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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kids friend, who has been in AAP, couldn't get into algebra I in 7th, got few B+, A-s, got in to TJ, has wealth/educated parents, openly admitted to friends that he lied about all sorts of things on the portrait sheet as he and his parents know there is not going to be validation of anything they claim in the essays. May be this other kid is better at articulating things, but there is no way this kid should be preferred over a straight A students from the same school with demonstrable stem achievements, just based on few less than perfect lines in an essay. There are few that defend the new process to death, probably never didn't have their kids go through such unexpected rejections.

I had a friend who criticized so much about insurance companies covering for pre-existing conditions, how it gets expensive for everyone, country will break down, blah blah, but once someone in the family diagnosed with a serious medical condition, realized that it could happen to anyone. So, no one realizes until it hurts.

The old process is bad, but new process is far worse. [/quote]

And you don't think that there were kids who exaggerated or lied in essays in years past? No system is going to prevent all forms of abuse. Do you think that a high percentage of kids lied in their portrait essay?

Your kid might have been rejected under the old system because there are far more applicants then there are seats. And there are a lot of kids with the high test scores and grades and STEM activities. There is no guarantee that your kid would have been accepted. You can feel free to hold on to your perceived injustice over the essay but the reality is that many kids are denied entrance. And those kids who were from under represented schools that got a spot because of the 1.5% distribution come from schools that have been disadvantaged in the application process because they don't have STEM activities after school or they couldn't afford STEM extra activities or they didn't know about them because their parents are not on top of all things STEM.

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Well, it matters a lot more now because SPS and science essay carry 600 points, where GPA can only make a difference of 37.5 points (since min req is 3.5 and max is 4.0, scaled to 300). I hope you understand why essays are so critical in the new process and even some seemingly innocent typos or minor grammatical mistakes made in hurry (by less prepared) can potentially cost a lot [b]depending on who is grading the essays and how much tolerant they are about the mistakes. [/b]

Unlike multiple choice questions, essay grading is very subjective. Forget essays, my kids school had two math teachers for geometry HN and one is known to be very strict and cuts as much as half the marks for missing a single step or symbol, while other teacher ignores these things and only focuses on whether the kids really understood the problem. I see the merits in both approaches, but if the math score determines who gets the brownie at the end, then which class would you rather be?  :) 
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The bolded is a key issue.  With 2500+ applications, there's no way that the same panel of two graders is handling everyone's SPS or everyone's problem solving essay.  The final point totals for any applicant may be determined more by whether they had the luck of the draw and got lenient graders vs. tough graders.  There's also most likely some degree of "olympic scoring," wherein the first kids reviewed end up with relatively lower scores than they rightfully deserved.

I'd prefer a lottery over the current process.  It would be equally random, but at least the rejections would no longer feel quite so personal for the high achieving kids who ought to have been accepted.  [/quote]

I would prefer a lottery 1000 times over the current process. Whatever the outcome is, we will at least know it will be fair and not biased towards or against anyone or school in particular. Its not just mistakes, its style of writing too. When you are not looking for fixed set of points (like answers to questions in actual course work), perception of the grader matters a lot. I might like particular kids choice of words and how they are expressed compared to another. This is evident with choice of books we read too i.e., I might like one author more appealing to my taste compared to different author even in the same genre. You may be smartest person in the room, but if the person who grades does't like the way you express things, you are screwed!

When these essays carry so much weight (600 points?) even tiny differences in perception gets exaggerated quite a lot! Its a shame that grades and other extra curricular activities (even within the same school) took such a low seat compared to the essays.

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This is truly a remarkable turn from the status quo crowd who previously were hell-bent on accepting anything other than the lottery.

They are making the case that now their children are feeling personally rejected by this process - but in reality, it is they as parents who are feeling rejected because they have so much personally invested in getting their kid into TJ as some sort of cultural status symbol.

Now they are claiming that TJ is somehow devalued for them because selection may not carry the same value within their community as it used to... and perhaps that's a REALLY, REALLY good thing for everyone's mental health.

But if it's still highly ranked by news outlets and that prestige is still there, get ready for the parade of sour grapes.[/quote]

PP here, just fyi - I have always been against and very vocal opponent of the new process even from the get-go last year when my kid was in the 7th grade. I even wrote several letters to school board expressing concerns over how the 'proposed' process discriminates against the AAP center schools (before any of the court cases and the point system was revealed). I attended the virtual town halls and expressed my discomfort in chats, talks etc. Of course, all my concerns were simply ignored and not received a single response to any of them from anyone. I sincerely hope you understand that I gain nothing here from complaining as my kid has pretty much made up mind that about going to base HS. Why I am still invested, well, I at least want the process be fixed for future kids.

Highly ranked, sure, but lets talk about this in few years. :)

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It doesn't discriminate against the AAP center schools - at least, now that the redundant "underrepresented schools" experience factor has been removed from consideration. AAP center school kids are competing for essentially the same number of seats that students from any other school are.

What the new process no longer does is discriminate as severely IN FAVOR OF AAP center schools. It now gives students who don't attend those schools a real chance in the process - and heroes in classes above them who have successfully matriculated to and attended TJ and can help them determine if it's the right fit.

Removal of an advantage is not discrimination, any more than turning an all-male school into a coed school doesn't discriminate against male students.[/quote]

This is blatantly misleading.  If it's what the defenders of the admissions change think passes as sound logic, better to just shut down TJHSST and return TJ to use as another base school.  [/quote]

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