Reasons why one would not accept TJ offer?

[Anonymous]

Too much stress. Wanting more of a focus on mental health and the overall child. A child who is a 2E learner. The realization that life is not always a race.

[Anonymous]

Child would have struggled at TJ. We were surprised they picked him over other studious kids, but it was flattering. Happy at the base school, has time to do other activities

[Anonymous]

OP, these are all good reasons to not attend. What is your child's sport? It is very difficult to balance a high level sport and TJ homework in season and most grades will suffer.

[Anonymous]

Better college admissions for students in the top 10% at base HS than for students in the bottom half at TJ.

[Anonymous]

I hope that DS doesn't apply for TJ because the commute is brutal. He is in Scouts and there are a few kids in his Troop whoa re at TJ, the kids miss alot of meetings and look really, really tired when they are there. It just seems like a lot. I am not sure that he needs to be specializing in HS. He loves math but I have not seen a similar interest in anything in the science realm although he has dabbled with robotics in a few different forums.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ is significantly and by a large margin much harder than base HS.

Experience of same kid at base HS and TJ. Kid moved to TJ in 10th grade.

At base HS, all homework is finished at school itself and child home by 3 PM. Absolutely no additional effort needed at home - child took 2 AP classes in 9th, even then school is pretty easy. Tests took maybe 15 minutes more of effort at home. Grade book frequently had 100+ scores out of 100 in many subjects because they give bonus points for some things.

At TJ, the amount of effort is lot more. 2-3 hours per day. Highly kid dependent but heard lot of classmates were spending a lot more time. Some courses are at the same level of rigor as college.

At base HS if you understand the content you are good for an A. At TJ, you need in depth understanding of the subject. So you need to be able to apply the concept in a different situation, so you need to understand it very thoroughly. About 20% of test questions are in this category.

At TJ you get a fantastic education. But when applying to colleges, it might be a slight disadvantage for the top colleges.

At base child's recommendations would have been off the chart. Child was able to get into a very selective program from base HS because one teacher wrote something like "never saw anyone like this in my 18 years of teaching...".

At TJ, same child would get a good recommendation but nothing like at base HS. In one activity child is in top 100 in nation but there is at least one child every two years who is in the top 10. So the recommendation letters would likewise be much less strong coming from TJ than at base HS.

For our second child we decided not to go to TJ.

TJ is the right place for child 1 but not for child 2.

What two AP classes can be taken in 9th grade? I thought nothing was avail until 10th (maybe AP CS?)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We didn't believe our child would be in the top 10% or even the top 25% at TJ, so we declined the offer last year. Child was part of middle school math club, but there was significant gap between their math proficiency and that of students on the school's MathCounts team. We knew this gap would only be wider if our child were to attend TJ.

+1 here. The peer group at TJ is so high-achieving that if your kid isn't far-and-away the highest-achieving at his MS, DC will be mediocre at TJ. In that case, you/DC have to decide whether the opportunities at TJ outweigh the suppressed college choices.

[Anonymous]

We are from Loudoun and chose the Academies offer, as we didnt want to subject our child to the pressure of keeping up with TJ demands and competitive peer group. AoS is quite manageable since it is part time, with most of language, arts, social studies, and sports at base school.

[Anonymous]

Another issue is that some middle school kids are going to be very wary of the culture shock at TJ, particularly if they are coming from a MS that isn't an AAP center. You may have seen the higher achieving kids at your elementary school peel away to an AAP center, but then you get into TJ because your non-AAP middle school still is guaranteed slots. But you haven't been around the AAP kids for years, and you sense TJ is going to be like AAP on steroids. So you take a pass and stick with your base school, because it's going to be a familiar environment.

It was very important to the School Board for PR purposes to say kids from every middle schools get into TJ. They hate schools like Carson and Longfellow, and I know activists very close to the former School Board members who were complaining constantly about how few kids from Holmes and Poe - the two middle schools closest to TJ - attend the school. So they changed the admissions process for TJ, but they didn't really change the atmosphere at the middle schools themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are from Loudoun and chose the Academies offer, as we didnt want to subject our child to the pressure of keeping up with TJ demands and competitive peer group. AoS is quite manageable since it is part time, with most of language, arts, social studies, and sports at base school.

The demand for TJ is much greater than the 550 spots available. Fairfax should add a second TJ-style school, similar to AOS/AOT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are from Loudoun and chose the Academies offer, as we didnt want to subject our child to the pressure of keeping up with TJ demands and competitive peer group. AoS is quite manageable since it is part time, with most of language, arts, social studies, and sports at base school.

The demand for TJ is much greater than the 550 spots available. Fairfax should add a second TJ-style school, similar to AOS/AOT.

LCPS AOS/AET is equivalent to FCPS Academy, which operates from various high schools, allowing students to register for their preferred programs. Initially, AOS/AET also operated from multiple high schools but later consolidated into a single location at its new campus building. As demand surpassed capacity, selective AOS/AET programs began requiring entrance tests. The similar admission schedules and entrance tests led people to compare AOS/AET to TJ, although it is more comparable to FCPS Academy.

[Anonymous]

OP - most of the reasons others have posted here are indeed good reasons to consider saying no. The flip side of saying no is yes though so why might your kiddo want to accept?….

- Many kids do do sports and other time consuming extracurriculars despite the HW load so there is definitely still a lot of typical HS feel (minus being able to walk down the street to your friend’s house to hang out). “We came for the sports” is a tongue in cheek tagline by kids at TJ because it actually is a great spot for less top notch sports kids to get to do a HS sport and have that experience as they are in a slightly less competitive sports district vs the base schools TJ pulls from.

- If your kid is routinely bored and/or frustrated by classes with too many kids that don’t take the class seriously. Yes there is AP for various classes by mid HS time but it’s still a vibe in some spots of just not trying much on class.

[Anonymous]

Posted early…

- finally, beat reason to go is if you think your kid will thrive in a spot where nost all the kids are “school kids”. My kid had some friends in base school but never felt like the base school was a great fit. TJ is instead a school full of their “tribe” and so has been a great fit in ways that out balance the commute, Higher HW load, college placement odds.

As another PP posted, for some kids it is a great spot and really lets them thrive. For others it’s not a great fit or else the base school works just as well (so not worth accepting the trade offs). You have to evaluate which bucket your child falls into.

[Anonymous]

Agree mostly with the PP poster regarding kids being school focused. I had one at TJ and one at base. Great fit for both.

I also want to address the sports issue. My TJ kid was a multi sport athlete who got recruited and played in college. Due to politics they probably wouldn't even have made their base school primary sport team. If you've got an academically focused kid, who also loves sports - TJ is a great place and makes them attractive IMO to HA schools.

Bottom line - know your kid and what they want.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Agree mostly with the PP poster regarding kids being school focused. I had one at TJ and one at base. Great fit for both.

I also want to address the sports issue. My TJ kid was a multi sport athlete who got recruited and played in college. Due to politics they probably wouldn't even have made their base school primary sport team. If you've got an academically focused kid, who also loves sports - TJ is a great place and makes them attractive IMO to HA schools.

Bottom line - know your kid and what they want.

This is a great point. If your kid is an experienced student-athlete and headed to a school where their sport is extremely popular, it's entirely possible that they could get lost in the shuffle, while many more opportunities tend to exist for kids headed to TJ.