Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello and welcome to Learning by Design podcast. I'm Krishnakar, your host and this is the podcast where we engage, educate and empower learners and leaders on their learning journeys. Today we're diving into an important topic. The admission process for the prestigious Academies of Loudoun. If you're a student or parent navigating this highly competitive process, this episode is packed with expert strategies, valuable insights and must know tips to help you succeed. The Academies of Loudoun.
The Academies of Science or aos, focused on STEM research and inquiry based learning. The Academy of Engineering and Technology, or aet, emphasizing problem solving, innovation and hands on technical skills. The Monroe Advanced Technical Academy or mata, offering specialized career and technical education pathways.
You see, admissions to these academies are rigorous and preparation is key.
So whether you're an aspiring scientist, engineer or technical expert, this episode will guide you through every step of the process.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Let's get started.
Okay, so let's dive in. This episode is entitled Academies of Laudan Admission Process Tips and Strategies for Success. I'm Krishna Kart. I'm going to reintroduce myself and I have two decades of teaching experiences both in the Philippines and here.
I'm a national board certified teacher and I'm the curriculum director of the Masterpiece Academy. I served as a reading specialist and literacy coach in public school systems in Loudoun and Fairfax County. And when I resigned from public schools, I just focus on my passion, which is still teaching. So that's why I'm here at the Masterpiece Academy. And you can see here, the lower lower circle. You'll see my family. These are my two sons and then of course my husband. They both graduated from tj and when I, I was teaching, when I was serving as a reading specialist at Frances Hazel Reed in Leesburg in Loudoun county, they were with me like all the time. Okay, so that's a little bit about me. And we are teachers and learning designers. So I'm doing my doctoral at GWU and then prior to that I finished Harvard Learning Design and Technology in Harvard. They are majority of my classmates there are both curriculum developers and instructional designers. So that's why we're here. Okay. And we believe that every student is a Masterpiece. So that's why it's, you know, it's called Masterpiece Academy. But the business is still young scholar circle. We're just doing business as the Masterpiece Academy.
So these are our services. We have district something for the district organizations and businesses. We do K12 curriculum development and instructional design for businesses and organizations. We do coaching and professional development for both school districts and businesses. And then for business we have business to consumer and that's you. We do tutoring and test preparation and after school enrichment. And then you will see here on top our QR codes. These are middle school. So that will get you to the landing page of our middle school services. And it includes tutoring, test preparation and after school, which is stem. If you check it out, you will see that we have summer STEM camps and some, you know, some ongoing after school enrichment like math counsel club, you know, we have robotics and our. The uniqueness of our summer camps or after school, it is geared, they are all geared for competitions because we're huge and majority of our market are just gifted and those who wanted to get into the top schools and gifted programs. And so that's, that's what we specialize in. And here on the second QR code is the ACL prep and that means Academies of Loudon. So that goes straight to the Academies of Loudoun landing page. Okay. And yeah, so part of our mission is we engage, educate and empower families. We believe in the family as a basic unit and we empower them. And it's based on, it's Inspired by Ephesians 2:10. And I'm just going to read it for we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. So this podcast is part of our commitment to give families and students, learners and leaders, a roadmap to. A roadmap to success. Okay, so if you have some elementary students or middle school students and planning to get into the Academies of Loudoun, this podcast episode is perfect for you. Okay, so in this episode we will look at, you know, an overview and then we'll compare it that, you know, the admission to or the process of Academies of Loudon is somewhat similar to college. Okay. So it's like mini college application. So it's a good practice for our middle schoolers because what you will learn here, it's basically a microcosm of what they will learn when they apply for top colleges and universities. And of course, as part of our commitment, we wanted to develop workforce, you know, early on, we want to help develop workforce for the economy. We want to develop future leaders and that's your children. And then we will talk about admissions criteria of Academies of Loudoun and then we will talk a little bit about winning tips and strategies. What are some insights that you needed to, that you need to do? You just don't apply on the spot without, without preparation and on Top of the preparation, you have some other things that you wanted to consider and think about early on. And then if this is live, we have question and answers. But, you know, if you have, after listening or watching this video podcast, you can shoot us an email, contact us, and we will reply to you. And if you, you know, scan that QR code in the previous slide, it goes straight to our Academies of Loudon page. You can click on it. And then we have a free admission, tips and strategies. We put there some free, free, how would I say, free essays, where your student can upload some essays and we can take a look at it before you even enroll with us. And they also can take some STEM thinking skills, some practice questions that we have created.
