How important is TJ for college?

[Anonymous]

pp here. I would like to clarify. I was trying to say that if they are HYPSM material, they would be shoo-in for TJ and therefore, admissions officers would wonder why they didn't go to TJ if they had the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:pp here. I would like to clarify. I was trying to say that if they are HYPSM material, they would be shoo-in for TJ and therefore, admissions officers would wonder why they didn't go to TJ if they had the opportunity.

This is not true. There are many kids who are HYPS material who have no interest in pursuing STEM degrees. Why in the world would those kids go to TJ? And you are correct, admissions officers do know what TJ is like and what type of kids go there (especially now), so they don't assume every kid would want to go there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If you aim at UVA, TJ is a way to go. If your child is an average or below average at TJ (your class rank could be a lot better at a regular home base high school, then you may not get into your first choice.

We have 4 kids in our street who went to UVA. They did not go to tj.

In your street? Do you mean on your street?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If you aim at UVA, TJ is a way to go. If your child is an average or below average at TJ (your class rank could be a lot better at a regular home base high school, then you may not get into your first choice.

We have 4 kids in our street who went to UVA. They did not go to tj.

In your street? Do you mean on your street?

DP. i and o are next to each other so it could be a typo. Plus, I'm pretty sure you got her point

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If you aim at UVA, TJ is a way to go. If your child is an average or below average at TJ (your class rank could be a lot better at a regular home base high school, then you may not get into your first choice.

We have 4 kids in our street who went to UVA. They did not go to tj.

In your street? Do you mean on your street?

PP meant "In". She lives on Leperchaun avenue. All the men at UVA have beards..now you know why..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not important.

The big benefit of going to TJ is that kids around you have very high expectations for themselves and so the baseline expectation among peers is very high. Being in that kind of environment, where going to UVA is kind of average, can be good for some kids. It's an environment of positive examples and everyone living it. Now, if your kid is not up to that level academically then it can be detrimental. Thankfully where you are on that ladder of college exclusivity is not determined until middle of senior year.

So if you go to TJ, you aren't around HS drop outs. That might positively influence your child. Your child might work a little harder because everyone around them is. When they graduate, they have friends at Harvard, Yale, UVA (tons of people), William and Mary... college rate is around 99% and the 1% is due to people who do special things during gap year. When they are in their 30's they will know a ton of doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs.

Having access to specialized engineering classes is another benefit at TJ.

Now does going to TJ automatically get you in the better college for being the same kid that they would be at the base school? Absolutely not.

The majority of this post is everything that is wrong with the current obsession with TJ environment

Child should not go to TJ so the child will be pushed. The majority of schools in Fairfax county have at least one top class of people taking mostly honors/lots of AP which are full of motivated students as well.

Child will not be around high school dropouts in base school. High school has tracking and assuming your child is near the top see point 1

The only reason to go to TJ is a legitimate actual interest in STEM PERIOD

As others have stated the college admissions are generally the same TJ vs staying in base school and if anything its more harmful to go to TJ if you are bottom half of the class vs staying at base school you would probably still be top 10%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not important.

The big benefit of going to TJ is that kids around you have very high expectations for themselves and so the baseline expectation among peers is very high. Being in that kind of environment, where going to UVA is kind of average, can be good for some kids. It's an environment of positive examples and everyone living it. Now, if your kid is not up to that level academically then it can be detrimental. Thankfully where you are on that ladder of college exclusivity is not determined until middle of senior year.

So if you go to TJ, you aren't around HS drop outs. That might positively influence your child. Your child might work a little harder because everyone around them is. When they graduate, they have friends at Harvard, Yale, UVA (tons of people), William and Mary... college rate is around 99% and the 1% is due to people who do special things during gap year. When they are in their 30's they will know a ton of doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs.

Having access to specialized engineering classes is another benefit at TJ.

Now does going to TJ automatically get you in the better college for being the same kid that they would be at the base school? Absolutely not.

