TJ College Admissions Results

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
For the same level of effort, a kid going to base HS will have far better college outcomes relative to TJ, but a kid going to TJ will get a far better, superior education. MY DC and (several others) breezed through at least sophomore year at top OOS schools, most maintaining 4.0 GPAs. Def. not possible for a kid out of base HS because they don't lay the same foundation. But comparable kids (kids that chose not to go to TJ and kids that were waitlisted but didn't quite make the cut) who went to base HS, mostly got into ivies/T20 schools, which the TJ kids struggled to get into. Pick your poison based on your kid. Mine would not have worked as hard at base as he did at TJ. If your's is like that, TJ is better. If yours is self-driven, motivated, has initiative, etc. base might work out. They will have more time to do all the EC nonsense, start clubs that don't exist, etc. and 'pretty up' their profiles for the college admissions process, more difficult to do at TJ.

OP here. Thank you for sharing your experience. Our goal is for kids to be in a high school and college environment where they are intellectually challenged, stimulated and also have time to be kids, understanding that high school and college both aren't end games in and of themselves but stepping stones. Appreciate your insights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you get to TJ, college really doesn't matter. These kids are best of the best.

Respectfully disagree. I think high school is important, and college is important too. I am not saying the colleges have to be the prestigious colleges or anything. They are both important time periods that influence the kids' development.

Younger is always more important in a child's development, because that is when the brain is developing the most. And high school is particularly important due to the onset of puberty. If your kid is going to be surrounded by a bunch of overly emotional, hormonal teenagers, it's better to be around those that are intelligent, ambitious, have better emotional control and cognizant of the consequences of stupid decisions.

The best students at TJHSST end up at Stanford, MIT and the like. The best students at base high schools end up at UVA, and perhaps the top 10-15 schools if they are truly exception or have a hook.

The ones at TJHSST complaining about not getting into UVA and VT simply would not have gotten in if they went to their base high schools anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
For the same level of effort, a kid going to base HS will have far better college outcomes relative to TJ, but a kid going to TJ will get a far better, superior education. MY DC and (several others) breezed through at least sophomore year at top OOS schools, most maintaining 4.0 GPAs. Def. not possible for a kid out of base HS because they don't lay the same foundation. But comparable kids (kids that chose not to go to TJ and kids that were waitlisted but didn't quite make the cut) who went to base HS, mostly got into ivies/T20 schools, which the TJ kids struggled to get into. Pick your poison based on your kid. Mine would not have worked as hard at base as he did at TJ. If your's is like that, TJ is better. If yours is self-driven, motivated, has initiative, etc. base might work out. They will have more time to do all the EC nonsense, start clubs that don't exist, etc. and 'pretty up' their profiles for the college admissions process, more difficult to do at TJ.

I have a hard time believing base school kids are getting into the Ivies at any significant proportion higher than their TJHSST peer when lookin at the list of admits into TJ vs. the base schools.

The only real challenge comes from other kids, who yes are more ambitious and therefore more competitive in club positions and what not. But getting into varsity sports at TJHSST is much easier than base schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
For the same level of effort, a kid going to base HS will have far better college outcomes relative to TJ, but a kid going to TJ will get a far better, superior education. MY DC and (several others) breezed through at least sophomore year at top OOS schools, most maintaining 4.0 GPAs. Def. not possible for a kid out of base HS because they don't lay the same foundation. But comparable kids (kids that chose not to go to TJ and kids that were waitlisted but didn't quite make the cut) who went to base HS, mostly got into ivies/T20 schools, which the TJ kids struggled to get into. Pick your poison based on your kid. Mine would not have worked as hard at base as he did at TJ. If your's is like that, TJ is better. If yours is self-driven, motivated, has initiative, etc. base might work out. They will have more time to do all the EC nonsense, start clubs that don't exist, etc. and 'pretty up' their profiles for the college admissions process, more difficult to do at TJ.

I have a hard time believing base school kids are getting into the Ivies at any significant proportion higher than their TJHSST peer when lookin at the list of admits into TJ vs. the base schools.

The only real challenge comes from other kids, who yes are more ambitious and therefore more competitive in club positions and what not. But getting into varsity sports at TJHSST is much easier than base schools.

About 5-15 kids get into Ivies, Stanford, MIT from top non-TJ FCPS schools (maybe slightly more from McLean or Langley). Most of those kids are TJ calibre but may or may not have gotten into comparable schools had they gone to TJ, because the competition is a lot tougher.

