Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think the committee members will score an applicant being passionate about 1 sport and someone being passionate and possibly doing well in mathcount, science olympiad and robotics the same way.

I think these could possibly be scored the same. The one sport can take up as much and more time as mathcounts, science Olympiad, and robotics. The difference I see is the fact that the activities with more academic content might enhance and reinforce academic achievement at school, thus helping the child to get better grades. So the child might do better at school partly because of his outside activities. On the other hand, a sport can take away from study time. So the kid who achieves highly in school while devoting hours to a sport actually can have a more impressive record when it is fully considered.

In this country sport is worshiped while academics is not. One of the reasons the public education is doing so poorly compared to other countries. High school's primary mission is to educate students not sport. College's primary mission is to educate not football or basketball. Public education will never improve with this twisted priority and mentality.

Agree.

The point of the previous post wasn't that that sports are prioritized over academics, but rather that a kid who can handle both high level academics and high level athletics has shown the ability to work hard and to be organized and manage time efficiently and effectively. A kid who can achieve highly at school and outside school (whether in athletics, music, art, or drama) is just as or possibly even more impressive than the kid who spends all their time doing school-related activities.

If you can achieve as much as your co-worker in half the time, you are very valuable to your employer, so you can see how a student who can learn the same amount in less time would be likely to be successful in a demanding environment like TJ.

Athletics, music, art or drama can be school sponsored or school related just like some academic pursuits may not be connected to schools like independent scientific research, writing, computer programming, or courses taken outside of school etc. I don't see why you should make the above assumption. You seem to imply that there are "no checklist of activities" for TJ but then seem to imply that " athletics, music, art, or drama" may be better than other types of activities. Bit inconsistent.

The contrast was between academic and non-academic activities, not whether or not the activities were sponsored by the school. Some parents appear to believe that the only way to get accepted to TJ is for a child to spend all their out of school time doing certain math- and science-related activities. It is more important for kids to do what they really love, even if it appears to be unrelated to math or science. The TJ admission committee members know that most adults in STEM careers have outside interests that are unrelated to their careers. Just as an adult scientist does not need to be all-science, all the time, neither does a TJ applicant need to spend every waking hour engaged in science and math.
And, yes, I do think it is impressive for a kid to be doing sports or arts or music for hours every day after school in addition to being a high achiever in school. Those kids have shown that they are highly intelligent and that they possess a strong work ethic along with drive and determination, qualities which can go a long way toward enabling success at TJ.

But back to the original topic - yeah, you want your kid to have 99th percentile or such on the Iowa test if you are hoping for TJ. Because that is the norm for kids getting into TJ, regardless what other activities they enjoy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think the committee members will score an applicant being passionate about 1 sport and someone being passionate and possibly doing well in mathcount, science olympiad and robotics the same way.

I think these could possibly be scored the same. The one sport can take up as much and more time as mathcounts, science Olympiad, and robotics. The difference I see is the fact that the activities with more academic content might enhance and reinforce academic achievement at school, thus helping the child to get better grades. So the child might do better at school partly because of his outside activities. On the other hand, a sport can take away from study time. So the kid who achieves highly in school while devoting hours to a sport actually can have a more impressive record when it is fully considered.

In this country sport is worshiped while academics is not. One of the reasons the public education is doing so poorly compared to other countries. High school's primary mission is to educate students not sport. College's primary mission is to educate not football or basketball. Public education will never improve with this twisted priority and mentality.

Agree.

The point of the previous post wasn't that that sports are prioritized over academics, but rather that a kid who can handle both high level academics and high level athletics has shown the ability to work hard and to be organized and manage time efficiently and effectively. A kid who can achieve highly at school and outside school (whether in athletics, music, art, or drama) is just as or possibly even more impressive than the kid who spends all their time doing school-related activities.

If you can achieve as much as your co-worker in half the time, you are very valuable to your employer, so you can see how a student who can learn the same amount in less time would be likely to be successful in a demanding environment like TJ.

Athletics, music, art or drama can be school sponsored or school related just like some academic pursuits may not be connected to schools like independent scientific research, writing, computer programming, or courses taken outside of school etc. I don't see why you should make the above assumption. You seem to imply that there are "no checklist of activities" for TJ but then seem to imply that " athletics, music, art, or drama" may be better than other types of activities. Bit inconsistent.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think the committee members will score an applicant being passionate about 1 sport and someone being passionate and possibly doing well in mathcount, science olympiad and robotics the same way.

I think these could possibly be scored the same. The one sport can take up as much and more time as mathcounts, science Olympiad, and robotics. The difference I see is the fact that the activities with more academic content might enhance and reinforce academic achievement at school, thus helping the child to get better grades. So the child might do better at school partly because of his outside activities. On the other hand, a sport can take away from study time. So the kid who achieves highly in school while devoting hours to a sport actually can have a more impressive record when it is fully considered.

