<p>You are confusing “average” with “marginal.” Suppose that six students apply for four openings. The students from TJ have SAT scores of 1600, 1500, 1400 and 1300. The two students from Langley have 1400 and 1300, respectively. Now suppose that the four students with the highest SAT scores are accepted. The average for TJ admits is then 1500 while the average from Langley is 1400. The difference arises because of the “inframarginal applicants.” One must be careful making inferences about discrimination based on averages. Averages alone do not tell you that TJ students must meet a higher requirement. </p>
<p>The points about length of the school day and the commutes are certainly relevant. Parents should think long and hard about the time commitment before sending their kids to TJ.</p>
<p>What I am saying is that not everyone in TJ should get into UVA. THere are people with good grades and SATs, but they don’t really do anything besides that e.g. students in the Game Club. In addition, there are also some worthless leadership positions created just for students (Chinese Honor Society) to look good on their collge apps (nearly every senior in TJ has a position of some sort).</p>
<p>I’ve always thought that attending TJ is a high risk proposition. If you are going to sign up to attend a school where every student has been hand picked after a rigorous selection process, you’d better be prepared to rise to the occasion. This means taking the most challenging courses that the school has to offer, getting top grades in those courses, having an impressive array of EC’s, AND writing great essays. All of this must be achieved in what I imagine is a highly competitive and stress filled environment. Parents love to brag that their students are at TJ (look at the bumper stickers!) and the pressure at home to produce great results must also be intense. </p>
<p>I don’t believe students or their parents think alot about this aspect (college admissions’ bias) when they decide to attend TJ. It will definitely be tougher to get into certain colleges as one of the counselors has said “the competition will be their classmates”. </p>
<p>As a parent of a child who did not attend TJ as well as one who is attending TJ, we are well-aware of how much tougher it will be for our TJ child in the college admissions process. The non-TJ child was one of the “big fishes” at our local high school. He was accepted at all the schools he applied for including UVA. Will our TJ child fare as well? Don’t know – he will be in competition with his TJ classmates for a spot at UVA in a few years He thought about this before deciding to attend but the opportunity to take some of the classes offered at TJ (and not available at our local HS) was too much to turn down.</p>
<p>I think the above post by Random39204 is all we need to look at for this thread. 68.9 percent acceptance of those that applied from TJ last year is amazing. Now I quess someone should start a thread that says “UVA only takes TJ students and we get the shaft”. Many students with similar stats as those from TJ don’t get into UVA . Granted they have not been told you go to the best high school in the universe, but they have similar numbers. Just read the boards. If you did not get into UVA it was not because you went to TJ. Sorry, but that is the truth.</p>
<p>The idea that students at TJ would just walk all over kids at public HSs is ridiculous. They are well-prepared, but if the admissions office only took the best prepared students, there would be fewer of certain minorities, more of others, etc. They need to consider what you have done with the opportunities you’ve had. If you have been given every opportunity, you will be held to a higher standard.</p>
<p>The good news is that the education you receive will prepare you in what matters, learning, preparation, etc. The fact that this is so separate from college admissions in the minds of many students is a sad thing.</p>
<p>Don’t forget that once students get HERE they were all big fishes and now are in a sea of everyone being just as good as them… theoretically… Anyways… My point is that there’s always some disadvantage to either one. Either you end up here with less preparation than those who struggled in the middle, or you don’t even get here because even though you were as good as the top fish somewhere else, there were too many better fish before you at your school. You can’t pick which one will happen to you… You can’t predict that kind of thing. But you can predict that your high school education will be wonderful and that you will go to a good college and know how to survive well there, if you go to TJ. Just my 2cents.</p>
<p>I, too, am surprised to see the number of pages of posts whining and gnashing teeth over the waitlisting of one applicant who applied to UVa as a safety and another who thinks the UVa Admissions must be biased against his high schoole because he wasn’t offered a place.</p>
<p>I sympathize with those apparently well-qualified applicants who have not been offered admission. Was the admissions committee “fair” to you? Probably not in your eyes, but let this be an object lession that life is not always “fair.”</p>
<p>College admissions is an art, not a science. Comparing your own SAT scores and GPA’s against others’ is a fool’s game. That’s not how the decisions are made. There are many, many subjective judgments that are involved. </p>
<p>If UVa admissions decided that you were not a good fit, that’s probably for the best. Move on and let your performance for the rest of your life be motivated by proving that the decision in your case was wrong. Or, better yet, move on and be motivated by being the best you can be at whatever you try and wherever you try it. </p>
