TJ College Admissions 2011

[Anonymous]

what is "legacy"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is HYPMS?

Harvard Yale Princeton MIT Stanford

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow!

how does this compare to langley, mclean, etc... - does anyone have college admission stats for the other high schools - it would be good to know as a comparison

You could compare the numbers to various local private schools using matriculationstats.org, but for comparisons to other public schools, you'd need to get list of where their seniors are going to schools. Here are the matriculationstats comparisons for some local private schools:

Ivy league schools:
22.1% NCS
21.2% StA
15.7% Maret
14.8% GDS
11.8% TJ
10.2% Holton
10.1% Potomac

HYPMS schools:
12.3% NCS
11.9% StA
9.7% TJ
9.6% Maret
8.3% GDS
6.8% Holton
4.2% Potomac

Where do you get these numbers for the privates? I'm very familiar with the class of 2011 and can't reconcile these percentages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2011 Destinations - (not all colleges listed)

Brown 3
Cal Tech 4
Carneige Mellon 14
William & Mary 56
Columbia 7
Cornell 13
Dartmouth 2
Duke 12
Georgetown 8
Harvard 6
MIT 13
Princeton 10
Rose Hulman 2
Stanford 7
West Point 2
Naval Academy 1
UC/Berkley 4
University of MD 5
University of PA 4
UVA 106
VA Tech 31
Washington Univ./St. Louis 5
Yale 7

Very impressive considering TJ students usually are hookless except for basic legacy [no VIP's, sports]. Pure academics.

[Anonymous]

Why do VIPs and other people who attended top colleges refuse to send children to TJ? And why can't TJ students excel at athletics? I don't understand.

[Anonymous]

Harvard, Yale, Princeton, MIT, Stanford.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do VIPs and other people who attended top colleges refuse to send children to TJ? And why can't TJ students excel at athletics? I don't understand.

Not many "VIPs" send their kids to TJ. They tend to go private and, if they have kids at public schools, there's a less than 50% chance they'll live in a jurisdiction in Virginia that allows local students to attend TJ, and an even smaller chance their kids will actually get admitted to TJ if they apply.

There are a fair number of people who attended top colleges who send their kids to TJ. Of course, many of those colleges were top universities in China, Korea and India.

There also student-athletes at TJ, but the boys tend to do better at individual sports like track, swimming and tennis than at group sports like football and basketball. The TJ girls teams usually do better than the boys' teams.

Your post sounded a bit trollish, so I apologize if you weren't looking for a serious answer.

[Anonymous]

I'm sorry you think I sound trollish. My questions are quite serious. I was a bit surprised that PP seemed to be grubbing for "extra credit" points on TJ's college admissions statistics, based on trumped up claims that TJ students lack certain advantages, so maybe what you heard was my annoyance.

I still don't understand some of the supposed disadvantages you describe. My thinking is below.

VIPs: Maybe we should agree on a working definition of "VIP." For college admission purposes, I think of a VIP as a very small group of parents who can get special consideration for their children in college admissions, usually by being able to donate something like $10-20 million or more to the college. That's not within the budget of your typical lawyer, doctor, college professor, or journalist sending children to private schools in DC. That kind of money is really only available to the top layer of tech and business leaders. And in this area, I see no reason why they would be less likely to live in McLean, VA than in Potomac, MD. Indeed, there was some TJ booster posting a week or two ago, who argued that all the major tech and business people in this area live in NoVa and send their children to TJ, while less-impressive offspring of lawyers and other parasites live in Bethesda/Potomac and attend weaker private schools. While I think she was being ridiculous, I'm sure McLean has its fair share of VIPs. And I don't understand your point about children of those VIPs being less likely to gain admission to TJ. It seems like those children will be blessed with whatever genetic advantage their intelligent and ambitious parents may have, and will be given every educational advantage money can buy, so I suspect they have a better-than-average chance of admission to TJ. Maybe I misunderstand you on this point.

