s/o: Force child to go to TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am intentionally bumping this thread, which was created in 2025.

I am not the OP. But I am a TJ parent of a sophomore.

I strongly suggest you not (repeat NOT), force your child to attend TJ if they do not want to attend.

TJ is stronger if every student there truly wants to be present and succeed there.

Full disclosure for the person who consistently makes false allegations about wait-list movement: I do not have a child on the wait list.

DP
Unpopular take

The answer to this question is not as simple as "do they want to go" and "do they have a passion for STEM"
These are 13 year old kids. You are an adult. Do some parenting and help your kid make good choices.

If a child is consistently top 1-2% on Iowa and cogat and nnat and all the other standardized tests they have ever taken and they are relatively academically inclined with decent study habits, TJ rigor will turn them into a much better student than they would be at their base school. TJ says its a STEM school but the only thing that really makes it more stem focused than other magnet schools is the senior research project. You can graduate TJ with a clearly humanities focused academic record without much effort, in fact most of the prominent TJ grads are not stem. As an added bonus, they will probably have better college outcomes from TJ. I would try pretty hard to convince this child to attend TJ.

If a child is consistently top 5% but not top 1or 2%, they will probably be able to keep up with the rigor and be better prepared for college. Their college results will probably be similar to their results from their base school. I would allow this child to go to TJ but not try to convince them to go.

If a child is in the top 10% but not top 5% then they will struggle in one way or another. This child would have to convince me to let them go to TJ.

If a child is not consistently in the top 10%, I would not let this child attend TJ.

Absolutely false.

This is absolutely true.

Being at the top of the class at TJ probably yields better results than being at the top of the class at a base school.

There is college admissions value in a TJ diploma.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hypothetically, if your child does NOT want to go to TJ but ends up admitted to the class of 2029, should you, as the parent, force them into going anyway?

Yes / no. Why / why not?

We would not. Our DC would get better college admissions being in the top of base HS than in the middle 1/3rd of TJ. YMMV.

[Anonymous]

Sure if you want high school bumper sticker to be your crowning glory.

Sure if you are ok with high school admit being your kid's glory day. Cue up Bruce Springsteen.

Sure if you want a burnout even before college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure if you want high school bumper sticker to be your crowning glory.

Sure if you are ok with high school admit being your kid's glory day. Cue up Bruce Springsteen.

Sure if you want a burnout even before college.

I think you mean if you force the kid to go per the thread title. If so, i agree. For kids who actually want to go though and are ready for the TJ vibe, it can be a great experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone who claims TJ gives better college outcomes or anyone who claims TJ gives worse college outcomes has no basis for their claim.

They don't know if the TJ kid that was middle of the class would have been top at their base (they may or may not have been).
They don't know if the TJ kid that got 1540 on the SAT would have scored the same if they didn't go to TJ (maybe being at TJ improved their score).
They don't know if the TJ kids that go to top colleges would or would not have got into that same top college at base.

There is no control group. The only way you could get one would be to randomly take half of the accepted kids to TJ and instead have them attend base and then compare results. Self-selected kids that turn down TJ are not an unbiased control. Nor are the kids that don't get into TJ that end up top at base.

You make a lot of statements that are not really supported by the data.

At most schools, SAT scores tend to correlate closely with class rank.
Under the new admissions process, we are considering GPA but not test scores in TJ admissions, there is no reason to think that the correlation between test scores and class rank would break down for TJ students.
The middle of TJ's class would generally be near the top of their base school base on this association.

What makes you think that going to TJ would materially improve SAT scores?

We know that TJ has higher rigor than base schools, and so do the admissions officers so a straight A student from TJ is more desirable than a straight A student from a base school, all other things being equal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good number of kids (unusually Asian) are forced to be there and miserable.

Like Hmong?

Even more unusual.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A good number of kids (unusually Asian) are forced to be there and miserable.

Like Hmong?

Even more unusual.

Lhoba?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lhoba_people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure if you want high school bumper sticker to be your crowning glory.

Sure if you are ok with high school admit being your kid's glory day. Cue up Bruce Springsteen.

Sure if you want a burnout even before college.

Not everyone can raise a child to have and then meet expectations. TJ grads are not GS 12 step 5s hoping no one will notice them in the discount bread section of Safeway.

[Anonymous]

No. God.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure if you want high school bumper sticker to be your crowning glory.

Sure if you are ok with high school admit being your kid's glory day. Cue up Bruce Springsteen.

Sure if you want a burnout even before college.

TJ parent here, and every point you’ve attempted to make is wrong.

BTW, it is not a “sticker;” it is a magnet.

[Anonymous]

Where can we buy the TJ bumper sticker? Looks so simple and cute!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where can we buy the TJ bumper sticker? Looks so simple and cute!

https://tj-ab.square.site/
https://tjptsa.membershiptoolkit.com/merchandise
They don't ship, will deliver to school and students can pick you from the front desk. Thank you for supporting TJ!

[Anonymous]

Please don’t force— the students at TJ who don’t want to be there create misery for themselves and so much work for teachers and staff. Leaving is not simple—it is a drawn out process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please don’t force— the students at TJ who don’t want to be there create misery for themselves and so much work for teachers and staff. Leaving is not simple—it is a drawn out process.

Leaving is pretty simple. You go to your base school and enroll. It is emotionally difficult sometimes.

[Anonymous]

Prepped student here wants to accept offer. I'm saying no way. What do you all say? Prepped in baseball btw.