In this country sport is worshiped while academics is not. One of the reasons the public education is doing so poorly compared to other countries. High school's primary mission is to educate students not sport. College's primary mission is to educate not football or basketball. Public education will never improve with this twisted priority and mentality.

Agree.

The point of the previous post wasn't that that sports are prioritized over academics, but rather that a kid who can handle both high level academics and high level athletics has shown the ability to work hard and to be organized and manage time efficiently and effectively. A kid who can achieve highly at school and outside school (whether in athletics, music, art, or drama) is just as or possibly even more impressive than the kid who spends all their time doing school-related activities.

If you can achieve as much as your co-worker in half the time, you are very valuable to your employer, so you can see how a student who can learn the same amount in less time would be likely to be successful in a demanding environment like TJ.

I have a child at TJ and most of the top TJ students are not involved in sports extensively with few exceptions. Most of the athletes are not the top students there. Sure the kids engage in many sports but not to the exclusion of other academic activities or research. They have time for may be 1 and if they engage in 2 or more, forget about being in the top 5 to 10%.

This doesn't mean kids don't learn or process fast. The top students still engage in 3 to 5 activities on average while taking multiple advanced courses which take up lot of time. It's nice to participate in sports and it should be encouraged but to really do multiple sports, TJ is not the right school unless the kid wants to be an average/above average student.

Just about every kid at TJ is a high-achieving student; most would be top 10% in their assigned school. All the kids who are athletes there are also high-achieving students. The post above was directed to a question about what activities middle schoolers should participate in to apply to TJ. The answer is that there is no checklist of activities and that kids should do what they love and continue to get great grades and challenge themselves in school.
The environment at TJ is most definitely challenging, so a kid who is disciplined, works hard, and manages time efficiently is at an advantage.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think the committee members will score an applicant being passionate about 1 sport and someone being passionate and possibly doing well in mathcount, science olympiad and robotics the same way.

I think these could possibly be scored the same. The one sport can take up as much and more time as mathcounts, science Olympiad, and robotics. The difference I see is the fact that the activities with more academic content might enhance and reinforce academic achievement at school, thus helping the child to get better grades. So the child might do better at school partly because of his outside activities. On the other hand, a sport can take away from study time. So the kid who achieves highly in school while devoting hours to a sport actually can have a more impressive record when it is fully considered.

In this country sport is worshiped while academics is not. One of the reasons the public education is doing so poorly compared to other countries. High school's primary mission is to educate students not sport. College's primary mission is to educate not football or basketball. Public education will never improve with this twisted priority and mentality.

Agree.

The point of the previous post wasn't that that sports are prioritized over academics, but rather that a kid who can handle both high level academics and high level athletics has shown the ability to work hard and to be organized and manage time efficiently and effectively. A kid who can achieve highly at school and outside school (whether in athletics, music, art, or drama) is just as or possibly even more impressive than the kid who spends all their time doing school-related activities.

If you can achieve as much as your co-worker in half the time, you are very valuable to your employer, so you can see how a student who can learn the same amount in less time would be likely to be successful in a demanding environment like TJ.

I have a child at TJ and most of the top TJ students are not involved in sports extensively with few exceptions. Most of the athletes are not the top students there. Sure the kids engage in many sports but not to the exclusion of other academic activities or research. They have time for may be 1 and if they engage in 2 or more, forget about being in the top 5 to 10%.

This doesn't mean kids don't learn or process fast. The top students still engage in 3 to 5 activities on average while taking multiple advanced courses which take up lot of time. It's nice to participate in sports and it should be encouraged but to really do multiple sports, TJ is not the right school unless the kid wants to be an average/above average student.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think the committee members will score an applicant being passionate about 1 sport and someone being passionate and possibly doing well in mathcount, science olympiad and robotics the same way.

I think these could possibly be scored the same. The one sport can take up as much and more time as mathcounts, science Olympiad, and robotics. The difference I see is the fact that the activities with more academic content might enhance and reinforce academic achievement at school, thus helping the child to get better grades. So the child might do better at school partly because of his outside activities. On the other hand, a sport can take away from study time. So the kid who achieves highly in school while devoting hours to a sport actually can have a more impressive record when it is fully considered.

In this country sport is worshiped while academics is not. One of the reasons the public education is doing so poorly compared to other countries. High school's primary mission is to educate students not sport. College's primary mission is to educate not football or basketball. Public education will never improve with this twisted priority and mentality.

Agree.

The point of the previous post wasn't that that sports are prioritized over academics, but rather that a kid who can handle both high level academics and high level athletics has shown the ability to work hard and to be organized and manage time efficiently and effectively. A kid who can achieve highly at school and outside school (whether in athletics, music, art, or drama) is just as or possibly even more impressive than the kid who spends all their time doing school-related activities.

