TJ. vs the privates

[Anonymous]

LOL, here is another private school scandal!

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/04/04/bough...VMIxUFQ1XweY1xfB1GK/story.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL at thinking that being smart enough to be at TJ would mean handling the academics at a Big 3 easily. They’d handle the workload, and many would do just as well academically. But having gone to TJ, I can tell you that a big chunk of its students are made of one-dimensional superstars in science and math who would be lucky to earn Bs in a rigrorous Big 3 humanities or social science class. The skill set to excel at TJ doesn’t work everywhere, in academics or in life.

Wait, so you went to TJ and took humanities at Big 3?

I have a child that went to TJ and another child that went to Potomac . TJ teaches my child to excel in STEM but that's it. My child went onto a good college, UVA, but while DC has a good job, DC just does not have the social skill and soft skill to be "management" material. DC hated me for not sending DC to Potomac school.

The DC that attended Potomac, also went onto a good college, U of Penn. DC has a great career and is in a high paying management position because of the social and soft skill DC was taught at Potomac.

I am working at an engineering company that there are about 6 people, out of 20, in my department that attended TJ. All of them, myself included, has to report to a boss who graduated from Sidwell Friend. His major in college was history. Go figure.

Exactly.

The vast majority of TJ grads are one-dimensional STEM specialists. It's MIT or bust for many of them.

Potomac is known for having a weaker language arts program than even Langley High School (the closest public).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Admission by testing is hardly a meritocracy.

!! Admission by testing (and teacher recs and personal essays), isn't a meritocracy? O wise one, what then would be a meritocracy by your definition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Potomac is known for having a weaker language arts program than even Langley High School (the closest public).

Are you serious? I live a few blocks from Langley HS, Mackall Farms Ln, and my kid goes to Potomac whereas my child could have attended Langley HS for free. You get what you pay for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Potomac is known for having a weaker language arts program than even Langley High School (the closest public).

Are you serious? I live a few blocks from Langley HS, Mackall Farms Ln, and my kid goes to Potomac whereas my child could have attended Langley HS for free. You get what you pay for.

Potomac is fantastic in many other ways. They have awesome sports etc and a brilliant debate team. Langley HS does a far better job teaching writing. It’s fairly common knowledge though, or at least it was a few years ago.

[Anonymous]

Utter nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL at thinking that being smart enough to be at TJ would mean handling the academics at a Big 3 easily. They’d handle the workload, and many would do just as well academically. But having gone to TJ, I can tell you that a big chunk of its students are made of one-dimensional superstars in science and math who would be lucky to earn Bs in a rigrorous Big 3 humanities or social science class. The skill set to excel at TJ doesn’t work everywhere, in academics or in life.

Wait, so you went to TJ and took humanities at Big 3?

I have a child that went to TJ and another child that went to Potomac . TJ teaches my child to excel in STEM but that's it. My child went onto a good college, UVA, but while DC has a good job, DC just does not have the social skill and soft skill to be "management" material. DC hated me for not sending DC to Potomac school.

The DC that attended Potomac, also went onto a good college, U of Penn. DC has a great career and is in a high paying management position because of the social and soft skill DC was taught at Potomac.

I am working at an engineering company that there are about 6 people, out of 20, in my department that attended TJ. All of them, myself included, has to report to a boss who graduated from Sidwell Friend. His major in college was history. Go figure.

Exactly.

The vast majority of TJ grads are one-dimensional STEM specialists. It's MIT or bust for many of them.

Potomac is known for having a weaker language arts program than even Langley High School (the closest public).

Speaking of MIT, do you have any idea how strong its liberal arts programs are? It's Econ, Political Science, Linguistics and Philosophy are top rated if not #1. Besides, many TJ grads do go for liberal arts, tech is not the only choice for everyone who goes to TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admission by testing is hardly a meritocracy.

!! Admission by testing (and teacher recs and personal essays), isn't a meritocracy? O wise one, what then would be a meritocracy by your definition?

A meritocracy considers a super-long list of criteria, not just testing only. You're the one choosing to define merit in as narrow a way as possible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Admission by testing is hardly a meritocracy.

!! Admission by testing (and teacher recs and personal essays), isn't a meritocracy? O wise one, what then would be a meritocracy by your definition?

A meritocracy considers a super-long list of criteria, not just testing only. You're the one choosing to define merit in as narrow a way as possible.

Such as....?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL at thinking that being smart enough to be at TJ would mean handling the academics at a Big 3 easily. They’d handle the workload, and many would do just as well academically. But having gone to TJ, I can tell you that a big chunk of its students are made of one-dimensional superstars in science and math who would be lucky to earn Bs in a rigrorous Big 3 humanities or social science class. The skill set to excel at TJ doesn’t work everywhere, in academics or in life.

Wait, so you went to TJ and took humanities at Big 3?

