TJ Acceptance Rate by Middle School
Sandburg Middle School TJ Acceptance Rate
How Sandburg Middle School applicants have fared in TJHSST admissions, class by class, from FCPS admissions records, and what the numbers mean for your student.
16.7%Class of 2029 acceptance rate
For the Class of 2029, Sandburg Middle School’s rate of 16.7% was lower than the 21.3% rate for all public school applicants.
| Class | Sandburg | All public school applicants |
|---|---|---|
| Class of 2025 | 19.4% | 18.5% |
| Class of 2026 | 22.2% | 22.3% |
| Class of 2027 | 28.2% | 21.7% |
| Class of 2028 | 25.0% | 20.7% |
| Class of 2029 | 16.7% | 21.3% |
For the Classes of 2025 to 2028 combined, Sandburg Middle School’s rate was 23.1%, compared with 20.7% for all public school applicants.
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How the 1.5% Rule Applies to Sandburg
FCPS fills TJ’s roughly 550 freshman seats in two pools:
- Allocated seats. Sandburg Middle School, like each participating public middle school, is presumptively allocated seats equal to 1.5% of its 8th grade population. Eligible Sandburg applicants are compared with each other, and the strongest evaluated applications are offered those seats.
- Unfilled seats roll over. If the school has fewer eligible applicants than its allocation, the unfilled seats move to the unallocated pool.
- Unallocated seats. Sandburg applicants who don’t receive an allocated seat are still considered here, alongside applicants from other schools and private school and homeschool applicants.
FCPS does not publish Sandburg Middle School’s seat count, how the 1.5% is rounded, or how the 550 seats split between the pools, so there is no reliable way to work out a school’s number of seats. The 1.5% is a starting pathway, not a cap.
Read our full guide to the 1.5% rule for more.
What Sandburg’s Rate Means for Your Student
Sandburg Middle School’s rate describes what happened to its applicants as a group in each year. It rises and falls with the strength of each year’s applicant pool, and it does not predict an individual result.
Every offer depends on the evaluated application: core GPA, the Student Portrait Sheet, the Problem-Solving Essay, and experience factors FCPS considers as context. Confirm eligibility first with our TJ GPA calculator, then put the effort where it moves the result: the SPS and PSE. Our free TJ diagnostic shows where your student stands on both.
Compare Sandburg Middle School with every middle school in the data.
Sandburg TJ Admissions Questions
Sandburg Middle School’s most recent published TJHSST acceptance rate is 16.7% for the Class of 2029, meaning 16.7% of its TJ applicants that year received an initial offer. Across the classes FCPS published for Sandburg Middle School (2025, 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029), the rate ranged from 16.7% to 28.2%.
For the Class of 2029, Sandburg Middle School’s rate of 16.7% was lower than the 21.3% rate for all public school applicants. For the Classes of 2025 to 2028 combined, Sandburg Middle School’s rate was 23.1%, compared with 20.7% for all public school applicants. Rates move from year to year, so one class is not a trend.
FCPS does not publish a seat count for individual schools. Under its rules, each participating public middle school, including Sandburg Middle School, is presumptively allocated seats equal to 1.5% of its 8th grade population. Allocated seats the school can’t fill with eligible applicants move to the unallocated pool, and applicants who don’t receive an allocated seat can still be considered for unallocated seats.
Not in a way you can plan around. Sandburg Middle School’s rate reflects how strong its applicant pool was in each year, and it changes from year to year. Every offer depends on the evaluated application: core GPA, the Student Portrait Sheet, the Problem-Solving Essay, and experience factors. A school’s rate does not predict an individual result.
Other Middle Schools
- Brambleton Middle School
- Carson Middle School
- Cooper Middle School
- Eagle Ridge Middle School
- Frost Middle School
- Glasgow Middle School
- Irving Middle School
- Jackson Middle School
- Johnson Middle School
- Kilmer Middle School
- Lake Braddock Middle School
- Longfellow Middle School
- Mercer Middle School
- Nysmith School
- Rocky Run Middle School
- Stone Hill Middle School
- Trailside Middle School
- Twain Middle School
- Willard Intermediate School
Source. Rates come from aggregate FCPS and TJHSST admissions records: the Classes of 2025 to 2028 from the public visualization model behind our Data & Insights page, and the Class of 2029 from the FCPS Class of 2029 admissions outcome summary. Rates are rounded to the nearest 0.1 percentage point, an initial offer does not necessarily mean enrollment, and years are omitted when FCPS did not disclose enough data to compute a public rate. The allocation rules follow the FCPS freshman application process page. TJ Test Prep is an independent prep program and is not affiliated with FCPS, TJHSST, or Sandburg Middle School. Last reviewed September 25, 2026.
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