TJ for a self motivated kid?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By good grades you mean a 4.0?

Yes. That is the grade they world earn at their base school with much less effort.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS saying he would like to apply to TJ. Grades are good.
I am hesitant due to my perception that students are expected to self learn and due to a high pressure environment. What has been your child’s experience with this?

There's ~3000 applicants for 550 spots. It's not super selective.

The pressure is real. They need to be a more mature student that learns the material at home and goes to classes for review is real (at least in some of the stem classes, they go a mile a minute and if you are relying on classroom instruction for learning, you will drown).

I think my kid would have been marginally happier at his base school, he world have had a better gpa at his base school, he would have an easier time with the Virginia State colleges from his base school... but he is MUCH better prepared for college, he got to stay on the varsity team in his sport as a freshman, he is making friends and his peers are all pretty motivated.

No! Not at all!!

There is absolutely no need to learn the material beforehand at home. This is the most unambiguous indication that the child is not a good fit for TJ.

And this is exactly what Curie encourages and that is how it hinders the child. By exposing the material beforehand, you are short-circuiting the discovery process, which is very important for the student to retain and understand the material in depth.

What is Curie? Is it an fcps program?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS saying he would like to apply to TJ. Grades are good.
I am hesitant due to my perception that students are expected to self learn and due to a high pressure environment. What has been your child’s experience with this?

There's ~3000 applicants for 550 spots. It's not super selective.

The pressure is real. They need to be a more mature student that learns the material at home and goes to classes for review is real (at least in some of the stem classes, they go a mile a minute and if you are relying on classroom instruction for learning, you will drown).

I think my kid would have been marginally happier at his base school, he world have had a better gpa at his base school, he would have an easier time with the Virginia State colleges from his base school... but he is MUCH better prepared for college, he got to stay on the varsity team in his sport as a freshman, he is making friends and his peers are all pretty motivated.

No! Not at all!!

There is absolutely no need to learn the material beforehand at home. This is the most unambiguous indication that the child is not a good fit for TJ.

And this is exactly what Curie encourages and that is how it hinders the child. By exposing the material beforehand, you are short-circuiting the discovery process, which is very important for the student to retain and understand the material in depth.

What is Curie? Is it an fcps program?

It's a teaching philosophy that TJ subscribes heavily to. Especially in math, English and engineering. Lots of group projects, group teaching, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
What is Curie? Is it an fcps program?

Curie is a $3000+ a year private coaching class in the Herndon area which promises accelerated learning by staying a grade or 2 ahead of the curve. They would like kids to enroll as middle schoolers or even earlier... I saw a mailer from them encouraging Kindergarteners to join! Kids are expected to invest 8+ hours a week in classes and homework in the name of TJ prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
What is Curie? Is it an fcps program?

Curie is a $3000+ a year private coaching class in the Herndon area which promises accelerated learning by staying a grade or 2 ahead of the curve. They would like kids to enroll as middle schoolers or even earlier... I saw a mailer from them encouraging Kindergarteners to join! Kids are expected to invest 8+ hours a week in classes and homework in the name of TJ prep.

Its not for TJ prep. There is a $300 TJ module in the summer before 8th grade but it is like kumon.

People don't like it because they have an almost exclusively Indian clientele and Indians are the model minority of the month. They are the immigrants working their assets off. And they are the ones taking all the academic spots. They're hungry for opportunity and they are strivers (which somehow became a derogatory term on this board).

They will ease of the accelerator in a generation or two when they feel more secure about their place in this country and then the next wave of immigrants will become the vilified model minority.

- 2nd generation East Asian.

[Anonymous]

Curie is basically a FOMO class for Indians. Almost everyone I know enrolled their kids there because, everyone on the street enrolled their kids there and they are afraid their kid would be left behind.

Curie is the single most effective way to kill interest in a subject for children. But most of these parents just came straight from small towns in India directly to job here, stayed in an ethnic enclave and were just replicating the wrote learning they were used to back home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curie is basically a FOMO class for Indians. Almost everyone I know enrolled their kids there because, everyone on the street enrolled their kids there and they are afraid their kid would be left behind.

Curie is the single most effective way to kill interest in a subject for children. But most of these parents just came straight from small towns in India directly to job here, stayed in an ethnic enclave and were just replicating the wrote learning they were used to back home.

I disagree with this dismissive attitude towards repetition. Sufficient repetition and drilling allows a B+ student to simulate the performance of an A or A minus student. If it can be achieved through hard work, a lot of these Indiana kids will achieve it. I begrudge them nothing. They earned it

We need them. They are the ones that will be driving the frontiers of science and technology. They are the ones that will be filling the coffers of the social security trust fund and creating the industries that will provide good paying jobs for average Americans. It's not going to be the kids that spent their youth in travel sports but can't get through calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Curie is basically a FOMO class for Indians. Almost everyone I know enrolled their kids there because, everyone on the street enrolled their kids there and they are afraid their kid would be left behind.

Curie is the single most effective way to kill interest in a subject for children. But most of these parents just came straight from small towns in India directly to job here, stayed in an ethnic enclave and were just replicating the wrote learning they were used to back home.

Curie has very difficult curriculum, and only a third successfully complete it. It's okay if your kid wasn't one of them, there’s always something less rigorous like kumon. No need to envy others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curie is basically a FOMO class for Indians. Almost everyone I know enrolled their kids there because, everyone on the street enrolled their kids there and they are afraid their kid would be left behind.

Curie is the single most effective way to kill interest in a subject for children. But most of these parents just came straight from small towns in India directly to job here, stayed in an ethnic enclave and were just replicating the wrote learning they were used to back home.

Curie has very difficult curriculum, and only a third successfully complete it. It's okay if your kid wasn't one of them, there’s always something less rigorous like kumon. No need to envy others.

LOL

None of the Curie kids were in the Top 5% at TJ this year. And fully one third of the class had gone to TJ. That tells everything you need to know.

[Anonymous]

Correction:

And fully one third of the class at TJ had gone to Curie.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curie is basically a FOMO class for Indians. Almost everyone I know enrolled their kids there because, everyone on the street enrolled their kids there and they are afraid their kid would be left behind.

Curie is the single most effective way to kill interest in a subject for children. But most of these parents just came straight from small towns in India directly to job here, stayed in an ethnic enclave and were just replicating the wrote learning they were used to back home.

Curie has very difficult curriculum, and only a third successfully complete it. It's okay if your kid wasn't one of them, there’s always something less rigorous like kumon. No need to envy others.

LOL

None of the Curie kids were in the Top 5% at TJ this year. And fully one third of the class had gone to TJ. That tells everything you need to know.

Just one third? More like half end up at TJ. But then hundreds quit early on unable to handle the workload.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Curie is basically a FOMO class for Indians. Almost everyone I know enrolled their kids there because, everyone on the street enrolled their kids there and they are afraid their kid would be left behind.

Curie is the single most effective way to kill interest in a subject for children. But most of these parents just came straight from small towns in India directly to job here, stayed in an ethnic enclave and were just replicating the wrote learning they were used to back home.

Curie has very difficult curriculum, and only a third successfully complete it. It's okay if your kid wasn't one of them, there’s always something less rigorous like kumon. No need to envy others.

LOL

None of the Curie kids were in the Top 5% at TJ this year. And fully one third of the class had gone to TJ. That tells everything you need to know.

How do you know which kids are the curie kids?

There are definitely Indian kids in the top 5%

And definitely Indian kids going to hypsm and ivy+