Rigor at TJ compared to regular FCPS high Schools
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Anonymous
| Many students who don't get into TJ take many AP/DE classes instead. Many TJ grads who miss the most elite colleges end up at small Honors programs at UVA across the country. They do great and only braggy parents suffer. |
Anonymous
You chose not to include Marshall and Robinson. Those are not low SES schools. |
Anonymous
If you want to retype the entire list from the link, go ahead knock yourself off. The question remains, why the disparity in IB vs. AP program offering? |
Anonymous
Because a lot of white people don’t like to send their kids to school with brown kids—no matter how liberal they think they are. Having an IB program not only serves the students in the school but attracts other people to the school who want the IB program vs AP. |
Anonymous
LOL. It’s more like some want to keep the IB program because it gives them the option to pupil place their kids out of low performing IB schools to higher performing schools like Langley and Lake Braddock. |
Anonymous
Racial allegation doesn't seem logical. Doesn't the School Board and FCPS Administration initially introduce both AP and IB programs at all high schools, then phase one or the other out at each school based on low student interest and poor enrollment? |
Anonymous
It’s not about “brown people” it’s about poor people. DD is at TJ; it’s at least half if not more “brown” (counting the many south Asian families as brown as they certainly have skin that matches that description) but obviously not something people are trying to avoid. It’s all about poverty levels not skin colors. |
Anonymous
When it comes to coursework, both regular high schools and TJ have minimum graduation requirements. While TJ's requirements are notably higher than those of a base HS, merely meeting the minimum won't obviously suffice at either schools. However, at TJ, the minimum math requirement is Calc AB, but most students go beyond that to take Calc BC and often pursue one or more advanced math courses. Given the potential for inflated GPAs and variations across schools, externally validated indicators like AP scores carry significant weight. Whether it's TJ or base HS, maintaining an overall GPA of 4 or higher is typically expected from competitive applicants. Whether it's a 4.0 or a 4.3, it doesn't make a significant difference. Colleges take into account whether students have challenged themselves with the most rigorous courses available at their respective schools. For TJ, this often means completing courses like AP Calc BC, AP Physics/Chem/Bio, AP Statistics, AP Lang, AP Lit, and four additional AP courses in humanities (e.g., history, macro/micro econ, gov), alongside electives. If a student from a regular high school manages to complete a similar number of AP courses and achieves similar scores, they can stand on equal footing with an above average TJ student, regardless of the rigor of coursework and grading at TJ. Strong AP scores can naturally drive higher SAT scores, which are also expected to be near perfect for competitive student. 1560 or 1600 is treated the same. Your question narrowly focuses on coursework, which constitutes only half of the college application. The next quarter of the application involves demonstrating in-depth study and passion through activities such as research publication, participation in national-level competitions, and relevant internships. Here, a TJ student, depending on their utilization of available opportunities and peer support, can differentiate themselves from a base high school student applicant. Nevertheless, if a base high school student manages to get their research paper published in a reputable journal, participates in or wins national/world-level competitions, and secures an internship at a prestigious institution like Google Research, they will surpass a TJ applicant lacking these credentials. The final quarter of the application makeup includes school team sports, volunteer work, extracurricular activities like clubs, team projects, recommendation letters, and personal essays, among others. TJ's advantage lies in its offering of over 80 clubs, with dedicated blocks for participation during school hours, giving its students an edge over base high school students who may need to figure out how to fit these activities into their after-school schedules. Leadership roles, club size, concrete work products, and publicly recognized accomplishments matter more than mere enrollment. The same applies to school sports and volunteer work. These achievements should be mentioned by by teacher, coach, and counselor recommendation letters and should be passionately addressed in the personal essay. When it comes to college admissions, all evidence shows that applicants primarily compete within their own racial classification, unfortunately. |
Anonymous
They're all the same. It's a standard program. I know that's not what your real estate agent told you but it's true. |
Anonymous
Those APs are not the most rigorous courses at TJ. My kid got 5s in all his APs without even trying. The post AP courses are the hard ones. TJ doesn't (or didn't) offer AP lit. Not many top students are going to bother with the econ APs or AP stats because they are taking more interesting post APs. I think people overestimate how much part time temp college application readers beyond this region understand about the rigor of TJ (or for that matter Sidwell or GDS). |
Anonymous
If you want facts, go look at the FCPS Profiles page with official test results for Langley and MV. The AP/IB pass rate percentages are essentially the same on average. Virginia Tech gives credit for Calculus 1 and 2 for IB Math Analysis just as it does for AP Calc BC, so the "AP is so much harder than IB" argument you're about to proclaim is moot. |
Anonymous
Our prior real estate agent kept encouraging us to move out of our Title 1 pyramid because she said the schools were bad. She wanted us to move to the Langley pyramid. We got a new real estate agent. Not that we have anything against Langley but we disagreed strongly that our schools were bad and were very happy with how are kids were doing and we love our neighborhood. Our kids are in college and high school now and we have no regrets. |
Anonymous
I agree that it is a poverty issue but it is largely Black and Hispanic people who face food insecurity. Look at the student populations at the Title 1 schools in Fairfax. |
Anonymous
I call shenanigans. The people who can afford Langley but instead choose Title 1 number around zero. |
Anonymous
Can you list all TJ courses your child found challenging? |