Alexandria HSs

[Anonymous]

I went to TC and I didn't go to Yale or Jail...JMU baby! If your kid is motivated and you stay on top of them, like they would be at any school, they will be fine. My friends are all thriving- nothing to worry about. Just make sure you do GW for middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of threads about TC Williams if you search.

Summary: Lots of bashers and a few over-the-top boosters trying to overcompensate for the general poor reputation of the school. Kids CAN do well there, especially UMC white kids who are high-achievers. But they tend to live in a bubble at the school. And some cynically believe that somehow performing well at TC gives them a leg up on college admissions since it's a virtue to have "survived" the school.

What's 'cynical' about doing well in a HS of FOUR THOUSAND KIDS?

The viewpoint that it is something to have survived. Ie doing well DESPITE the environment not because of it.

It is something to be survived. It's basically a juvenile detention facility with a small corner carved out to educate the kids of the very few wealthy white families that actually send their kids there instead of private. You can attack that all you want and from any angle, but you know it's the truth.

Yes. I know. What I am saying is it doesn’t actually give anyone a leg up on college admissions

[Anonymous]

TC gets a lot of hate, but it has lots of potential for hard-working, self-motivated kids. So do the FCPS Alexandria high school.

[Anonymous]

*undeserved hate

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of threads about TC Williams if you search.

Summary: Lots of bashers and a few over-the-top boosters trying to overcompensate for the general poor reputation of the school. Kids CAN do well there, especially UMC white kids who are high-achievers. But they tend to live in a bubble at the school. And some cynically believe that somehow performing well at TC gives them a leg up on college admissions since it's a virtue to have "survived" the school.

What's 'cynical' about doing well in a HS of FOUR THOUSAND KIDS?

The viewpoint that it is something to have survived. Ie doing well DESPITE the environment not because of it.

It is something to be survived. It's basically a juvenile detention facility with a small corner carved out to educate the kids of the very few wealthy white families that actually send their kids there instead of private. You can attack that all you want and from any angle, but you know it's the truth.

How do you know you’re speaking the truth? Your kids go there?

Hell no. I wouldn't send my kids there. They did public grade school through middle school and then jumped to private, exactly what those in the know do.

Look, my claims are common knowledge. Ask the white kids that graduated from there. They'll tell you the same. Yale or Jail, baby. Yale or Jail.

Well, if your kids are in the Yale part of your equation, the what’s the problem? Did your kids end up at Yale?

I don't have a problem except when a bunch of head in the sand rich white housewives claim TC is just fine. It isn't. It's a shithole. And the kids that do survive it deserve more credit for their accomplishments than the kids from SSSAS, BI, EHS, ACDS, Burgundy, etc.

And no, my kids didn't go to (or apply to) Yale. Yale's over rated. It's only part of the phrase because it rhymes with jail.

I have one at Brown and another working on apps as we type.

First you tell me it’s me it’s Yale or jail—meaning it’s clearly working just fine for some folks—then you tell me it’s not just fine and it’s a shithole. Which one is it? I don’t have a kid in high school yet, but I can tell you this: I’d rather be the parent who has a kid going to Yale or Princeton (or the like) after graduating from TC than the parent who sends their kid to an HYP after spending over $100,000 on private school for 4 years.

[Anonymous]

I haven’t checked this, so I don’t know whether it’s true, but I had a mom tell me that T.C. has sent more kids to Princeton in the last three years than any other public school in NOVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t checked this, so I don’t know whether it’s true, but I had a mom tell me that T.C. has sent more kids to Princeton in the last three years than any other public school in NOVA.

Certainly not more than TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I haven’t checked this, so I don’t know whether it’s true, but I had a mom tell me that T.C. has sent more kids to Princeton in the last three years than any other public school in NOVA.

Certainly not more than TJ.

I can't imagine many more schools in the entire country getting more acceptances than TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lots of threads about TC Williams if you search.

