January 2012

Thomas Jefferson Admissions

Many visitors to this website are familiar with my views on the Thomas Jefferson High School Admissions Process. I have spoken to the Fairfax County School Board and have made my views known via the Washington Post. In light of the recent school board election results, I don\'t foresee any significant changes that will make the selection process more academic,  objective, and merit based. I tend to stay away from giving advice on gaming systems and procedures which I think are unfair, but I suspect that most parents (and students) have figured out a game plan for dealing with the current mostly subjective selection procedure.

My immediate advice is to appeal to both the objective and the emotional when filling out the student information sheet. It\'s no longer sufficient to simply list (and even explain) major accomplishments such as a perfect AMC 8 score or placing in the top ten at the Mathcounts Regional Competition. You will need to convey to the evaluator how such events made you a lifelong learner (and a team player in the case of Mathcounts) and how they will help you pursue your dream to improve your community both in and outside of TJ. When the evaluators are done reading your Student Information Sheet, they should consider you not only brilliant and accomplished, but also a saint. If the SIS is similar to last year\'s, there should be ample room for you to include both. If not completed very well (almost perfectly), the SIS can keep even over qualified applicants out of TJ. Many parents have opted for professional advice on completing the SIS because they perceive that presentation is as important as substance if not more so. It's also imperative that applicants convey their interest in STEM topics and activities. Again, spending countless hours preparing for Mathcounts, AMC, or Science Olympiad could be interpreted by evaluators as simply padding your resume. You must convince them that you do such activities because of your overwhelming interest in science, technology, engineering and science (STEM). 

Teacher recommendations are also a crucial part of the selection process. A number (maxumum of 35 points as of two years ago) is assigned to each teacher recommendation after it has been read by an evaluator. They are not part of a holistic process, so once the score is recorded the information contained in them serves no other purpose. It is imparative that strong applicants select the right teachers to write their recs in order to maximize their score. Remember that final selection will be based on the total number of points assigned to each applicant's packet, therefore each category, i.e. , test scores, essays, SIS, and teacher recs become extremely important. A very strong applicant with perfect test scores and a 4.0 GPA could be rejected because of two medeocre teacher recs. So how can you max out on the teacher rec score? Ask teachers who both know you and have academically challenged you. Teachers who love their subject area and enjoy working with bright students tend to write excellent teacher recs. Make absolutely sure that the teacher supports your effort to attend TJ. If there is even a slight hint that they don't support the mission of TJ or that they believe that you might be better off at your base high school, do not select that person. They may not write you a bad one but they may not put their hearts into writing you a brilliant one. After you have carefully selected the teachers, supply them with information that will assist them in writing your rec. Do not simply list accomplishments. Teachers are warned that simply listing students' accomplishments which took place outside of their classroom will not be counted favorably. You need to tie your accomplishments to something that you learned in the teacher's course. Also you should include situations or intellectually challenging activities that you enjoyed or learned from in the class of the teacher writing the rec. In other words help the teacher present you as a student who loves learning and goes above and beyond what is expected precisely because you love learning. In the case of science or math teachers, it is especially important for them to portray you as someone who needs TJ to furthur nurthur your passion for math and science and also as someone whom TJ needs so that your passion and interests can be shared with the TJ community. Before you select a teacher, It might be wise to ask for a short meeting after school to discuss your interest in attending TJ and to mention some of your best academic moments in that teacher's classroom. If they can't find time to have a short meeting with you, that may be an indication that they may not have the time required to write an excellent in-depth recommendation.

November 2011

The Summer 2011 Photo Gallery is now posted.  To access the entire 2011 Photo Gallery, click on the first photograph and click the arrow to access the next photograph. Not all photos are shown in the gallery preview.

The Math Enrichment Summer Sessions will be scheduled as follows:

July 16th-July 27th         Mathreasoning 9 AM-12 noon       Mathreasoning 1 PM-4PM

July 30th-August 10th    Mathreasoning 9AM-12 noon        Advanced Problem Solving 1PM-4PM

There will be two levels of Advanced Problem Solving. We will group students as appropriate based on their mathematical experience and abstract reasoning skills.

Registration for all courses will open on January 2, 2012