The majority of this post is everything that is wrong with the current obsession with TJ environment

Child should not go to TJ so the child will be pushed. The majority of schools in Fairfax county have at least one top class of people taking mostly honors/lots of AP which are full of motivated students as well.

Child will not be around high school dropouts in base school. High school has tracking and assuming your child is near the top see point 1

The only reason to go to TJ is a legitimate actual interest in STEM PERIOD

As others have stated the college admissions are generally the same TJ vs staying in base school and if anything its more harmful to go to TJ if you are bottom half of the class vs staying at base school you would probably still be top 10%

You are entitled to your opinion. But not every kid who is happy and successful at TJ is there for STEM PERIOD. My kid was all around bright and the fact he was not being challenged at Carson AAP definitely played a role. He knows kids who went on to SLHS and Chantilly and complain about these schools having a slow pace and being boring. Maybe it picks up in 11th with full IB and more AP options, but many kids are looking for the challenge.

As for my kid, he is losing interest in STEM and is talking about liberal arts for college. But he is adamant about not moving back to his base school, because he loves the peer group. Many parents and kids say that the highly motivated peers with a strong academic focus is the best part of TJ. I agree with this.

Fact is that all base schools do have some dropouts and kids not headed to college. TJ does not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not important.

The big benefit of going to TJ is that kids around you have very high expectations for themselves and so the baseline expectation among peers is very high. Being in that kind of environment, where going to UVA is kind of average, can be good for some kids. It's an environment of positive examples and everyone living it. Now, if your kid is not up to that level academically then it can be detrimental. Thankfully where you are on that ladder of college exclusivity is not determined until middle of senior year.

So if you go to TJ, you aren't around HS drop outs. That might positively influence your child. Your child might work a little harder because everyone around them is. When they graduate, they have friends at Harvard, Yale, UVA (tons of people), William and Mary... college rate is around 99% and the 1% is due to people who do special things during gap year. When they are in their 30's they will know a ton of doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs.

Having access to specialized engineering classes is another benefit at TJ.

Now does going to TJ automatically get you in the better college for being the same kid that they would be at the base school? Absolutely not.

The majority of this post is everything that is wrong with the current obsession with TJ environment

Child should not go to TJ so the child will be pushed. The majority of schools in Fairfax county have at least one top class of people taking mostly honors/lots of AP which are full of motivated students as well.

Child will not be around high school dropouts in base school. High school has tracking and assuming your child is near the top see point 1

The only reason to go to TJ is a legitimate actual interest in STEM PERIOD

As others have stated the college admissions are generally the same TJ vs staying in base school and if anything its more harmful to go to TJ if you are bottom half of the class vs staying at base school you would probably still be top 10%

You are entitled to your opinion. But not every kid who is happy and successful at TJ is there for STEM PERIOD. My kid was all around bright and the fact he was not being challenged at Carson AAP definitely played a role. He knows kids who went on to SLHS and Chantilly and complain about these schools having a slow pace and being boring. Maybe it picks up in 11th with full IB and more AP options, but many kids are looking for the challenge.

As for my kid, he is losing interest in STEM and is talking about liberal arts for college. But he is adamant about not moving back to his base school, because he loves the peer group. Many parents and kids say that the highly motivated peers with a strong academic focus is the best part of TJ. I agree with this.

Fact is that all base schools do have some dropouts and kids not headed to college. TJ does not.

That’s true, but if you are good enough to get into TJ, you would be good enough to take all AP classes and your peer group really wouldn’t be those drop outs anyway. TJ May even hurt your chances at he in state shcools bc of the invisible quotas.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not important.

The big benefit of going to TJ is that kids around you have very high expectations for themselves and so the baseline expectation among peers is very high. Being in that kind of environment, where going to UVA is kind of average, can be good for some kids. It's an environment of positive examples and everyone living it. Now, if your kid is not up to that level academically then it can be detrimental. Thankfully where you are on that ladder of college exclusivity is not determined until middle of senior year.