<p>There is nothing else to contribute - people can whine and moan about not getting in all they want, that isn’t going to change the decision. I hope everyone who didn’t get in enjoys the school they do decide to attend, and that the hard feelings toward UVa admission have died down by the fall.</p>
<p>Nice to see I am not the only one who thinks all the complaining is childish. Yes, you can whine and moan about not being accepted. But there comes a point when all of that needs to stop. There isn’t a student in the world who can honestly say, “there was nothing I could do to make myself a better applicant”. If you got rejected, the first person you should look at is yourself. Once again, not trying to be rude. But I would assume that all of us on this thread is 17+ years old. It is time we start acting like it. </p>
<p>Don’t make excuses, just take the response, and move on. UVA isn’t the end of the road. You obviously have excellent stats and I am sure you wont have a problem getting into another top school like Michigan or UNC.</p>
<p>@guillaume: You should also expect more intelligent comments from a Stanford grad student (yay~), but clearly those two don’t go together either, lolz</p>
<p>68% of those who applied to UVA were accepted last year (see previous post). The numbers do not support the argument that students here are treated unfairly. The entire argument that someone who goes to TJ is looked at in a harsher manner is completely false. If you did not get into UVA this year or any year it was not because you were disadvantaged by being compared with the other stellar students at TJ. Every school has students that do not get into their top choice. Every school has someone who everyone thinks is a “lock” at a specific school. Sometimes they get in, sometimes they do not and sometimes someone who appears to have lower stats gets into the same school. Does anyone from TJ complain when they get into a college with lower stats then another person who does not go to TJ because they go to the top school in the country? The process is not cut and dried and that is the why your parents tell you to apply at multiple schools. If you find an admissions officer at any school who says “These are the exact things you need to get into this school” let us know. I have not found one anywhere that will supply such a list. Best of luck to all of the TJ students, you are better prepared than your peers at the local school and will do very well at any school fortunate to have you.</p>
<p>I dont think that there is any more whining or gnashing of teeth on the UVA board than on any other top university boards where highly qualified students not just TJ kids - were denied. Rejection hurts. What this discussion demonstrates is Elizabeth Kübler-Ross classic Stages of Grief/Rejection: shock & denial; pain & guilt; anger; depression & reflection; the upward turn; and finally, acceptance & hope. </p>
<p>What I do know about TJ students is that they are highly analytical, so trying to understand what went wrong is only natural. Don’t be so critical of kids dealing with the sting of rejection and trying to make sense of something that really doesnt make sense. They are not being ignorant, arrogant, or whiny; they are just trying to understand what went wrong, and they are humiliated that many of their peers were accepted and they were not. </p>
<p>Not all TJ students think they are “above” UVA or consider it a safety. There are many who consider it their first choice for academic and financial reasons. Not everyone gets a full ride to the Ivies or is willing to end up with thousands of dollars of debt in student loans. Many students planning to continue on to grad/medical/law schools view UVA as their first choice for a quality and affordable undergrad education. </p>
<p>To those students with great stats who got denied, Dean J has quoted this several times and it bears repeating:
What you may NOT see is the kid whose stats are lower than yours spent the summer at Governors school, taught English in China, or did humanitarian work in Africa. Or perhaps the admitted student with lower stats worked very hard at challenging courses at TJ or his base school during all four years, while the denied student coasted during sophomore and junior years with B+s, then turned on the afterburners during first semester senior year to pull up the SATs and the grades. Or perhaps your essays were good but boring while another students were exceptional. The point is that you dont have complete information about other students.</p>
<p>Take lessons from this experience. Dont just be OK, be the best you can be at whichever school you choose to attend. Dont party excessively. Go to your classes and excel. If, after your first year at University X, your heart still yearns for UVA (or another dream school), apply for a transfer. But you might find that University X makes you happy and you wouldnt trade that experience for your dream school.</p>
<p>There is no doubt UVA discriminate TJ students. UVA hold high standards for students in TJ compared to other students. Like all top colleges held high standards for Asian and white students compared to African American and Hispanic students though no college openly admit it.</p>
He thought about this before deciding to attend but the opportunity to take some of the classes offered at TJ (and not available at our local HS) was too much to turn down.</p>