TJ has a competitive admissions process involving a student application, an entrance exam, an essay, a "student information sheet" and letters of recommendation. There are two stages of selection and qualification. For most students this begins in the winter of 8th grade.
Applicants are rankled according to a combination of their overall score on the multiple TJ admissions test and their middle school GPA on a sliding scale; the higher the GPA, the lower the minimally required test score is. Only grades in math, science, English, and history in 7th and the first quarter of 8th grade are used to calculate the GPA. Semifinalists are chosen based on the GPA and the multiple choice test score only, however there is a minimal requirement for all students. Students must have a (1) a minimum test score of 65 out of 100; (2) a minimum math score of 30 out of 50; and (3) a minimum GPA of 3.0. Starting in 2013, there is no essay portion of the December exam.
The second stage of the admissions process is was changed slightly in 2013, to require only one essay rather than two. Other requirements include a Student Information Sheet (SIS), and two letters of recommendations from teachers. Both the essay and the SIS are written in a testing location at the end of January.
Starting in 2013, the semi-finalist portion of the admissions process is "holistic" and does not count components of the application with a specified weight. Final admissions to TJ during second stage of the application was first announced to be based on the math portion of the multiple choice test, grades in science and math in 7th grade and the first two quarters of 8th grade, the essay, the SIS, and teacher recommendations. Sometime after the multiple choice test was administered and after the essays and SIS were submitted, the second stage evaluation criteria were changed. Currently the process to decide the final 480 among the semi-finalists includes both the verbal and the math scores from the multiple choice test (not just math), the grade point average from all four major courses (math, science, English, history and language if a language was taken) in 7 grade and the first two quarters of 8th grade (not just science and math), the essay, the SIS and the teacher recommendations.
In meetings with members of FCAG, Deputy Superintendent Dr. Richard Moniuszko shared that there will be an appeals process beginning in 2014 for students denied admission who feel their application was unfairly evaluated. Details of this process have not yet been posted, and the County has not announced an appeals process.
“Highly motivated students with diverse backgrounds, talents, and skills who demonstrate:
The TJ finalists are notified by mail of their admissions during the spring of 8th grade. TJ admissions policy is to admit a few transfer students during their sophomore and junior years and no transfers during senior year. The number of transfer students is typically very limited, in fact during some school years none are admitted. For students who aspire to attend TJ the focus should be on the regular admissions process during 8th grade as described above.
From 2009-2012, Admissions Policy at TJ were roughly constant. Students registered for the TJ admissions test in October, and took the test in early December. The test consists of a multiple choice math test, a multiple choice reading test, and two essays.
Semifinalists were selected in late January based upon the score on the multiple choice portion of the TJ test and 7th and 8th grade GPA, on a sliding scale. The higher the GPA, the lower the multiple choice portion needed to be in order to qualify to be a semi-finalist. In addition, as of 2009-2010, semifinalists must have: (1) a minimum test score of 65 out of 100; (2) a minimum math score of 30 out of 50; and (3) a minimum GPA of 3.0.
Until 2011, semi-finalists had 2-3 weeks to complete a Student Information Sheet 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, a principal or counselor. For more information about the semi-finalist round, read FCPS instructions for semi-finalists.
In 2012, semi-finalists had to complete the Student Information Sheet in person at a testing center, under test-like conditions.
From 2009 to 2012, 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):
A copy of the 2009-2010 Guidelines given to evaluators who review the Student Information Sheets can be found here.
Based upon this review, rankings are established and students are admitted in rank order until 480 students are admitted. In 2010-2011, the TJ Admissions Office noted that: "[if] we have semifinalists with the same final evaluation scores where we can admit some, but not all, of those students, a lottery will be used to determine the final students offered admission. The remaining students will be the first students placed on a waiting list to be used in July 2011 if spaces are available."
In 2009-2010, 3,119 students applied to TJ. There were 1,553 semifinalists. In 2008-2009, approximately 2950 students took the TJ exam and there were approximately 1700 semi-finalists. For the first time in 2010, they added a waiting list of approximately 50 students. After the summer admissions process for new residents, waiting list students were notified in approximately July if space was available. For more information about TJ admissions, click here.
Here is TJ Taxi's UNOFFICIAL guide to TJ admissions (dated 2006). Please note that some information may be dated as the admissions process has changed since the guide was written. (Also note: This pdf is large and may take a few minutes to open.)
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.
TJHSST Admissions Webpage
TJHSST Sample Admissions Test of 2012(Multiple Choice)
TJHSST Sample Student Information Sheet (Semi-finalists only)
TJHSST Sample Essay Questions of 2012(Semi-finalists only)