So if you go to TJ, you aren't around HS drop outs. That might positively influence your child. Your child might work a little harder because everyone around them is. When they graduate, they have friends at Harvard, Yale, UVA (tons of people), William and Mary... college rate is around 99% and the 1% is due to people who do special things during gap year. When they are in their 30's they will know a ton of doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs.

Having access to specialized engineering classes is another benefit at TJ.

Now does going to TJ automatically get you in the better college for being the same kid that they would be at the base school? Absolutely not.

The majority of this post is everything that is wrong with the current obsession with TJ environment

Child should not go to TJ so the child will be pushed. The majority of schools in Fairfax county have at least one top class of people taking mostly honors/lots of AP which are full of motivated students as well.

Child will not be around high school dropouts in base school. High school has tracking and assuming your child is near the top see point 1

The only reason to go to TJ is a legitimate actual interest in STEM PERIOD

As others have stated the college admissions are generally the same TJ vs staying in base school and if anything its more harmful to go to TJ if you are bottom half of the class vs staying at base school you would probably still be top 10%

You are entitled to your opinion. But not every kid who is happy and successful at TJ is there for STEM PERIOD. My kid was all around bright and the fact he was not being challenged at Carson AAP definitely played a role. He knows kids who went on to SLHS and Chantilly and complain about these schools having a slow pace and being boring. Maybe it picks up in 11th with full IB and more AP options, but many kids are looking for the challenge.

As for my kid, he is losing interest in STEM and is talking about liberal arts for college. But he is adamant about not moving back to his base school, because he loves the peer group. Many parents and kids say that the highly motivated peers with a strong academic focus is the best part of TJ. I agree with this.

Fact is that all base schools do have some dropouts and kids not headed to college. TJ does not.

Ok. But, in order to get into TJ, you have to claim/demonstrate interest in STEM. So what you are saying is your kid lied to get in to TJ. This is why I hate TJ. People will lie and cheat to get in. For what?

[Anonymous]

The academic environment is tougher at TJ than in AP classes at the base schools. That is enough for me to want my kid at TJ.
As far as "lying" about an interest in STEM, frankly I don't think kids in 8th grade should have already decided the academic path that they are likely to pursue. My DD "lied" about her interest but got in. Surprising to me, she seems interested in math and sciences and is doing well. I can't say I blame her for "lying" because that is what is required: it's simply marketing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an unhooked kid who wants to go to HYPSM, Caltech or top 5 SLAC and they do very well at TJ (almost 4.0 UW GPA, interesting extracurriculars/internship), then they will have a good chance at being able to get into one of those schools. If they perform the same at their base school, they will have a much smaller chance of getting into any of those schools. Those are the kids TJ makes a positive difference for as far as college admissions.

Conversely, there are kids who don't do well academically at TJ and their college admissions chances are probably hurt by going there - ie:they'd get into UVA at base school, but they won't at TJ unless they're in the top 50%

Either way, it's a tremendous school - college admissions shouldn't be the reason someone does or doesn't go there.

This is absolutely not true.

Yes, it is. It's what happened to my TJ kid who graduated with a 4.0 and got into a few of those colleges, while no one at the base HS (other than one URM & one recruited athlete) has been admitted to those schools in at least the last 3 years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an unhooked kid who wants to go to HYPSM, Caltech or top 5 SLAC and they do very well at TJ (almost 4.0 UW GPA, interesting extracurriculars/internship), then they will have a good chance at being able to get into one of those schools. If they perform the same at their base school, they will have a much smaller chance of getting into any of those schools. Those are the kids TJ makes a positive difference for as far as college admissions.

Conversely, there are kids who don't do well academically at TJ and their college admissions chances are probably hurt by going there - ie:they'd get into UVA at base school, but they won't at TJ unless they're in the top 50%

Either way, it's a tremendous school - college admissions shouldn't be the reason someone does or doesn't go there.

