TJ parents - would your kid do it again? Best tips for success for a positive experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dont colleges know that a 4.0 (w) from TJ is equivalent to a 4.5 or so from a non -TJ HS?

I've yet to meet a college that cares about anything except your unweighted GPA.

Much of the TJ class manages to keep the unweighted GPA above 3.0, there may be fewer than 5 to 10% that go below that. college admissions dont compare TJ to non-TJ, instead they compare one TJ applicant to another TJ applicant. So it is better to be in the top half of the class to begin with and stay there.

Honestly, I don't know that this is true. Maybe. MIT's admission process felt very check-the-box when the Tech did a deep dove into the process. How could it not be? 10K applications to sort through? It was a scoring rubric of test scores and GPA and either you were competitive or you weren't. If you weren't they didnt look at your application and it was discarded. These days the average MIT GPA is 3.97? SAT math 800? 1590 average? Very little margin for less than perfect.

These days getting into MIT is truly a lottery. Better or worse grades are not a factor. Don't kid yourself. Or your DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The experience is amazing but the grading is extremely tough and inspite of being the brightest kids, unfortunately it puts them at a disadvantage during Grading and then college admissions. Its a little unfair that students of regular High schools get higher grades due to relatively easier course material and grading, while the brighters ones at TJ struggle . So yes if experience is all you are looking for, its amazing. But if we had to do it all over again, no we wound not. The pressue on the kids and the impact during the college application process is not worth it

+1 thank you for your honesty and perspective.

[Anonymous]

Yes - would definitely do it over, given the many opportunities.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC is half way through and I’m positive if they had the choice to make again they would still decide to go. Much better “fit” than our base school was vibe-wise and in terms of the intensity of academics. Plus DC likely would not have made the HS team for their sport whereas at TJ they are a varsity team member so that’s been a fun experience.

Tips - get involved in a more time intensive EC right away fall semester. Band, sport, one of the academic ECs that meets more often - anything to see the same group of people multiple times a week for a bit. It will help with the friendship jump.

For Math (Research statistics at first) it is not uncommon to have teachers that don’t really teach it directly. Anticipate this and plan to find other kids to work with for problem solving.

For the love of all things holy do not take Spanish at TJ. It is very hard.

Knock out a class the summer before freshman year such as PE. If your kid wants to do band or orchestra it will make it a lot easier to fit things in.

What about French 3?

[Anonymous]

Parent of a TJ graduate and they would most definitely do it again! Very involved in their EC's, had a well-rounded social life and now in a STEM major at a T10. They were the very reason, IMO, TJ exists - very smart, STEM oriented and academically focused. Only B they got was in Spanish. You've been warned.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a TJ sr. My DC has had a very good and fun high school experience and would do it again. I'm more mixed about it, mainly because of the college outcome, although that wasn't the main driver to attend the school in the first place. It's not true that only the bottom half don't have good outcomes. Even the 4.4, 1550+ don't have great outcomes. It's definitely a disadvantage to be associated with TJ. Not sure if it's because of the politically-charged nature of the school, prejudice or what, but there's no denying it. In any event, DC feels really good about their final choice, so I'm happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The experience is amazing but the grading is extremely tough and inspite of being the brightest kids, unfortunately it puts them at a disadvantage during Grading and then college admissions. Its a little unfair that students of regular High schools get higher grades due to relatively easier course material and grading, while the brighters ones at TJ struggle . So yes if experience is all you are looking for, its amazing. But if we had to do it all over again, no we wound not. The pressue on the kids and the impact during the college application process is not worth it

If you have a non senior- this is not necessarily true. Our FCPS HS does not grade inflate at all. I know this if true bc a friend who has 2 kids there and 1 at TJ said the non TJ HS grades harshly and unforgivingly.

[Anonymous]

What is the social scene like there? The school is a little farther away than I'm comfortable with. Middle to western high school area of Fairfax thinking about attending.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dont colleges know that a 4.0 (w) from TJ is equivalent to a 4.5 or so from a non -TJ HS?

Maybe at UVA, but some young admissions assistant in another state won't necessarily know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dont colleges know that a 4.0 (w) from TJ is equivalent to a 4.5 or so from a non -TJ HS?

Maybe at UVA, but some young admissions assistant in another state won't necessarily know.

If you don’t know what TJ (and Stuyvesant, and Bronx Science, and Masterman, and so on) is/are, you are not making decisions in a college admissions office of any significance.

[Anonymous]

I'm no sure.

If your kid is likely to win national science fairs or international math competitions, go for it.

If your kid is just really smart, they might be better off being at the top of their base high school. Life will be more relaxed for the whole family.

At TJ my kid was a NMSF but was one of about 150. While she would have been at star elsewhere, she was middle of the pack at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dont colleges know that a 4.0 (w) from TJ is equivalent to a 4.5 or so from a non -TJ HS?

Maybe at UVA, but some young admissions assistant in another state won't necessarily know.

If you don’t know what TJ (and Stuyvesant, and Bronx Science, and Masterman, and so on) is/are, you are not making decisions in a college admissions office of any significance.

If you go over to the private school forum, they think all their schools are extra special too. I made the comment because another TJ parent found some of the big California universities didn't seem to know much about the rigor of TJ's curriculum. Some international universities we visited didn't know TJ from Podunk High.

I bet the CA admissions people know all about Lowell, Whitney and Harvard Westlake though.

[Anonymous]

I also feel like they might miss out on other opportunities such as spending time with family or working at a job after school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm no sure.

If your kid is likely to win national science fairs or international math competitions, go for it.

If your kid is just really smart, they might be better off being at the top of their base high school. Life will be more relaxed for the whole family.

At TJ my kid was a NMSF but was one of about 150. While she would have been at star elsewhere, she was middle of the pack at TJ.

Being middle of the pack at TJ definitely still has benefits later in life. Got my sibling a super great internship after law school - literally having TJ on the resume was the thing that pushed the application over the edge. Came up in every job interview I've ever had, too. Yes, all on the east coast, but I never wanted to live out in CA so that doesn't matter.

[Anonymous]

You would be surprised but everyone knows TJ that is making these types of decisions.