Summary: Lots of bashers and a few over-the-top boosters trying to overcompensate for the general poor reputation of the school. Kids CAN do well there, especially UMC white kids who are high-achievers. But they tend to live in a bubble at the school. And some cynically believe that somehow performing well at TC gives them a leg up on college admissions since it's a virtue to have "survived" the school.

What's 'cynical' about doing well in a HS of FOUR THOUSAND KIDS?

The viewpoint that it is something to have survived. Ie doing well DESPITE the environment not because of it.

It is something to be survived. It's basically a juvenile detention facility with a small corner carved out to educate the kids of the very few wealthy white families that actually send their kids there instead of private. You can attack that all you want and from any angle, but you know it's the truth.

Yes. I know. What I am saying is it doesn’t actually give anyone a leg up on college admissions

There are so many colleges, with so many approaches to admissions, I would think its very hard to say that. I mean privates in general are a different world from Va publics, the elite privates that get lots of applicants from elite suburban high schools are different from those that don't, etc, etc.

anyway we know a bunch of kids who did fine at TCW and were not Ivy bound. As for the poor kids, is there any evidence that they do worse in life outcomes than poor kids at other high schools in the region?

[Anonymous]

http://www.acpsk12.org/news/?p=6182

20 to VCU. 5 to Mary Washington. 14 to George Mason.

and a whopping 139 to NoVa CC.

So clearly many who are not Yale or jail.

(and 2 to Princeton, but NONE to Yale )

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a problem except when a bunch of head in the sand rich white housewives claim TC is just fine. It isn't. It's a shithole. And the kids that do survive it deserve more credit for their accomplishments than the kids from SSSAS, BI, EHS, ACDS, Burgundy, etc.

Since Burgundy and ACDS end in 8th grade, what in the world are you talking about?

The actual number (not percentage) of TC graduates who go to the most selective colleges is about the same as at SSSAS and Episcopal and greater than Bishop Ireton. So if you have a bright student who can navigate a really big, diverse school, she/he will have as big a critical mass of peers in their academic classes as at the Alexandria private high schools and end up with a fine set of college choices. They'll get all the academic awards, Governors School, any AP class they want, etc. In the mean time, they might make some friends who come from really different backgrounds and gain a useful perspective of the world and the advantages they have in life.

If anyone has a reason to upset about TC, its the kids learning English or from lower-income families who need the school to be better.

[Anonymous]

DD went to TC. And then to Yale. She loved TC, and loved her teachers there!

[Anonymous]

Updates on TC admissions so far this spring?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have a problem except when a bunch of head in the sand rich white housewives claim TC is just fine. It isn't. It's a shithole. And the kids that do survive it deserve more credit for their accomplishments than the kids from SSSAS, BI, EHS, ACDS, Burgundy, etc.

Since Burgundy and ACDS end in 8th grade, what in the world are you talking about?

The actual number (not percentage) of TC graduates who go to the most selective colleges is about the same as at SSSAS and Episcopal and greater than Bishop Ireton. So if you have a bright student who can navigate a really big, diverse school, she/he will have as big a critical mass of peers in their academic classes as at the Alexandria private high schools and end up with a fine set of college choices. They'll get all the academic awards, Governors School, any AP class they want, etc. In the mean time, they might make some friends who come from really different backgrounds and gain a useful perspective of the world and the advantages they have in life.

If anyone has a reason to upset about TC, its the kids learning English or from lower-income families who need the school to be better.

That's actually not true as of 2021. Now that Alexandria is building a low-level school to remove the West End kids from TC, half the kids in Alexandria will no longer have full academic access. The Alexandria School Board's final, unanimous plan for two different 9-12 high schools is at: http://esbpublic.acps.k12.va.us/public_itemview.aspx?ItemId=9189&mtgId=1003

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Updates on TC admissions so far this spring?

You probably won’t see anything on this for a while. The link someone posterd upthread with info on last year’s class was published last June, so probably this June you’ll see something.