This is absolutely not true.

Yes, it is. It's what happened to my TJ kid who graduated with a 4.0 and got into a few of those colleges, while no one at the base HS (other than one URM & one recruited athlete) has been admitted to those schools in at least the last 3 years.

My unhookecd kid got into a HYPS school from a base school. From your logic my kid is much more impressive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not important.

The big benefit of going to TJ is that kids around you have very high expectations for themselves and so the baseline expectation among peers is very high. Being in that kind of environment, where going to UVA is kind of average, can be good for some kids. It's an environment of positive examples and everyone living it. Now, if your kid is not up to that level academically then it can be detrimental. Thankfully where you are on that ladder of college exclusivity is not determined until middle of senior year.

So if you go to TJ, you aren't around HS drop outs. That might positively influence your child. Your child might work a little harder because everyone around them is. When they graduate, they have friends at Harvard, Yale, UVA (tons of people), William and Mary... college rate is around 99% and the 1% is due to people who do special things during gap year. When they are in their 30's they will know a ton of doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs.

Having access to specialized engineering classes is another benefit at TJ.

Now does going to TJ automatically get you in the better college for being the same kid that they would be at the base school? Absolutely not.

The majority of this post is everything that is wrong with the current obsession with TJ environment

Child should not go to TJ so the child will be pushed. The majority of schools in Fairfax county have at least one top class of people taking mostly honors/lots of AP which are full of motivated students as well.

Child will not be around high school dropouts in base school. High school has tracking and assuming your child is near the top see point 1

The only reason to go to TJ is a legitimate actual interest in STEM PERIOD

As others have stated the college admissions are generally the same TJ vs staying in base school and if anything its more harmful to go to TJ if you are bottom half of the class vs staying at base school you would probably still be top 10%

You are entitled to your opinion. But not every kid who is happy and successful at TJ is there for STEM PERIOD. My kid was all around bright and the fact he was not being challenged at Carson AAP definitely played a role. He knows kids who went on to SLHS and Chantilly and complain about these schools having a slow pace and being boring. Maybe it picks up in 11th with full IB and more AP options, but many kids are looking for the challenge.

As for my kid, he is losing interest in STEM and is talking about liberal arts for college. But he is adamant about not moving back to his base school, because he loves the peer group. Many parents and kids say that the highly motivated peers with a strong academic focus is the best part of TJ. I agree with this.

Fact is that all base schools do have some dropouts and kids not headed to college. TJ does not.

Ok. But, in order to get into TJ, you have to claim/demonstrate interest in STEM. So what you are saying is your kid lied to get in to TJ. This is why I hate TJ. People will lie and cheat to get in. For what?

You don't need to "lie" about STEM to get into TJ. My DC wrote about how curing cancer is a dream because of how it impacted a family member. Other than that most of what was written about in the essays were leadership-type activities (love for sports and how it will make one a good leader, model UN, etc). In fact, DC never did any of the typical STEM activities - robotics, coding club, etc. We were surprised DC got in. It's a bit of a struggle but DC is doing reasonably well. So, no TJ is not only for STEM kids. Their focus is on STEM but you don't have to end up going to Engineering school or study the sciences after TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an unhooked kid who wants to go to HYPSM, Caltech or top 5 SLAC and they do very well at TJ (almost 4.0 UW GPA, interesting extracurriculars/internship), then they will have a good chance at being able to get into one of those schools. If they perform the same at their base school, they will have a much smaller chance of getting into any of those schools. Those are the kids TJ makes a positive difference for as far as college admissions.

Conversely, there are kids who don't do well academically at TJ and their college admissions chances are probably hurt by going there - ie:they'd get into UVA at base school, but they won't at TJ unless they're in the top 50%

Either way, it's a tremendous school - college admissions shouldn't be the reason someone does or doesn't go there.

This is absolutely not true.