They can take it and then see, you can contact us after that and then let us know the next steps. That's part of our commitment to kind of like equip the families. Okay, so we're going to talk about Academies of Laudan. And when you say Academies of Loudoun, it consists of three schools. Academies of Science, Academy of Science, aos, aet, Academy of Engineering and Technology, and mata, which is Monroe Advanced Technical Academy. Okay, so for purposes of conciseness of this podcast, we will just focus on the Academy of Science and aet, because MATA has a different application and I could create another podcast on that. Okay, so for this purpose, we will just focus on AUS and AET for now.
Okay, so Academies of Loudoun is a pathway. So think of it as, you know, the path. And it basically, it is a path of basically college. It's a good training ground for college application. And then it's a good training ground to figure out, you know, to weigh your talents and skills, what you're capable of and what your interests are. Okay, so it's just a training ground for college and workforce development. And of course, we wanted to develop careers in stem, and that includes us because we want, we need it. Our country needs future leaders. Okay, so Academy of Science, the Academy of Science pathway is this. It's geared more on science research and experiments. So if you have children, if you think, you know, their interests are more into science, like, you know, someone who want, who's probably aspiring to become a doctor or a science researcher, this one is a good one for you. Okay, Academy of Science pathway.
And then some of the Academy of Science courses are this. Okay, you know, they have all courses, there are a plus 0.5 and you know, it also includes like multi variable calculus, you know, so these are some of the courses that you might want to think of. You might, you, you wanted to balance your, the rigor of the class that you, you're taking. In Academies of Loudon, it's basically you, it's kind of like you have to go there three times a week on top of your regular class. So it's basically a pull out. Unlike in tj, Thomas Jefferson High School, it's a full time. So every, you know, every day you, you go to tj. When you get selected in Academies of Loudon, they take the upper, basically upper 1.5% of the entire population.
And you, you report in the Academies of Loudoun three times a week.
[00:10:21] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: So this is basically what you will see in, you know, the pathway for academies of science. You will notice the sciences, they are all integrated.
[00:10:34] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:34] Speaker B: And you can see the rigor.
[00:10:36] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:10:36] Speaker B: It's, which is something that your child needs. If they really wanted to get into top colleges and top universities, they're looking for rigors from grades 9 to 12. And let's move on to the Academy of Engineering and Technology pathways. So this is for people who are, who wanted to do engineering research, who wants to, you know, to be an entrepreneur, STEM entrepreneur, kind of like Google, Facebook, you know, and computer science and I and IT research. So basically if your student have interest in any of this, then Academy of Engineering and Technology is the best, best one for them, that pathway. Okay. And again, the Academies of Engineering, Academy of Engineering and technology courses, all ACL classes are weighted plus 0.5 and you know, the majority of them have AP and it goes all the way to multivariable and then calculus, that's the one. That one is plus one. Okay, so let's go back to the economy of science.
So multivariable calculus is plus one. The rest are like 0.5.
[00:11:47] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: So that's the heavier one. But it's offered. The good thing is it's offered because some of these are not offered in regular school. So in ACL it's offered, it's the same thing in tj. They offer up to this level. So it's very high. And AP classes, those count towards college. So like my two sons, they have a lot of AP classes. When they both graduated from tj. You will save a lot of college tuition fees because it's credited it converts. Especially if they get, you know, a four point, you know, 4.0.
Okay. Or a five.
Okay, let's move on. Academy of Engineering and Technology pathway. These are basically some of the classes.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:12:35] Speaker B: We're not going to read it one by one, but you will see in 9th grade it's integrated math, integrated science, and then AET, they already have AET engineering one and it has CTE credit. And then in 10th grade they have the integrated again math and science. And then the AET Engineering 2 has CTE credit. Okay. AET Engineering. Senior Research topics may include chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, robotics, aerospace or applied engineering research. And then in 10th grade, that's basically when they will have a lot of APs and then they will have junior research. And then similar to TJ, the, you know, 12th grade, majority of them will have AP classes and senior research.
[00:13:24] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:13:25] Speaker B: Towards the end. So it's the same thing in tj they have every individual has their own research, senior research.
So it's pretty good because that's something that you want to write about when you apply for college. If you wanted to listen in the next podcast, make sure you tune in the next podcast. Next. Next Friday, the first Friday of March, we will release Pathways, basically High School roadmap from grades nine to 12. And I encourage you to listen there because that will give you kind of like a roadmap to success to, to college. So it's still good to at least know it ahead of time.
And then this is the AET entrepreneurship pathway. You got AP Integrated Math 1 and then Science. And then you have entrepreneurship instead of engineering. And then that has CTE credit. Same thing in 10th grade, obviously it's just level two and the entrepreneurship two has CTE credit.