I have a child that went to TJ and another child that went to Potomac . TJ teaches my child to excel in STEM but that's it. My child went onto a good college, UVA, but while DC has a good job, DC just does not have the social skill and soft skill to be "management" material. DC hated me for not sending DC to Potomac school.

The DC that attended Potomac, also went onto a good college, U of Penn. DC has a great career and is in a high paying management position because of the social and soft skill DC was taught at Potomac.

I am working at an engineering company that there are about 6 people, out of 20, in my department that attended TJ. All of them, myself included, has to report to a boss who graduated from Sidwell Friend. His major in college was history. Go figure.

Exactly.

The vast majority of TJ grads are one-dimensional STEM specialists. It's MIT or bust for many of them.

Potomac is known for having a weaker language arts program than even Langley High School (the closest public).

Speaking of MIT, do you have any idea how strong its liberal arts programs are? It's Econ, Political Science, Linguistics and Philosophy are top rated if not #1. Besides, many TJ grads do go for liberal arts, tech is not the only choice for everyone who goes to TJ.

+1

I know a girl who went in to TJ planning to become a doctor, discovered a passion for economics there and is now doing her undergrad in the subject.

[Anonymous]

While I have no dog in this fight, it's clearly true that the academic profile of the typical TJ student is higher than that of the typical Big 3 student. It's also true that there's not a kid at TJ who couldn't cut it at the Big 3 but not vice-versa.

Yes, admissions criteria are different and not every TJ student would have been admitted to the Big 3. But they all probably deserve to be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I have no dog in this fight, it's clearly true that the academic profile of the typical TJ student is higher than that of the typical Big 3 student. It's also true that there's not a kid at TJ who couldn't cut it at the Big 3 but not vice-versa.

Yes, admissions criteria are different and not every TJ student would have been admitted to the Big 3. But they all probably deserve to be.

Yeah, sounds like you have no dog in this fight whatsoever!

There are one-dimensional math/science geniuses at schools like TJ and Blair who are terrible at the humanities and social sciences. I was good friends with many such people. So it's not clear to me at all that they'd easily cut it at a Big 3 to the extent that the standards for being more academically well-rounded are higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I have no dog in this fight, it's clearly true that the academic profile of the typical TJ student is higher than that of the typical Big 3 student. It's also true that there's not a kid at TJ who couldn't cut it at the Big 3 but not vice-versa.

Yes, admissions criteria are different and not every TJ student would have been admitted to the Big 3. But they all probably deserve to be.

Yeah, sounds like you have no dog in this fight whatsoever!

There are one-dimensional math/science geniuses at schools like TJ and Blair who are terrible at the humanities and social sciences. I was good friends with many such people. So it's not clear to me at all that they'd easily cut it at a Big 3 to the extent that the standards for being more academically well-rounded are higher.

If recent proliferation admission counseling, admission scandals and counselors quitting in frustration tell us anything that is, the phrase "well rounded" is a myth. Not every kid at either Big 3 or TJ will come out well rounded. Heck I know 99% of adults are not well rounded and these are just high school kids we are talking about. TJ kids are brilliant and they stick to science and Math because they love it. That does not mean they are not good at anything else. Following post pretty much says all that one needs to know about the quality of students and academics at the Big 3.

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/30/799531.page

"I’ll offer direct experience from a decade plus working at one of the top terminal 8 private’s that regularly feeds to a full range of DC metro Highs schools: public, private, parochial - including many to the elite private’s and “Big 3.” It is absolutely the case that the elites regularly admit less qualified, full paying applicants over more highly qualified FA applicants. Every year I see it first hand in the families and students I serve - exceptional candidates are put on WLs when strong but less qualified applicants from full pay families are admitted. I have even benefitted from this with my own children as ours is a full pay family and my children have been admitted with strong but not as stellar profiles from some of their classmates who are waitlisted and the only factor can be FA. Our HOS who manages the outplacement program regularly advises families that if admittance to an elite is a priority that they should do everything possible to avoid applying for FA, except if they represent a stellar candidate with diversity on multiple fronts. This isn’t urban myth, and I won’t even pass judgement other than offer the direct observation - and reflect that it’s the practical side of the private school funding model."

[Anonymous]

Your original claim was that all TJ kids could cut it at a Big 3. Not most, or even some. And the prior post provides little to no proof of that. Being good at math and science doesn't preclude a TJ kid from being good at other things, but I have firsthand knowledge of STEM magnet kids who are great at those subjects only and terrible elsewhere. Are they representative? Of course not. But there are lots of them.
And despite being one-dimensional, they'll accomplish great things in life. Don't make them out to be something that they're not, though.

[Anonymous]

While the average math score on the SAT for TJ of 770 is higher than the verbal, the verbal average of 733 is at least as high as the average for any of the Big 3. So I'm not sure where all this "one dimensional" stuff is coming from unless one dimensional is the right word to describe someone who is out of this world talented in one area while merely extraordinary in the other.

No Big 3 school comes close to an average score of 1503 on the SAT.