So yeah.. as a proportion of the student cohort, it's a lot less but a TJ kid in the top 20% could be one of those kids that gets into the elite schools from a base HS, mainly because they have more time to 'play the admissions game' - ECs, leadership, sham charities, etc. TJ is draining especially if you play a sport at any level above rec. You won' t have a lot of time to dedicate to other pursuits.

Also varsity sports doesn't count for much in college admissions, especially at tippy top schools, unless you are being recruited for the sport.

[Anonymous]

Page 19 College destination for TJHSST class of 2022. Some kids get multiple acceptances obviously that data is not available here.

https://issuu.com/tjtoday/docs/senior_issue_2022_combined

[Anonymous]

Dang that’s impressive

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hear getting into UVA, VT is really tough from TJ. A large majority of TJ kids go out of state (with parents footing the bill!)

I believe TJ students overall get more academic scholarship money than any other high school. And look at the schools a lot of kids are going to OOS. They are quite good.

TJ sent 49 to UVA in 2022. That is very likely the highest of any high school in the country. Virginia Tech was only 7. I think that had more to do with students choosing to go elsewhere.

https://issuu.com/tjtoday/docs/senior_issue_2022_combined

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you get to TJ, college really doesn't matter. These kids are best of the best.

The statistics beg to differ. Tthe majority of TJ students land in state where there are 0 elite STEM schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear getting into UVA, VT is really tough from TJ. A large majority of TJ kids go out of state (with parents footing the bill!)

I believe TJ students overall get more academic scholarship money than any other high school. And look at the schools a lot of kids are going to OOS. They are quite good.

TJ sent 49 to UVA in 2022. That is very likely the highest of any high school in the country. Virginia Tech was only 7. I think that had more to do with students choosing to go elsewhere.

https://issuu.com/tjtoday/docs/senior_issue_2022_combined

More students attend Cornell, CMU, NYU, Michigan, MIT, UMD, Purdue, UIUC, Chicago and Georgetown THAN VT. That's messed up. Either VT has completely different priorities than bringing in the best students from the state or not seen very favorably at TJHSST.

[Anonymous]

Based on the link, the best TJ kids are doing great and even the average kids have better-than-average results. Congrats! However, based on the limited TJ kids we know, many of the best results come in the RD round, not ED or EA. For those in the know, is that fair/true?

[Anonymous]

Very impressive results for class of 2022. Wishing class of 2023 good luck for upcoming results!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Very impressive results for class of 2022. Wishing class of 2023 good luck for upcoming results!

+1 Super impressive!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear getting into UVA, VT is really tough from TJ. A large majority of TJ kids go out of state (with parents footing the bill!)

I believe TJ students overall get more academic scholarship money than any other high school. And look at the schools a lot of kids are going to OOS. They are quite good.

TJ sent 49 to UVA in 2022. That is very likely the highest of any high school in the country. Virginia Tech was only 7. I think that had more to do with students choosing to go elsewhere.

https://issuu.com/tjtoday/docs/senior_issue_2022_combined

More students attend Cornell, CMU, NYU, Michigan, MIT, UMD, Purdue, UIUC, Chicago and Georgetown THAN VT. That's messed up. Either VT has completely different priorities than bringing in the best students from the state or not seen very favorably at TJHSST.

I think the issue at Tech is that TJ students view them as a safety, particularly for CS, and Tech knows the story. If a kid is at TJ and really wants to go to Tech for CS they probably need to ED.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on the link, the best TJ kids are doing great and even the average kids have better-than-average results. Congrats! However, based on the limited TJ kids we know, many of the best results come in the RD round, not ED or EA. For those in the know, is that fair/true?

I’m curious about this too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hear getting into UVA, VT is really tough from TJ. A large majority of TJ kids go out of state (with parents footing the bill!)

I believe TJ students overall get more academic scholarship money than any other high school. And look at the schools a lot of kids are going to OOS. They are quite good.

TJ sent 49 to UVA in 2022. That is very likely the highest of any high school in the country. Virginia Tech was only 7. I think that had more to do with students choosing to go elsewhere.

https://issuu.com/tjtoday/docs/senior_issue_2022_combined

That's where people are attending. Just imagine how many acceptances they each got!