Entering TJ as a sophomore vs. as a freshman

[Anonymous]

do you know anyone accepted this year for Sophomore? do you know the acceptance rate this year? do they need to write SPS Essay at their own time not like an exam?

[Anonymous]

do you know anyone accepted this year for Sophomore? do you know the acceptance rate this year? do they need to write SPS Essay at their own time not like an exam?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's incredibly difficult to get in as a sophomore - consequently, the kids who do it are usually very well-prepared and honestly relieved to be out of the base school environment.

The hardest transition is in science. People usually think it's math, but the way TJ goes about teaching science is a far bigger delta from what you get at a base school.

Really? I would expect no more than 45 kids apply. If that is true, then 15 out of those 45 are selected, which is 33% acceptance rate. Seems easier. Also, seems like the JMO and like kids settle in Langley and Mclean and are not interested in TJ any more.

New poster.

Acceptance rate is not really a good way to determine how difficult the admissions are for several reasons - cohort of students applying for freshman vs sophomore are quite different.

Sophomore admissions are evaluated by TJ faculty and a big component of the admissions is recommendations letters. Teacher input is quite specific and the bar is high for admission. This is understandable, why take a student who is doing very well in school already (if not doing well, recommendation ding the student) and put them in a school that is much more rigorous?

TJ faculty knows why type of student would do well in TJ.

What this ends up doing is, most sophomore admits would be in the top 10% of the class.

I have a limited sample of students who have gone through this, including DC but that has been our experience.

I do understand why someone who is doing so well would just not want to change. We went through that as well.

New poster as well. I agree with this 100%.

I know several kids who are froshmores and pretty much all of them are in the top 10% at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How challenging would it be to adapt to TJ curriculum as an entering Sophomore after missing out on the acclimatization that the freshman year provides? Conversely, what are the upsides to joing as a sophomore?

In our experience, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. We worried exactly like you but all the froshmores that we are familiar with are doing really well and none had any issue.

[Anonymous]

I think the school takes aims to select strong kids for froshmore acceptances since it’s no joke to start without the ramp up on 9th.