TJ - got accepted but still undecided
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Anonymous
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Hello, my DS got accepted to TJ and we live in Fairfax county. The commute is easily 50 min to 1 hour from our depot.
Talking to other parents I have heard about the difficulties of being in TJ. Can any TJ parent info on the following please that can help us decide what works best for our family? 1. I have heard that if kids stay for after school club, parents have to pick up? It is going to be a 1 hour drive for either me or my husband and we have 3 other kids and their activities during the evening. 2. DS has his cousins in UVA and UMD and has visited those colleges and loves to join one of them. He would surely get better GPA in his base school compared to the GPA in TJ and he is concerned. Would ED application help on this case? 3. I am more sure how things have changed post the new way of admission/selection of students into TJ, my hope is TJ is not as stressful as it used to be before and slightly better. We are also concerned about stress/mental health/not having enough sleep/constant struggle. Can you share your exp? |
Anonymous
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Stay at base school.
If 50 minutes from TJ, it’s not Langley or Mclean so your kid is going to be one of the high performers at base school and will have a better shot of being admitted to UMD or UVA with stellar grades from base school. |
Anonymous
| We are deciding between a private and Tj. Loved all the wonderful opportunities we saw this evening at preview night. Also worried about the stress and work load. Not so worried about college outcome - looking for personal growth but also mental health. |
Anonymous
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If your kid is weak in math and not interested in STEM, they will have a miserable time at TJ, leading to all kinds of mental health issues.
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Anonymous
| DC is strong in math and very interested in STEM - the math and science, not so much engineering. Still worried about mental health from all we hear about pace of learning and intensity |
Anonymous
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If you're concerned about your child's mental health, TJ may not be the right fit.
Otherwise, know that over 2,200 students attend TJ year-round and enjoy a strong, enriching STEM education. |
Anonymous
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We went to preview night and were so surprised by the LACK of solid afterschool and in school EC activities. No choir. Only Varsity football. Limited theatre program. Not everyone wants to do Science Olympiad all the time.
If TJ wants to focus on bringing in well rounded kids then it needs to provided these kids more opportunities besides just academics. How is there no choir at TJ? |
Anonymous
| Limited arts too. Are there after school activities besides sports, or are they mostly during 8th period. |
Anonymous
We too were surprised that TJ is a STEM school, not a choir school. |
Anonymous
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This is the problem with the admissions change. TJ is admitting many students that are unprepared for the rigors of the advanced STEM education that the school provides. I was extremely disappointed at the open house last night to see that one of the math tracks at TJ is for kids that are failing geometry or Algebra II. No students admitted to TJ should be failing math. Why doesn’t the admissions process take into account any other data points that the county can provide such as SOL scores, IAAT scores, iReady scores. The county already has a lot of data to show a students abilities. Pass advanced on 7th/8th grade math and science SOLs should be required for admissions (8th grade scores should be required to maintain admissions). Any slightly advanced or hard working student can have a 3.5 GPA by the first quarter of 8th grade, especially if they are in Algebra I in 8th.
The admissions process needs to change to be able to pick the students from each middle school that would be best suited for the rigors of TJ. Writing an essay about a time you showed leadership has absolutely nothing to do with a students capability to handle a rigorous STEM education. Why does the admissions test only have one PSE and 4 SPS essays? Shouldn’t the test have more PSE’s? If parents are worried about the rigor of TJ before their student even starts school there, TJ might not be the best option for your student. |
Anonymous
| I assume this in regards to my post above. I am concerned about mental health, I am not concerned about rigor. My DC is excelling in geometry, math counts, other stem activities. They are very math science oriented - I know they can handle rigor, but I am still concerned. Is that so surprising? |
Anonymous
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OP - yes the last principal focused on toning down the hyper competitive atmosphere. (some hated her, others appreciated her but it’s a fact that that was a focus of hers and she just left around Dec). DC has found the atmosphere more of a collaborative obsession about school and doing well vs elbows out competition against other students. DC views this as a very positive feature of the school as the slow pace and larger amts of kids who just didn’t care about school at base school were not their “fit”. Yes it’s stressful but DC feels it’s worth it too and is much happier here than they were at our base school. Hope that helps on the mental health side. YMMV of course.
On the commute, ours is half that so I can’t speak to its impact well but most kids living that far away carpool for after school stuff. As others posted, if maxing college odds is a key focus though, don’t pick TJ. For most kids their other HS option will let them be at the very top of that school more easily than the very top of TJ. TJ just has so many other benefits for the right type of kid that this drawback is outweighed. |
Anonymous
? There’s a ton of stuff. Ok maybe no choir. There are a lot of band options though for a musically inclined kid. The reason why there is only varsity FB is because it is hard for them to field one team. They could not do two. If your kid wants to play football and has ANY experience at it at all they should make the team. Not sure why you think theatre is limited either. They do multiple shows throughout the year. Maybe because it is one theatre program vs multiple? The ones we have seen have been really good. A lot of stuff that is after school elsewhere is an 8th period club at TJ to make it easier for the commuting kids to participate. |
Anonymous
Not surprising or irrational. We are in the same boat. |
Anonymous
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The only thing that matters is kid’s interest. If they are really interest, we are as parents should support them regardless how inconvenient it is (commute as example).
HS is only 4 years and it is their crucial developmental time to adolescence. I would do everything to make it worth. Yes sometimes I am struggle with the afterschool commute picking up (mine is 50 minutes during rush hour in the afternoon, and 25 minutes during non rush hours - each way). I still find it worth. If kids half interest and commute is not worth maybe they should not attend. My kid is not a math or science genius. He is just bright well rounded kid. He is thriving and contrary to what some people worry about mental health, he is happy because he found his tribe. I suspect he will have mental health issue if he is not at TJ. |