Any suggestion / advise from Ivy League students for TJ students
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Anonymous
They are a small percentage of participants that earn these awards. There are more in this area because there are entire Troops (through BSA and Girl Scouts) that are established to guide kids to Eagle or the Gold Award because it is recognized as one real way to stand out on an application. You might be aware of lots of kids who have achieved these ranks because you are on a specific forum that discusses acceleration, attendance of a competitive magnet school, and are concerned about kids attending an Ivy League school. We are involved in BSA and I promise you, Eagle is not easily achieved or achieved by most of the kids in our Troop. I can think of 3 Troops that we looked at who pretty much guarantee Eagle in 3-4 years but those are not the majority of the Troops, even in NoVA. |
Anonymous
+1 Good idea! |
Anonymous
+1 |
Anonymous
| Play football really well. Seriously. |
Anonymous
| Take care of your siblings, take a part time job, volunteer at local jail/prison, tutor inner city kids, set up a system to help struggling kids access and use ChatGPT for self improvements, homework etc. |
Anonymous
If Asian, start a blog on why we need 'DEI' and why 'AA' is necessary. |
Anonymous
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This is a question better suited for the college forum. Essentially, be realistic in your goals. Unless your child has won national/international competitions, are famous at that level, have elite achievements, etc., HYPSM are a lottery. If the child at TJ is say in the top 5% of that class, you may have a small advantage, but the odds are still very long.
Keeping this in mind, find safeties and targets your child will truly be happy with. There are lots of “lesser” colleges and universities that have exceptional programs in certain fields, prestigious honor colleges and scholarships, and those will give your child just as good an education as the more name drop worthy ones. |
Anonymous
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The best answer to this question is very simple:
No matter what your child does in high school, you should not expect that they will get into an Ivy League school. There are literally thousands of kids of all races and backgrounds every year who are turned down even though they are just as qualified (or perhaps more) as a kid of their race or background who did get in. These schools select kids who are going to add the most value to their university in whatever way they can. They're trying to get kids who will either donate to the university or inspire others to do so - it's really that simple. |
Anonymous
| Don’t go to TJ - seriously. Go to base school |
Anonymous
I know we need to get off the waitlist too! 
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Anonymous
Not on the waitlist. Heck didn’t even have younger sibling apply to TJ. Older sibling is at TJ. Better chances of getting into Ivy from base school than TJ. |
Anonymous
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Coming at it from the other end I never felt at my Ivy that kids who came from competitive public magnets ever had any advantage over other students except with respect to the math classes they were prepared to take as freshmen. In general the kids from those schools also contributed less to making the schools interesting places than students coming from other schools.
So the advice would be not to assume you’re that special because when you end up at a college or university - whether it’s an Ivy or Virginia Tech - you’re going to find out that’s really not the case. Just try to be the best version of yourself and aim for a soft landing when it turns out there are equally if not more talented kids who may have attended schools besides TJ, Stuyvesant, Lowell, etc. |
Anonymous
Except for the fact the TJ has much better admission stats than any base school. |
Anonymous
Shush! |
Anonymous
Unless you want to change your last name- I would stop obsessing over it. Find colleges with full free, merit based rides instead. Alabama is where a lot of my friends kids are looking at and I can’t blame them. They get a full ride in engineering, you get thousands of dollars you don’t need to spend. |