And then in 11th grade they have AP calculus, A, B or BC, they can choose. And then you know, AP physics. And then this is, you know, Information Technology and Computer Science. By the way, AP or bc it has, it depends on, you know, where they started. Usually it starts like for example, seventh grade. If they are in geometry honors in eighth grade they can take up to BC. Okay. But if they're only in algebra 1 honors in eighth grade, it's only up to AB. It's the same thing in TJ.
[00:15:06] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: So it depends on where you are each one. Each AP has some sort of prerequisites.
And then in 12th grade you'll see here it's all APs. And then you've got AP Advanced Computer Science.
Yeah. So you can see it has a lot of recur and that's good for college, top college applications. So if you get into TJ Academies of Loudoun, I would say aim for top colleges and universities.
[00:15:40] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:15:41] Speaker B: And this is Information technology, you got integrated Math, integrated physics, and then AET information technology and computer science. It has CTE credit. And then here in 10th grade they have AP advanced computer science and it has science credit. And then this is, you know, the junior research. Obviously they have the same thing as the other two pathways or the other three pathways. They start AP in 11th grade and then they have junior research and then obviously the senior research.
[00:16:14] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:16:14] Speaker B: And then they have a lot of options. In AP science you've got biochem, environmental science. Same thing with 12th grade. You have the option to take AP statistics or AP calc BC or multivariable calculus. That's pretty high. This is pretty high Information technology. So.
So again, before we move on to the next slide is a. You've got to. The bottom line is you have to weigh your options, your skills and your talents, which pathway you need to choose and really applying at the Academies of Louden and getting there, it's a very good training ground.
[00:16:58] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:16:59] Speaker B: So I highly encourage you to apply. Okay, so we're going to move on to the Academies of Loudon criteria and specifically for AOS and AET again we're not going to cover MATA for this specific episode. Okay. So basically you need to have, you know, you should have taken algebra one honors either in seventh grade or eighth grade. And then all your grades needs to be C or above.
[00:17:30] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:17:31] Speaker B: So one of the tests that they will need to battle is the STEM Thinking Skills test prep. And it's Multiple choice, it's 50 items, it has four subcategories. We will talk about it. And it basically the same company Insight Assessment who created Quant Q the same test at TJ before the pandemic, before they removed the test. And then another one that they will have to battle is Academies of Loudon writing task. Okay, so we offer both STEM Thinking Skills test prep and this Academies of Loudon writing test we offer live online. We offer in person at our one Loudon headquarters location. And then we also offered a self paced way back August 2023. And you can still buy it if so if you're. If you look at our classes and notice that none of the hour schedule would work for you, you can still buy the self paced. So in that way you can start right away and it will end when you know when your student reach, you know, until the test date. And just in case you want are joined live online or in person, we will give you a significant discount if you already have taken self paced because there are still some resources and some trainings that you can get in in person and live online that you cannot get in self paced. Okay, so Self paced is designed because in in different way. The same thing with STEM thinking skills test. We have live online, we have in person and we have self paced as well. We have a very powerful learning management system. We have rubrics there for writing and for STEM thinking skills test prep. It's multiple choice. It simulates the actual STEM thinking skills test prep. We developed the the questions and it was refined based on the feedback of our past students. And obviously the one who developed these questions are curriculum developers and instructional designers and state licensed teachers, our math coaches. There are about three to four people who develop STEM thinking skills, math and science teachers. Okay. It's actually more than four because it's combined math and science. Now this one, I developed it.
[00:19:55] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:19:55] Speaker B: So you will hear my voice there. You will hear in self paced, you will hear a lot of my videos. The in person one I teach it to get. Sometimes I ask another colleague to help me teach it. And we always have. If you check our schedule, we have one on one classes. Basically there will be in person and then live online and then we have asynchronous sessions where I have to meet, we have to meet with students one on one. And so in that way they have more time to, to imbibe the lessons. But taking the writing test prep will help them develop their writing skills because writing skills is something that your child needed to develop, you know, in life. And you will learn more about it when you listen to my podcast, you know, episode next week.
[00:20:45] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: Writing skills is crucial and you will. They will. So basically what they will learn from here is something that they can apply when they go to college.
Okay, so this is basically the timeline.
You apply on the. This is eighth grade. You're talking about eighth grade. Okay, so if you have eighth grade child, you apply usually the portal Academies of Loudoun portal will open second week of August or third to third week of October. Don't wait until the third week of October. Apply right away in the second week of August. Because there are. There's a lot of internal communications between counselors and the academies of Loudoun. They have to forward your credentials in the systems. Don't apply like too late. Apply right away second week or September.
[00:21:41] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:21:42] Speaker B: And next. So in that way you can just avoid technology glitch.
