Realistically, I'd you want to get mostly A grades, how much homework do you do per night and on weekends?
My child is still waiting to hear but is starting to have second thoughts since the child has so many interests outside of school and is worried there won't be time. |
This will depend hugely on what course load your child plans on. Would they be coming in at normal entry level (Stats and TJ Math 3 which is Algebra 2) or a higher level?
DC came in at the normal math/science entry level and restarted at a level 1 for language (hated the one taken in 8th). Summer PE before 9th was the only head start step. DC’s experience: Homework is not every single night but usually 4 - 5 hours or so on the weekend and then a couple nights of 1.5 hours or so of work. The rest gets done at school normally. |
^
Adding on - DC does year round swim and did a time consuming fall extracurricular plus a winter sport. We have a short-ish commute and not the hike out to far western FCPS though too. |
Op here- my child will be coming in at normal entry level.
Summer PE is an option but that hasn't been decided yet. 1.5 hours isn't too too bad...and 4:5 hours total on the weekends or 4-5 ours each day? |
On average 4-5 per weekend. Some weekends very little, occasionally a weekend where it’s more. I hear it is a lot more work Junior year and maybe senior. But that’s our experience so far for freshman year. |
Some homeworks are optional. They recommend you do it since it helps in the tests. There are more frequent tests and quizzes. Sports are good because it takes time away from phones. TJ recommends participating in a sport as well. No harm in trying if gets accepted. Base school always takes them. |
Sports and TJ is a joke. My son came home by 7:20 pm - all 5 weekdays. He usually had 1-2 hrs HW and a test next day or a coding assignment. Often up till 11-12
Dropped sports. He is much better academically. I am sure dropping sports might hurt his college application, but I rather have my kid not burn out in first 1-2 yrs of TJ |
OP here- dropping sports isn't an option for him. My kid loved his 2 sports and they do take up a lot of time. |
Based on your original post about your child not being particularly interested and your current post of how much sports mean to him, I would not see him as being in a happy environment at TJ, but you know your kid best. |
My kid was a 3 sport athlete at TJ and loved the whole TJ experience. Currently at a T10, so TJ and sports is definitely doable. |
One of the deep secrets of TJ is that it's actually a phenomenal place to be an athlete. Your opportunities there (assuming you're talking about team sports) will be much, much stronger than they would be at a base school - you're more likely to make the teams and you're more likely to play varsity earlier. And in many cases, that can lead to being more of a recruitable athlete than you would be at a base school. |
Are you implying that a school of STEM nerds are below average athletes ? The Varsity teams are less competitive?
I am shocked! "GIF of Walter White of Breaking Bad throwing the pizza on his roof" |
Yep - my kid was able to parlay that into a recruiting spot that got them into one of the favored top DCUM schools. Bc of the crazy politics (around playing on the "correct" travel team), very good chance they wouldn't even have made it on the base school team. |
Isn't it hard to do a sport while being involved in other clubs like the school's math team? |
It's hard but doable for a very good student athlete. |