Yes, it is. It's what happened to my TJ kid who graduated with a 4.0 and got into a few of those colleges, while no one at the base HS (other than one URM & one recruited athlete) has been admitted to those schools in at least the last 3 years.

My unhookecd kid got into a HYPS school from a base school. From your logic my kid is much more impressive.

Huh? I wasn't comparing kids - it has nothing to do with who is more or less impressive. It has to do with how colleges perceive the different high schools. You can see it on the scattergrams for some top colleges at TJ - they pay attention to TJ kids who have top GPAs, but they don't seem impressed by a 4.0 at our base HS. Kudos to your kid! Hope he's having a great college career!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not important.

The big benefit of going to TJ is that kids around you have very high expectations for themselves and so the baseline expectation among peers is very high. Being in that kind of environment, where going to UVA is kind of average, can be good for some kids. It's an environment of positive examples and everyone living it. Now, if your kid is not up to that level academically then it can be detrimental. Thankfully where you are on that ladder of college exclusivity is not determined until middle of senior year.

So if you go to TJ, you aren't around HS drop outs. That might positively influence your child. Your child might work a little harder because everyone around them is. When they graduate, they have friends at Harvard, Yale, UVA (tons of people), William and Mary... college rate is around 99% and the 1% is due to people who do special things during gap year. When they are in their 30's they will know a ton of doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs.

Having access to specialized engineering classes is another benefit at TJ.

Now does going to TJ automatically get you in the better college for being the same kid that they would be at the base school? Absolutely not.

The majority of this post is everything that is wrong with the current obsession with TJ environment

Child should not go to TJ so the child will be pushed. The majority of schools in Fairfax county have at least one top class of people taking mostly honors/lots of AP which are full of motivated students as well.

Child will not be around high school dropouts in base school. High school has tracking and assuming your child is near the top see point 1

The only reason to go to TJ is a legitimate actual interest in STEM PERIOD

As others have stated the college admissions are generally the same TJ vs staying in base school and if anything its more harmful to go to TJ if you are bottom half of the class vs staying at base school you would probably still be top 10%

You are entitled to your opinion. But not every kid who is happy and successful at TJ is there for STEM PERIOD. My kid was all around bright and the fact he was not being challenged at Carson AAP definitely played a role. He knows kids who went on to SLHS and Chantilly and complain about these schools having a slow pace and being boring. Maybe it picks up in 11th with full IB and more AP options, but many kids are looking for the challenge.

As for my kid, he is losing interest in STEM and is talking about liberal arts for college. But he is adamant about not moving back to his base school, because he loves the peer group. Many parents and kids say that the highly motivated peers with a strong academic focus is the best part of TJ. I agree with this.

Fact is that all base schools do have some dropouts and kids not headed to college. TJ does not.

Ok. But, in order to get into TJ, you have to claim/demonstrate interest in STEM. So what you are saying is your kid lied to get in to TJ. This is why I hate TJ. People will lie and cheat to get in. For what?

Nope. I’m saying that my kid did MS activities that appealed to him— debate and music. And genuinely throught he wanted to go into civil engineering leading to a career in “green” architecture— when he was 13. Knew a fair amount about architecture, had done camps, etc. So he talked about debate and music and his interest in architecture on the SIS and TJ accepted him. He’s very involved in music and debate. Decided at 16 that he doesn’t want to be an architect after all. He didn’t lie. He didn’t cheat. He didn’t curate some resume that was particularly STEM heavy. He did change his mind about his ultimate career goal from architect to having no idea. And I think that the TJ math department played a huge role in turning him off of Math, and therefore off of engineering.

There are college kids who have changed their majors 4 times and take 6 years to graduate while their parents say they are finding themselves. Are you really shocked that some kids don’t stick with their middle school career plans? He has STEM talent. He has science and tech interest. Loved math until TJ. But his interests are changing as he matures. That’s normal and healthy— not some big fraud.