Okay, Test day is.
There are three test days, but you can only choose one. Usually they do it last Saturday of October and then or. And then two Saturdays, the first two Saturdays of November. There are some instances when they have done it all first three Saturdays of November. So there Are no schedule yet for this 2025. So they will release it sometime August when the school open. They will release the choice of test. And what we typically ask our students is to take to choose the last Saturday of November. Don't choose the first one. So in that way we have more time to refine their skills because especially with my writing, with my writing assessment students, Academies of Loudon Writing, I usually ask them to sit in, in my next class or so if I, if I feel like I needed to work more with them. So, you know, just to be on the safe side and for me to have more time with my students. So make sure that they take. Or you choose the. It's either second Saturday, second to the last Saturday or the last Saturday. Okay, next. And then the results will be released late March. And then you will have to make a decision and you know, in August. So majority of our students who have taken who or who applied in Academies of Loudoun also have applied at tj and usually they have the same, same period of time when they release the results. Usually TJ release their results like us first week of April. So it's basically about the same time as Academies of Loudon and when they passed both. It's a dilemma for you to give, you know, so I get a lot of calls and then, you know, Mrs. Card, which one is better? So we, you know, we talk. So you can talk to me when that, you know, that day is a good, good problem to have.
[00:23:55] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:23:55] Speaker B: That's a very good problem to have because you just have to choose between two good schools, two great schools.
[00:24:01] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:24:01] Speaker B: You can't go wrong. But anyway, there's still some. I still have some insights about that, so feel free to call me.
Okay. So you can see this was still Young Scholar Circle. That's our, that's the real company. Young Scholar Circle. We're just doing business as the Masterpiece Academy because we're expanding our services to curriculum design and instructional service, instructional design and coaching and Prof. Device. Okay, so this is basically the Academies of Loudon Test Prep. That's that these are some of the benefits. They will have a guided writing during the class. I will help them brainstorm, I will help them look for what activities to highlight, help them create perspective, you know, and then help them show off their, their best values, their, you know, their personality in the essay. Okay. On top of the. Of course, responding to the issues. So we will teach them. I will teach them different, you know, type of genre that they can also apply when they go to college.
[00:25:08] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:25:09] Speaker B: And you will see the student progress because our learning management system, we have parents, you can oversee your students, you can see your students progress, and then the students can answer, but you can see whatever they do. So in that way you can monitor. Okay, so you'll see your student progress and all the time. And then whenever we update homework, you will receive notifications. So we have a very powerful learning system. And of course there's rubrics there. Okay, so STEM Thinking skills test prep, there are four major categories. There's basically out of the box. It's basically 28 items and then 50 minutes. 28 items in 50 minutes. You have out of the box, algebra, got tech, logic, scientific thinking, and then spatial relational thinking. And it's adaptive. Yeah, so everyone will get different type of questions. And some students get more scientific thinking, some students get more, you know, it's adaptive. So whatever they, they, what questions they answer, they will, more of those questions will come up because it is, both of them are, are online. So in Academies of Loudon, we need to teach them the content, the format and at the same time the test taking skills, the pacing and then the stamina. The same thing here in STEM Thinking skills test prep. And STEM thinking skills is taught by math and science teachers. English teachers teach this writing workshop.
And this is the rubric.
[00:26:42] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:26:43] Speaker B: We're not going to discuss it one by one, but obviously we teach the students how to read the rubric, how to, how to score their own essay. We score their essays together, we discuss it in class, we talked about it, and I give them like strategies on how to score full evidence in all of their retired prompts. So it's really, when they enroll, it's really a great investment on the writing skills. Okay. This is one of the prompts that came up during COVID and majority of their prompts is environmental problems. It's real world problem. So whatever our country is encountering during the time of your student taking the test, that's usually, that's usually when you know when this prompt develop.
[00:27:34] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:27:35] Speaker B: So it's basically based on the current events. So it's when you have an 8th grader or 7th grader, make sure that they read a lot of science or STEM magazines to keep abreast of what's happening. And of course, current events like this one is a forest fire. This was the forest fire that happened in California. Not this recent one, not this 2024, 2025. But you know, this was way back 2020, there was another fire. So that's it. So. And we teach them Part of the essay is we teach them the scientific method, how to put it in their essay, and then the engineering method. Okay, so it's embedded on how to respond to their essay, and then the engineering design process, so it's embedded. And then the context is their extracurricular activities.
