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Waitlisted at TJ - now what?
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Anonymous
| DD waitlisted for class of 2026. She applied without putting much thought into it to have the option to figure out later. Now it's later and she needs to decide whether to stay on the list or not. Wondering if there's a deadline for admitted students to decide, and therefore how long she might be on the waitlist before a final yay or nay? Is there any kind of open house for admitted students to help inform their decisions? Certainly they can't fill a whole grade without kids visiting or learning more about the school in person, perhaps from current freshmen? Wondering what her options are to inform her decision now? Thanks for any advice, particularly from current 9th grade parents since I think the admissions process was similar last year and this. |
Anonymous
| Relax. Not the end of the world. Many TJ kids attending dame school as my non TJ senior. Except mine didn’t get the amount of stress Tj kids went through. Be a strong student at a base school. Tj is way over rated. |
Anonymous
| Parent of TJ student and nonTJ HS student. TJ is overrated and not worth it. Wouldn’t have sent TJ student to TJ if I had a do over. Base HS has been excellent for my nonTJ student, including getting into Ivies. |
Anonymous
+1000 Know a TJ kid rejected from his top choices. Admitted to his last choice only. The TJ course. Disheartening. |
Anonymous
| Now you get the incense, body paint, light a fire in the backyard, get naked and pray to the heavens. Chant and dance around the fire until your feet bleed. |
Anonymous
OP here. Thanks. Sounds like a plan! Perhaps some sacrifice too to be safe?! DD has pretty much decided on her own already to stay local. Good luck to those who accept! |
Anonymous
| Consider yourself lucky....my child has PTSD from TJ. And I am not kidding. |
Anonymous
| OP again. Oh dear. These past few replies have been eye-opening. What can we (fcps parents) do to help make this a better experience for children? |
Anonymous
Did you move the child back to base when you realized that their mental health was being affected? |
Anonymous
Not push unwilling/unprepared/uninterested kids towards TJ? I know soooo many prepped kids (under the previous system) who went only because their parents made them, or because they didn’t want to waste years of effort, and not for any true love of STEM. I also know a handful that wrote on their essay that they had no interest in going and were being forced, to make sure they got rejected. |
Anonymous
| Is TJ by application only or do neighborhood kids filter in as well? |
Anonymous
You must be very new here. |
Anonymous
It's a whole school magnet. An amazing opportunity for a specific subset of kid but absolutely not for everyone and not even for every really smart successful kid. |
Anonymous
I think it really depends on what your child wants. I know of one former TJ student who transferred back to her base school in 10th grade because she wanted more rigorous extracurriculars, which would have made her more competitive for college (i.e. she was already smart, but her base school allowed her to excel at her hobby). This was ultimately a great decision for her, as she got into the school she wanted for both academics and her hobby. |
Anonymous
I can see being excited about TJ if it’s what gets you out of Lewis or Annandale. But if you can attend one of the better base schools you’ll probably have a better overall experience. |