Legacies from top US colleges: I hear your point that some TJ students have foreign educated parents. But I'm sure plenty have parents educated at US colleges. I see no reason graduates of schools like Harvard, Standford, Princeton, and MIT would be any less likely to live in McLean, VA than Potomac, MD. Do you think there is some reason parents who graduated from Ivy league colleges would avoid TJ for their children, and instead send them to other public/private schools in NoVa? I can't think of any reason that makes sense.

Athletics: Regardless of what sports the TJ students pursue, or how much better athletes the girls are than the boys, I don't see why a similar small percentage of TJ students might not be athletic recruits as other local schools. Certainly private schools like Maret and GDS, with comparable college admissions %s, are far from athletic powerhouses. So why do you think TJ faces some disadvantage in this regard? Indeed, with a relatively large senior class of 450+ kids, it seems to me that TJ would have a better chance of producing recruited athletes than some place like GDS, with only something like 100-120 in the senior class.

To be clear, I'm not trying to take anything at all away from TJ. Its college admission record is impressive. What I don't understand is PP's suggestion that TJ's statistics are somehow deflated as compared to other schools. The particular reasons just doesn't make sense to me. And also, I'm sure every school has its own particular advantages and disadvantages, so trying to justify any extra credit for one school seems an impossible task.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why do VIPs and other people who attended top colleges refuse to send children to TJ? And why can't TJ students excel at athletics? I don't understand.

you don't chose to "send" your kids to TJ. They pick you. Grades/scores/achievements in STEM and such may be a barrier to the folks you mentioned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do VIPs and other people who attended top colleges refuse to send children to TJ? And why can't TJ students excel at athletics? I don't understand.

you don't chose to "send" your kids to TJ. They pick you. Grades/scores/achievements in STEM and such may be a barrier to the folks you mentioned.

True that TJ has admissions criteria, but so do plenty of other schools. And grades/scores/achievements are no more a barrier to those VIPs and other parents from top colleges than to anyone else who might apply to TJ, correct? And perhaps less a barrier to the extent you believe either that (1) traits such as intelligence and ambition are inheritable via genetics or exposure to parents who exhibit these traits, or (2) high SES parents are more able to give their children certain advantages that often translate into higher educational achievement. I think both of those items are fairly well accepted by education researchers, so I'd be surprised if you reject them as factors. Also, they are consistent with the fact that TJ has perhaps the lowest FARMS % in all of Fairfax County.

I'm sure it's not your intent to suggest this, but I think some people subscribe to a myth about TJ that it's a hotbed of meritocracy filled with brilliant children from disadvantaged tenement housing. I'm not quite sure that's accurate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm sorry you think I sound trollish. My questions are quite serious. I was a bit surprised that PP seemed to be grubbing for "extra credit" points on TJ's college admissions statistics, based on trumped up claims that TJ students lack certain advantages, so maybe what you heard was my annoyance.

I still don't understand some of the supposed disadvantages you describe. My thinking is below.

VIPs: Maybe we should agree on a working definition of "VIP." For college admission purposes, I think of a VIP as a very small group of parents who can get special consideration for their children in college admissions, usually by being able to donate something like $10-20 million or more to the college. That's not within the budget of your typical lawyer, doctor, college professor, or journalist sending children to private schools in DC. That kind of money is really only available to the top layer of tech and business leaders. And in this area, I see no reason why they would be less likely to live in McLean, VA than in Potomac, MD. Indeed, there was some TJ booster posting a week or two ago, who argued that all the major tech and business people in this area live in NoVa and send their children to TJ, while less-impressive offspring of lawyers and other parasites live in Bethesda/Potomac and attend weaker private schools. While I think she was being ridiculous, I'm sure McLean has its fair share of VIPs. And I don't understand your point about children of those VIPs being less likely to gain admission to TJ. It seems like those children will be blessed with whatever genetic advantage their intelligent and ambitious parents may have, and will be given every educational advantage money can buy, so I suspect they have a better-than-average chance of admission to TJ. Maybe I misunderstand you on this point.