If you can achieve as much as your co-worker in half the time, you are very valuable to your employer, so you can see how a student who can learn the same amount in less time would be likely to be successful in a demanding environment like TJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

I don't think the committee members will score an applicant being passionate about 1 sport and someone being passionate and possibly doing well in mathcount, science olympiad and robotics the same way.

I think these could possibly be scored the same. The one sport can take up as much and more time as mathcounts, science Olympiad, and robotics. The difference I see is the fact that the activities with more academic content might enhance and reinforce academic achievement at school, thus helping the child to get better grades. So the child might do better at school partly because of his outside activities. On the other hand, a sport can take away from study time. So the kid who achieves highly in school while devoting hours to a sport actually can have a more impressive record when it is fully considered.

In this country sport is worshiped while academics is not. One of the reasons the public education is doing so poorly compared to other countries. High school's primary mission is to educate students not sport. College's primary mission is to educate not football or basketball. Public education will never improve with this twisted priority and mentality.

Agree.

Not arguing that, just saying if the child has accomplished a lot in athletics in addition to academics, writing about the time commitment of athletics shows the child's work ethic, time management, and organizational skills. There are only so many hours in a day, so a kid with high academic achievement who spends most of his extracurricular time doing athletics or music or arts is showing that he has what it takes to succeed at TJ, where the demands ramp up considerably from middle school.

Of course TJ applicants engage in sports, music, arts and other non-STEM activities. That is obvious. My TJ kid engaged in sport, music and other non-STEM activities in addition to STEM activities. However, don't try to argue that sport trumps everything else, including STEM activities, when completing SIS or essay for TJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If any TJ parents on here can honestly say their children stated or discussed nothing except for 1 sport the child was passionate about on both the essay and the SIS and was accepted to TJ, please let us know. That would be surprising.

In the questions relating to outside activities, they ask the kids specifically to answer about just one activity or one accomplishment. My child at TJ and a number of others I know wrote mostly about one specific athletic activity that is highly time consuming. These are kids who are highly academically accomplished, in addition to being very strong athletes. Not all the questions refer to outside activities, some ask about school, also, but even those ask the child to focus the answers on one accomplishment or interest for each question.

TJ students have many different interests. The school is not looking for kids who have zero interest in anything outside of math and science.

Ok, but you are not saying the kids only discussed 1 sport activity. They must have discussed other activities as well. I am not sure why you would want to give the impression all those kids only discussed 1 sport activity and nothing else and were accepted. That is misleading.

This is directly from the admissions office website:

For the SIS:

3. Think about what you have done to help show that TJHSST is a right fit for you.
Remember, TJ is a STEM focused school and the SIS helps us figure out which
applicants would be the best fit for the school. Have you shown an interest in science,
technology, engineering, or math prior to now? What have you done to pursue that
interest?

Sample essay prompts:

“Please discuss in detail an activity in science, mathematics, or technology in which you
have been involved in the 6th, 7th, or 8th grade that has had a significant impact on your
interest in science, mathematics, or technology.”

“If you could invite three individuals who have had an impact in the fields of
mathematics, science, or technology (either present day or in history) to come together
for a group discussion with you, whom would you invite? Why would you invite each
person? What questions would you ask them?”

I was discussing the SIS. That first essay prompt could easily be answered by discussing an in-school activity; it does not ask that the activity be an out-of-school one. I do know kids whose only extracurricular was an athletic activity. Obviously these kids were interested in and highly accomplished in math and science at school or else they would not have applied to TJ.

There is no need for middle school kids to restrict their outside activities to just math and science. Kids can deeply pursue interests in sports or music or arts outside of school while achieving in math and science at school. Again, TJ kids have many interests in addition to math and science. Of course, they love and are highly accomplished in math and science, but that is not all they do.

Just to add, the point is that kids don't need to be only involved in the math and science competition-type activities. Again, they should do the things they love and that level of interest will show in their essays. I do know of kids that only wrote about one outside activity that was very important to them and that activity happened to be an athletic one. Should every kid run out and do the same? No, the point is for kids to get involved in what they like the most. It does no good to do things just to get into TJ.

...there is no fill-in-the-blank, one-size-fits-all check off list of activities that kids need to do in middle school if they are interested in TJ. I personally know of a about a dozen kids who participated in one very time consuming athletic activity and they had or are having successful high school careers at TJ. I've known kids like this going back to 2002 and a few of them are students there now. They are all outstandingly bright young people who have a strong work ethic and great time management skills because of their athletic participation. Walking in the door at TJ doesn't mean you have to drop all other interests and only engage in math and science activities!