like 20 seats. What other proof of commitment and interest in STEM does one need? Sci Oly is free so there is no suggestion that affluence matters - all one needs to do is study.  Why not?[/quote]

Obviously you don't understand it. Look at the skin colors of the medalists. Most of them belong to the wrong group which FCPS's current admission policy was created to reduce.[/quote]

They weren’t trying to reduce anyone based on skin color.

They added seats to bring in more kids from all over the area, not just from a handful of wealthy feeder schools that provide unfair advantages with robotics teams, etc. 
[/quote]

How is a robotics team an unfair advantage?[/quote]

Because not every school has a robotics team. A robotics team implies having parents or Teachers who are willing to devote time and resources to the robotics team. Resources require money or the ability to raise the funds to get the resources, which is not available at every MS. You need studetns who are interested in robotics, which requires an interest in math and science that is not fostered at every ES or MS.

If you start giving out slots to TJ based on performance in academic style clubs that are not available at every MS or in a manner that allows many schools to be competitive, then the kids at MS without access to the programs are at an unfair advantage.

There are MSs that don't have MathCounts or Science Olympiad or Science Bowl. The changes made to TJ admissions were made to even out the application field by focusing on what can be had at every MS and only that. Students can discuss their STEM activities in their essay so there is a way to discuss their activities but a kid who is just figuring out how much they enjoy STEM activities because they were able to take engineering or coding in MS has a chance to discuss that. 
[/quote]

I don't understand this obsession with complete and utter discounting of achievement.

[b]Lets leave out for now the schools without teams or clubs. [/b]

Longfellow has a Sci Oly team.  A very competitive one! Yet, only FIVE students from that team won gold medals at State Sci Oly tournament.  Five, out of a pool of probably 150+ testers, 30+strong wider team, and 15-strong state tournament team.

Is there a difference between a Longfellow Sci Oly gold medalist and a Longfellow student who isn't? Yes! There is! Why pretend that there isn't? Why pretend that accomplishing something very difficult in STEM doesn't make you a better fit in a damn STEM focused high school? [/quote]

We did that for a very long time…which was a problem.

Now kids from across the county have a shot. [/quote]

Explain why you think a Cooper student with a gold Sci Oly medal shouldn't be chosen over a Cooper student without one.[/quote]
Two Cooper students went to national MathCounts.  Curious what the admissions results will be for what should be automatic admissions.[/quote]

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