Legacies from top US colleges: I hear your point that some TJ students have foreign educated parents. But I'm sure plenty have parents educated at US colleges. I see no reason graduates of schools like Harvard, Standford, Princeton, and MIT would be any less likely to live in McLean, VA than Potomac, MD. Do you think there is some reason parents who graduated from Ivy league colleges would avoid TJ for their children, and instead send them to other public/private schools in NoVa? I can't think of any reason that makes sense.

Athletics: Regardless of what sports the TJ students pursue, or how much better athletes the girls are than the boys, I don't see why a similar small percentage of TJ students might not be athletic recruits as other local schools. Certainly private schools like Maret and GDS, with comparable college admissions %s, are far from athletic powerhouses. So why do you think TJ faces some disadvantage in this regard? Indeed, with a relatively large senior class of 450+ kids, it seems to me that TJ would have a better chance of producing recruited athletes than some place like GDS, with only something like 100-120 in the senior class.

To be clear, I'm not trying to take anything at all away from TJ. Its college admission record is impressive. What I don't understand is PP's suggestion that TJ's statistics are somehow deflated as compared to other schools. The particular reasons just doesn't make sense to me. And also, I'm sure every school has its own particular advantages and disadvantages, so trying to justify any extra credit for one school seems an impossible task.

I posted 17:16 and 17:18 (if I got the times wrong don't complain). It does appear that there are more Ivy educated parents at certain privates than TJ. What you have to consider is some families have a long legacy of Ivy and/or prepdom. Connections can be familial like a relative who is a VIPor alum. it isn't even immediate family. Among such families it is chichi to live in certain areas and many act like NOVA is a white trash nation. TJ's stats are honest representations of academics and most of the parents are well educated and intelligent. Most students at preps could not handle the average level classes at TJ.

[Anonymous]

From what I've read, TJ accepts around 16% of the applicants each year, give or take. So I do not understand the comment VIPs "refuse to send" their kids to TJ. It's kind of a moot point if they can't get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do VIPs and other people who attended top colleges refuse to send children to TJ? And why can't TJ students excel at athletics? I don't understand.

I'm sure it's not your intent to suggest this, but I think some people subscribe to a myth about TJ that it's a hotbed of meritocracy filled with brilliant children from disadvantaged tenement housing. I'm not quite sure that's accurate.

I don't know what their housing situation is, or why it matters, but why do you say it's a myth that TJ is a meritocracy? Admission is not based on merit (i.e., scores, grades and admission essays).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I posted 17:16 and 17:18 (if I got the times wrong don't complain). It does appear that there are more Ivy educated parents at certain privates than TJ. What you have to consider is some families have a long legacy of Ivy and/or prepdom. Connections can be familial like a relative who is a VIPor alum. it isn't even immediate family. Among such families it is chichi to live in certain areas and many act like NOVA is a white trash nation. TJ's stats are honest representations of academics and most of the parents are well educated and intelligent. Most students at preps could not handle the average level classes at TJ.

I'm not sure how you can possibly support your comparisons of the number of Ivy-educated parents, or your claim about how many students at other schools could handle an average level class at TJ.

I'm not sure what to make of your comments about how other people view NoVa, or how those issues relate to this discussion. It seems like we might be missing each other because you're more focused on subjective perceptions about various schools and neighborhoods, which I don't really track very well. I worry that we will not see eye-to-eye on any of this stuff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From what I've read, TJ accepts around 16% of the applicants each year, give or take. So I do not understand the comment VIPs "refuse to send" their kids to TJ. It's kind of a moot point if they can't get in.

Right, but why would you presume they can't get admitted? Kids of VIPs from McLean are just as likely to be smart as anyone else, right?