TJ Info

Current Policy for TJ Admissions

In the fall of 2009, TJ made some changes to its admissions. The previous year, TJ received approximately 2950 applications to take the TJ admissions exam, selected approximately 1700 semi-finalists, and accepted approximately 480 students. While the number of students admitted will remain at 480, one of the goals of these changes is to reduce the semi-finalist pool by approximately 200-250 students. A student's acceptance in the semi-finalist pool depends upon a combination of his/her test score on the TJ admissions exam and school grades (GPA). Thus, a high test score can compensate for a relatively lower GPA and vice versa. In addition to this combined test score/GPA, there are some minimum thresholds that applicants must meet to make the semi-finalist pool: (1) a minimum test score of 65 (up from 60 last year); (2) a minimum math score of 30 out of 50; and (3) a minimum GPA is 3.0.

Semi-finalists have to complete a Student Information Sheet (i.e., some short answer questions, a resume-type section, and a personal statement) and submit two teacher recommendations. One recommendation must be written by a math or science teacher. The second recommendation can be written by a teacher of any subject. The teacher recommendation forms and the Student Information Sheet (SIS) have been revised. Teacher recommendations and SIS forms are assessed separately. Weights are given to each section of the final application packet (rating scores for SIS, teacher recommendations, essay scores, math test score, and math/science grades) to establish rankings. In the final stage committee review, they will focus on a student’s math and science grades only (the entire GPA is considered to choose semi-finalists). Students are admitted in rank order until 480 students are admitted. Final admissions decisions will be mailed out on April 30, 2010. This year, they also plan to add a waiting list of approximately 50 students. After the summer admissions process for new residents, waiting list students will be notified in approximately July if space is available. For more information about TJ admissions, click here.

In 2009-2010, 3,119 students applied for admission to the Class of 2014 at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. 1,553 of those students qualified for the semifinalist pool from which 480 were selected for admission. An additional 50 students were placed on a waiting list.

All semifinalists then were evaluated for admission based on consideration of the following parts of the final application packet (weighting for each included in parentheses) :
1. Essays (Average of two) (25%);

2. Student Information Sheet (20%);

3. Teacher Recommendations (Average of two) (20%);

4. Math portion of the Admissions Test (20%); and

5. 7th and 8th grade Math and Science Grade Point Average (15%).
No other materials were considered for any applicant.

Past Policy for TJ Admissions

On September 2004, the FCPS School Board voted to change the process that is used to admit students to TJ. Under the new process, all students who score above specific minimum raw scores on the TJ admissions test and have more than a specific minimum GPA in their middle school academic classes become "semifinalists." To some extent, a high GPA can compensate for a low test score, and vice-versa. For example, a student with a 3.67+ GPA whose raw score on the TJ admissions test is 60% will progress to the second round. Conversely, a student with a 2.67 GPA whose raw score on the TJ admissions test is 90%+ will progress to the second round. Under this new system, students with unusually high test scores will not progress to the second round if their GPA is less than 2.67.

This new process was expected to result in about 1500 semifinalists during 2004-05. However, of the 2855 students who applied to TJ and took the TJ admissions test in December 2004, 1601 became semifinalists. In 2006-07, 2,728 took the admissions test and 1,666 students became semifinalists. This process weights grades more heavily than the former process of ranking applicants, where applicants were ranked based 80% on their test scores.

After reviewing the files of these roughly 1600 to 1700 semifinalists (including teacher recommendations and the student's list of activities, interest, and awards), TJ will admit 500 students, rather than the 450 students who had been admitted for a few years before 2005 or the 400 students who were admitted during most years before 1998.

According to the original documents about the new process, twelve criteria will be used to evaluate semifinalists, and three of those twelve criteria will measure academic ability and/or academic achievement. For information on the remaining criteria, see the October 2004 FCAG newsletter. In the last two years, the TJ admissions office has substantially modified the applications forms and teacher recommendation forms, so that they also focus less on academic achievements and more on intangibles, including the ability to work well in groups, etc. To see the 2006-07 forms, see the student information sheet, instructions for the student information sheet, teacher recommendation form, and teacher recommendation information form.

FCPS also has expanded the TJ admissions office, and Judy Howard has been hired as the admissions director. Judy Howard is the former co-chair of the TJ Diversity Committee, and a long-time member of the FCPS Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee, who spearheaded efforts to change the TJ admissions process. Judy Howard was appointed to the MSAOC by Janie Strauss, who represents the Dranesville area (primarily Herndon, Great Falls and McLean) on the School Board.

New 9/27/07: Vern Williams, the renowned GT math teacher from Longfellow MS, recently testified before the School Board to express grave concerns with the current TJ admissions process. Read his letter to the school board.

For more information about TJ, check out the TJ Website.

TJ Proposal History

On December 18, 2004, the Fairfax County School Board voted in favor of a resolution to form a blue ribbon panel on TJ admissions policies, with the goal of increasing specified types of diversity within the TJ student body. The panel recommendations were released to the public in June, 2004. The School Board is rushing to vote on a staff proposal to implement these proposals by September 9, 2004, so that the new admissions criteria and process can be used to select students who apply to TJ in the fall of 2004.

The basic proposal is to eliminate the use of any minimum test score or GPA requirement, and to give FCPS staff complete discretion to admit any student who applies. In a variety of meetings held during the summer of 2004, FCPS staff members repeatedly indicated that they were not interested in requiring any minimum test scores. Instead, they prefer to use a holistic approach, which focuses on leadership and other social skills, among other factors, consistent with the TJ mission statement that was rewritten in 2003-04 as part of the TJ accreditation process. Similarly, a student who expresses an interest in math, science or technology may be viewed as or more favorably as a student who demonstrates high achievement in those areas.

The history of this Blue Ribbon Commission proposal dates back over many years. Other proposals floated in fall 2003 would have moved from an 800 pool to a 1200 or 1000 pool, which still required a minimum test score. In 2001, former Superintendent Domenech suggested imposing geographic quotas on the number of students admitted to TJ from various middle school neighborhoods.

The stated justification for these varied proposals has been that TJ's student population needs to include more Black and Hispanic students. In addition, the Blue Ribbon Commission full report claimed that the current process admitted students who did not belong at TJ while rejecting stronger candidates. No data has been made public to support this claim.

TJ 2009 Admissions Data Available

In 2005, FCPS provided data to a FCPS parent about the academic qualifications, sex and race of all students applying to become a member of TJ '09, and whether they were admitted. This data was made available to the Center for Equal Opportunity (CEO), a tax-exempt nonprofit. The data suggests that the holistic admissions process resulted in the rejection of dozens of exceptionally qualified candidates, and the admission of some far less qualified students. To see this admissions data for TJ '09, visit the CEO website.

TJ Admissions Statistics

2003-04 Class of 2008

2004-05 Class of 2009

2005-06 Class of 2010

2006-07 Class of 2011

2007-08 Class of 2012

2008-09 Class of 2013

2009-10 Class of 2014 (Note: does not include the Summer Round 2010 applicants)