TJ and colleges

[Anonymous]

MIT has a lot of STEM drop-outs that move into Business; It's not just TJ. Its not the difficulty. Its the fact that you rate yourself with those around you - when you are used to being #1 all your life and suddenly are at the bottom then you drop out dejected. This same drop-out would've been the top of his class at other schools.

As per MIT difficulty, the stress is artificial. I had MIT and Berkeley professors come into GMU. They don't even hide it on the tests and quizzes they reused, they still had the original MIT course numbers labeled on them. The former MIT professor was hard but looking at the quiz and tests they weren't so out of reach. I don't think I would've fared well in terms of grading at MIT but passing with a low C would've been in-reach.

[Anonymous]

The students dropping out of college are the ones who probably shouldn't have been at TJ in the first place. The stories about dropouts from MIT and Caltech sound fake —most of the ones we hear about are from schools like JMU, GMU, etc. It's likely getting even worse now, with dropouts happening as early as freshman year at TJ itself. How many of the original TJ freshmen admitted in 2021-22 have dropped out and returned to base school? The number is significant, isn't it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Most of the kids at TJ are not getting into MIT. A few kids will get into each of the great schools. Even if every kid at TJ was an off the hook genius - MIT would only be taken three of them since they are all from the same school.

They took like 7 last year.

[Anonymous]

Yeah. It’s not just 3 at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a TJ kid who recently graduated from college. Not a scientific study, but from their friend group I don't know of one that dropped out. Most are getting/got graduate degrees. Maybe it's my kid and their friend group, but I'm still in touch with some parents and I'm not hearing this at all.

FWIW my kid went to a T10 (not MIT) majored in a STEM subject and said college was easier than TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Most of the kids at TJ are not getting into MIT. A few kids will get into each of the great schools. Even if every kid at TJ was an off the hook genius - MIT would only be taken three of them since they are all from the same school.

They took like 7 last year.

More kids from TJ get into T5 than the rest of FCPS combined. The new admissions policy means that this will get a bit more spread out but I wonder if FCPS as a whole sends more kids to T5 or fewer.