TJ. vs the privates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While I have no dog in this fight, it's clearly true that the academic profile of the typical TJ student is higher than that of the typical Big 3 student. It's also true that there's not a kid at TJ who couldn't cut it at the Big 3 but not vice-versa.

Yes, admissions criteria are different and not every TJ student would have been admitted to the Big 3. But they all probably deserve to be.

Yeah, sounds like you have no dog in this fight whatsoever!

There are one-dimensional math/science geniuses at schools like TJ and Blair who are terrible at the humanities and social sciences. I was good friends with many such people. So it's not clear to me at all that they'd easily cut it at a Big 3 to the extent that the standards for being more academically well-rounded are higher.

I truly don't. My kids didn't attend either school and it never occurred to them to. I do know, however, that had they been interested they'd have had zero chance of getting into TJ but certainly would have had at least some chance at the Big 3. While they were strong test takers (scoring at the commended scholar level on the PSAT and similarly on the SAT) and generally very good students, , there is absolutely no way they'd score high enough on the TJ exam. No way. But being a partner in a major DC law firm where everybody and his mother had kids attending the Big 3 and other top area privates, and where my public school kids were in the minority, I had plenty of connections for strings pulling had I or my kids so desired, and I obviously had plenty of money to pay full tuition. That combination, coupled with having very solid students and test takers as kids, certainly makes it greater than a zero percent chance that they could have gotten in.

Also worth noting that one of my kids' best friends ended up at one of the Cathedral schools after not getting into TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While the average math score on the SAT for TJ of 770 is higher than the verbal, the verbal average of 733 is at least as high as the average for any of the Big 3. So I'm not sure where all this "one dimensional" stuff is coming from unless one dimensional is the right word to describe someone who is out of this world talented in one area while merely extraordinary in the other.

No Big 3 school comes close to an average score of 1503 on the SAT.

Getting a 700+ SAT verbal != being good academically. I know plenty of 1500+ SAT folks from TJ/Blair who consistently got Bs and Cs in their non-science classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:While the average math score on the SAT for TJ of 770 is higher than the verbal, the verbal average of 733 is at least as high as the average for any of the Big 3. So I'm not sure where all this "one dimensional" stuff is coming from unless one dimensional is the right word to describe someone who is out of this world talented in one area while merely extraordinary in the other.

No Big 3 school comes close to an average score of 1503 on the SAT.

Getting a 700+ SAT verbal != being good academically. I know plenty of 1500+ SAT folks from TJ/Blair who consistently got Bs and Cs in their non-science classes.

No, you don't. If you're pulling Cs at TJ you're asked to return to your home school. There are not "plenty" of TJ students pulling Cs who are still there.

[Anonymous]

Where did you get "pulling Cs" from "consistently got Bs and Cs"?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Where did you get "pulling Cs" from "consistently got Bs and Cs"?

From "consistently got Bs and Cs." That's where. Obviously your writing skills are worse than a student at TJ.

I named TJ's actual SAT scores and you responded by just making something up. Post the actual grade distribution at TJ showing that "plenty of students consistently get Bs and Cs" and I'll eat crow.

[Anonymous]

PP here. Actually I did it for you. Here's a link to grade distributions for fairly recent classes. You'll see, for example, that in 2016 there were only six C+ grades or lower in English 11 out of 437 students. In AP English Language there were 5 out of 299. In AP History 6 out of 371. In AP Psych zero out of 170.

Plenty?

In fact, out of 15,041 total grades given -- including all STEM classes and all other classes -- only 4.5 percent were C+ or below, and the vast majority of those were in the STEM classes.

https://www.tjptsa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/GradeDistribution.pdf

[Anonymous]

If you want your kid to be socially awkward and nerdtastic - TJ is your place

[Anonymous]

And I don’t know why everybody me bangs on about TJ’s ranking. That’s what happens when you cherry pick the best kids in the county......when you pick the top percentile of what is already one of the smartest counties in the country......exactly what is expected?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want your kid to be socially awkward and nerdtastic - TJ is your place

because private school just screams "cool."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want your kid to be socially awkward and nerdtastic - TJ is your place

because private school just screams "cool."

+ "entitlement"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your original claim was that all TJ kids could cut it at a Big 3. Not most, or even some. And the prior post provides little to no proof of that. Being good at math and science doesn't preclude a TJ kid from being good at other things, but I have firsthand knowledge of STEM magnet kids who are great at those subjects only and terrible elsewhere. Are they representative? Of course not. But there are lots of them.
And despite being one-dimensional, they'll accomplish great things in life. Don't make them out to be something that they're not, though.

I am amused by your fascination with the phrase ‘one dimensional’. Is that an euphemism for ‘asian’ and ‘indian’ kids because TJ is full of them. And offcourse you aren’t racist because you are friends with many Asians and Indians, right?

[Anonymous]

Personal attack instead of argument.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Personal attack instead of argument.

Calling it the way i see it, no amount ratitonal argument will sway a bigoted mind.

[Anonymous]

My guess is that’s the way you see everything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Where did you get "pulling Cs" from "consistently got Bs and Cs"?

From "consistently got Bs and Cs." That's where. Obviously your writing skills are worse than a student at TJ.
I named TJ's actual SAT scores and you responded by just making something up. Post the actual grade distribution at TJ showing that "plenty of students consistently get Bs and Cs" and I'll eat crow.

Your reading comprehension is terrible. Is the difference between "getting Bs and Cs" and "pulling Cs" not obvious to you, and that one is much more likely to result in leaving the school than the other?

Also, the folks I know personally from TJ and Blair getting Bs and Cs. were from 20+ years ago. And where are actual grade distributions publicly available? Yeah, I thought so.