What would be a decent GPA for a freshman at TJ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ doesn't post any information about GPAs on their school profile. This means GPAs are very high. Most likely 75% of the school has over a 4.0 GPA (weighted). You could be in the bottom half with just a 4.0 GPA.

about 90% of the class has between 4.0 and 4.75 by Junior year end, since almost every course including the easiest electives are weighted. Even with half dozen C grades, the weighted GPA in parentvue shows as above 4.0. That said, if GPA is below 4.222 end of sophomore, or 4.333 at end of Junior year, student is most likely in the lower half of the class. That's a clear indication student has avoided taking AP and post AP courses. TJ may have stopped publishing the class GPA range in public profile, but college admissions can see applicant's course rigor, easy electives, and the Cs and Ds.

In 2022, the highest was a 4.66 in the school profile, which includes summer after junior year if applicable but excludes senior year grades. Very unlikely anyone has a full point over the 2022 4.66 to now be up to a 4.75. As in almost impossible.

Typo…a full .1

[Anonymous]

Where does a mix of As and Bs (more Bs than As) in the freshman year place your child? Tutoring will be definitely beneficial though DC insists that they are fine without it. Any advice?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curious: is it common for students with very high GPAs at TJ to not dominate or even participate in math/science competitions or fairs? I’m sure there are many overlaps in these two areas, but want to know how big is the non-overlapping part.

These are very common activities.

A lot of top students participate because competition honors are one of the few ways to differentiate yourself.

Each competition team has only a few students (mostly juniors/seniors), the vast majority of students are not winning or participating in academic competitions. Even science fair participation is not as high as you would think. Science fair projects take a lot of time and chances of winning and moving on to the Regeneron level are very low (around 10 students per year).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does a mix of As and Bs (more Bs than As) in the freshman year place your child? Tutoring will be definitely beneficial though DC insists that they are fine without it. Any advice?

It depends. Is your student taking PE or another non weighted class pass/fail? Most freshman year classes are honors and weighted with a .5 bump. Students in AP Precalculus or higher or AP CS have a 1.0 bump for those classes. Also, how many high school credits did they come to the school with and were those all As?

My son has a 4.26 overall GPA at the end of the first semester including high school classes taken in middle school with only 1 B+, 1 A and the rest A-‘s. He is definitely not in the top 10% (he knows students taking 2 AP classes in freshman year that have all As), but seems to have similar grades to his closest friends from middle school. After freshman year he will only take 1-2 non AP classes a year, so he has the potential opportunity to bring his GPA up a lot by the end of junior year. He has mentioned that a lot of his classmates have lower grades. I would suggest tutoring or going for help during 8th period for any classes he struggles in to learn better study skills (this has helped my son a lot, he had mostly Bs/B+s the first grading period.

[Anonymous]

Important note: *especially at TJ*, the depth and value of what the student does outside of class *and* the student's ability to connect those activities to their intended impact via a through-line narrative are FAR, FAR more important than an extra .1 or .2 on a GPA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Important note: *especially at TJ*, the depth and value of what the student does outside of class *and* the student's ability to connect those activities to their intended impact via a through-line narrative are FAR, FAR more important than an extra .1 or .2 on a GPA.

That depends on where you are. The difference between a 4.3 and 4.5 is substantial.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where does a mix of As and Bs (more Bs than As) in the freshman year place your child? Tutoring will be definitely beneficial though DC insists that they are fine without it. Any advice?

Get tutoring.
Do Khan academy for the math classes they will take sophomore year over the summer.
More khan academy in other trouble areas if they have time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important note: *especially at TJ*, the depth and value of what the student does outside of class *and* the student's ability to connect those activities to their intended impact via a through-line narrative are FAR, FAR more important than an extra .1 or .2 on a GPA.

That depends on where you are. The difference between a 4.3 and 4.5 is substantial.

Of course it is, but the difference between "captained the District Champion Volleyball team and built a rocket that was launched at a NASA competition" and "participated in debate and Model UN and Latin and crew" is significantly larger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important note: *especially at TJ*, the depth and value of what the student does outside of class *and* the student's ability to connect those activities to their intended impact via a through-line narrative are FAR, FAR more important than an extra .1 or .2 on a GPA.

That depends on where you are. The difference between a 4.3 and 4.5 is substantial.

about half of the class or 250+ students are within that range. not surprising, the GPA range that was being reported in the school profile went to the fourth decimal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Important note: *especially at TJ*, the depth and value of what the student does outside of class *and* the student's ability to connect those activities to their intended impact via a through-line narrative are FAR, FAR more important than an extra .1 or .2 on a GPA.

That depends on where you are. The difference between a 4.3 and 4.5 is substantial.

about half of the class or 250+ students are within that range. not surprising, the GPA range that was being reported in the school profile went to the fourth decimal.

The thing is, any college that's worth its weight in salt knows exactly what TJ is and what it offers.

There are 50 or so kids every year at TJ who don't have the strongest stats but everyone wonders how *that* kid ended up winning in the admissions game. And invariably the answer is that they excelled in some area of passion that goes beyond the sort of normal track that TJ kids seem to follow.

And the kids from other Northern Virginia schools who excelled in that same area don't have the same admissions outcomes even with stronger stats.

You don't want TJ to be the headline on your kid's college resume, but it makes a phenomenal third or fourth line. It's the *perfect* place for a kid who has a passion (athletics, performing arts, or some really cool area of STEM) that either can't be served at their base school or where they might drown in a sea of other kids.

If you love baseball or football but you're ticketed to Westfield or Madison, there's a good chance that you'll never see the field there but you'll crush it at TJ. Same thing for, say, theatre if you're zoned to a place like Marshall or West Springfield.

[Anonymous]

A lot of A students at TJ are also rampant cheaters. If you insist on straight A’s you might be inadvertently creating a dishonest little sneak. Whereas a B honestly earned is its own positive lesson. Sometimes kids will say they cheat bc they cannot handle getting anything less than an A. They don’t care that they aren’t learning, they chase that A. Don’t promote grades, promote learning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of A students at TJ are also rampant cheaters. If you insist on straight A’s you might be inadvertently creating a dishonest little sneak. Whereas a B honestly earned is its own positive lesson. Sometimes kids will say they cheat bc they cannot handle getting anything less than an A. They don’t care that they aren’t learning, they chase that A. Don’t promote grades, promote learning.

People cheat at all grade levels. My child knows a kid that was about to fail that cheated to get an A on the final and ultimately a D in the class.

[Anonymous]

Yes that’s true. I should have said that a parent of an honest student needs to realize that grade comparison across peers is tough because some peers are cheating. It’s infuriating that nothing is being done to address this. I feel a student caught cheating should immediately be sent back to base school. Too much forgiveness is offered and students take advantage of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A lot of A students at TJ are also rampant cheaters. If you insist on straight A’s you might be inadvertently creating a dishonest little sneak. Whereas a B honestly earned is its own positive lesson. Sometimes kids will say they cheat bc they cannot handle getting anything less than an A. They don’t care that they aren’t learning, they chase that A. Don’t promote grades, promote learning.

^^ this person gets it bigtime