[00:28:24] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:28:25] Speaker B: It's pretty tough. Okay, so now this is basically a resume. What are some of the things that you might want to do? Okay, what I typically tell my, my parents and my students, basically our families, is to start, even if you have, even if you're still in sixth grade or fifth grade, you might want to start, think about your extracurricular activities. So if you're applying for a STEM school, of course they're looking for STEM extracurricular activities and this will be the content of your essay. So it's the same thing in college. You know, if you wanted to be in, you know, in medicine or sciences, of course the expectation is you should have some leadership and extracurricular activities, academic competitions based on your interest. And of course, if you want to do sports, you can do that as well. Like this one. See, you can see it's diverse and, but you can see she is into stem, so that's one. If they don't have STEM activities or extracurricular activities. We have summer STEM camps and some of our after school enrichment are ongoing. So feel free to scan this and schedule will pop up and we'll talk about it in the next slide. But these are some possible essay contents. It doesn't need to be just camp. It can be summer camps and internships. Internships go back to or at the first source of information is your counselor. Maybe they. There are some businesses that offer internships or just shadowing, job shadowing or so. Or it could be contact from your parents. Maybe your parents have their own businesses or their own contacts and you might want just wanted to shadow or at least you know, just visit a job just to give a glimpse of what's happening in the workforce, because that's something that you can write about in your essay as well. And then academic activities that includes your GPA and academic competitions and leadership like clubs. So they're looking for that and that's something that you can write about as well. Volunteer work, that's another one. And then your interest. Interest doesn't need to be directed to school or, you know, or it's not even interest that's not unrelated to school. Like for example, video game programming or app development. Make sure you write it down because that's crucial when you write Your essay. And what I typically do with my students is I ask them to basically write down or create their resume from sixth to eighth grade. So in that way, we can help them angle their essay. Okay, so another thing that you might want it to do is keep on reading and writing and keep on investing in math. Keep on strengthening your math and science skills, especially, you know, experiments. So just keep on exposing them to STEM arena. And I'm pulling this one, this one Are Writers are Readers by Lester Laminac. And you look at your brain as a bank. It stores all the personal experiences, you know, thoughts, concepts, language. But you need to have deposit. That's basically the receptives. Whatever they read, watch, and listen to, it goes in there and then they process it and then the withdrawal. That's basically writing, producing, speaking. They cannot produce or write something if they don't have experiences about it. Okay, so let's go back to this. So that's why this is crucial, because they need to have content, and they need to, you know, they need to have that content, that experiences that. So in that way they can produce good essay or there's respond to well written to a good prompt. Okay, they can respond well. So this is a 2025 summer STEM camp. So if you scan the code in the previous slide, this one, you will see these Summer STEM camp. And it's on our website. Well, just to give you a glimpse of, you know, our STEM games are designed for competitions, and I cannot overemphasize the value of writing skills. And again, I want you to. I hope you could listen or tune in to this podcast, because next week is all about 9 to 12, and then national Merit Scholarship. Okay, so these are my babies.
You know, this is my oldest one. He graduated from TJ in 2015. And this is my youngest, he graduated from. From TJ 2016. So in both middle school and high school, you need writing skills.
[00:33:14] Speaker C: Okay?
[00:33:14] Speaker B: And if your student in tj, if your child in tj, wants to apply it. I'm sorry. If your child at academies of Loud and wants to apply at tj, it's different genre, but, you know, they still need those STEM extracurricular activities because they're gonna write student portrait sheet. They wanted to. You want. You know, they wanted. They need to show how they have been a collaborator, communicator. All of these portraits of a graduate through their essay, it's the same thing in academies of Lauren, is the same admission. It's an admission essay. So they still need to show off, but then it's just different because they, they respond to an environmental prompt. But there's a way, there's a language to show off their traits and their values and their skills and then interest. And that's something that they will learn in our classes. So investing in our classes is a good solid step. It's a good wisdom. So yeah, so that's. Without further ado, you can always contact us. This is our phone number 571-485-0934 and this is where the class will happen at 1 Loudon. We are in Venture X building. We are in at suite 341. And this is the email infoasterpk2.org so be sure to contact us and you know, connect with us ahead of time. Like sixth grade if you have child who are in fifth grade. We do offer IAT prep.
[00:34:47] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:34:47] Speaker B: And it's crucial to have IAT prep so in that way they can get placement to Algebra one in seventh grade and then geometry honors in eighth grade. So when they go to academies of Loudoun, you know, they have advanced math classes. Okay. So that's it for now and I hope you tune in to Learning by Design. We release episodes every Friday. If you have some other questions or some suggestions on, you know, what type of topics you want to see in our podcast or in our blog, go ahead and contact us. Okay? And again, this is Krishna Cart. I'm your host and I'm looking forward to hearing from you. Thank you so much and bye for now.
