TJ College Admissions Results

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Sure most TJ kids who are in the top 25% or so of the class will aim for Harvard, MIT, Duke, etc. but UVA ends up being a great value for TJ kids. Maybe some of the disappointment comes from a belief that the kids who end up at UVA could've have gotten the same outcome with much less stress and rigor, but TJ is about the experience not just the college admissions

+1 many people say college is easier than TJ so it’s an experience beyond just the results

Why would you want college to be easier than high school?

First, less chance of struggling when first year can be overwhelming aside from academic requirements;
Second, more time to engage in club activity or leisure activities or preparing for even research/internships;
Third, very likely to stick to the intended major (even STEM) and to receive and maintain very high GPA;
Fourth, thus more options for med/law schools or even graduate school etc.

What are these top colleges where the stem course work is lower level than high school stem coursework? What are you talking about?

DP. They may not be 'lower level' in the true sense but for sure they are easier. Remember that kids go from doing 7 alomst-college level tough courses at TJ, 1+hr commute, after school time spent on sports and nonsense ECs tailored to college admissions, etc. to 4 or maybe 5 classes, being in the top 10% at pretty much any college and a lot more discretionary time. All of this makes the coursework in college seem easier for a TJ kid for at least the first couple of years.

Pretty much any college maybe. I though you were all gunning for some really elite colleges. They are not going to be finding the coursework easier at MIT or Princeton or Penn or the like unless they are intentionally taking repeat classes.

MIT doesn't give credit for everything you take in high school. So there will be some repetition, though they will probably give some extra consideration for classes at TJ when awarding credit.
People overrate MIT somewhat. They still have classes like Calculus 1, Physics 1, which have hundreds of students.
I think the point is the experience of the heavy workload at TJ will make college seem easier.

I would caution to manage your expectations of that scenario. Hope for manageable and expect some disappointment if you want easier.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Sure most TJ kids who are in the top 25% or so of the class will aim for Harvard, MIT, Duke, etc. but UVA ends up being a great value for TJ kids. Maybe some of the disappointment comes from a belief that the kids who end up at UVA could've have gotten the same outcome with much less stress and rigor, but TJ is about the experience not just the college admissions

+1 many people say college is easier than TJ so it’s an experience beyond just the results

Why would you want college to be easier than high school?

First, less chance of struggling when first year can be overwhelming aside from academic requirements;
Second, more time to engage in club activity or leisure activities or preparing for even research/internships;
Third, very likely to stick to the intended major (even STEM) and to receive and maintain very high GPA;
Fourth, thus more options for med/law schools or even graduate school etc.

So at the price of playing a sport/club or having leisure time in high school, TJ lets you do those things in college.
In the mean time, all those kids who cruised through HS are now working harder in college and catching up with the TJ kids who front-loaded their academics in HS.

I'm still not seeing the benefit. It's looking more like a trade.

There is a benefit. The kids who front-loaded receive summer internships as CS freshmen and sophomores at the companies that pay them over $200k upon graduation. The kids who get to the level of a TJ senior when they are college juniors get hired for the jobs that pay $100k less.

Are you telling me that the kid from TJ who goes to a top 20 has better career prospects than the kid from the base school that goes to a top 20? I'd love to see the data on that.

I’m observing a career path of DD who graduated from TJ last year and took a lot of post-AP math and CS classes at school. Last summer, right after her HS graduation she interned as a software engineer. The company she interned for told her that based on her skill set acquired at TJ she doesn’t need to go to college at all and can continue working for them full time. As a college freshman, she learned that the most competitive companies that pay over $200k upon graduation have internship programs for freshmen - because they want to hire the best of the best. In order to receive such an internship as a freshman, a student needs to take a complicated technical test, they are expected to be able to work as software engineers at that point. When I read DCUM in the past, I was impressed that some of the CS students were offered $140k upon graduation. Now based on my DD’s experience, I know that there are companies that pay $230-270k as an entry level salary to those who interned for them as freshmen and sophomores.

First, congrats on DD. What I would say is that for CS, it isn't unusual for kids to build up an impressive background in HS...and not just at TJ. My DS will be going to a T10 school this fall. Took AP CS in 10th grade and has been doing DE CS for the past two years. Plans to be a CS major, and could probably work somewhere right now if he wanted. Similar trajectory, and didn't need TJ for that. And I can guarantee that he didn't work as hard as the TJ kids.

For CS, it is definitely better to go to CMU than Brown or even Yale. You need to graduate from the best (MIT, Stanford, Berkeley or CMU) to get those $250K -$350K right out of college.

False

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1097036.page

180k+: Carnegie Mellon, Brown
160k-180k: Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT

Brown, Yale on par with CMU, Stanford, Berkeley, MIT. Harvard, Princeton, and other Ivies will perform similarly, Princeton just didn't have their data reported in the government source

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Are you telling me that the kid from TJ who goes to a top 20 has better career prospects than the kid from the base school that goes to a top 20? I'd love to see the data on that.

I’m observing a career path of DD who graduated from TJ last year and took a lot of post-AP math and CS classes at school. Last summer, right after her HS graduation she interned as a software engineer. The company she interned for told her that based on her skill set acquired at TJ she doesn’t need to go to college at all and can continue working for them full time. As a college freshman, she learned that the most competitive companies that pay over $200k upon graduation have internship programs for freshmen - because they want to hire the best of the best. In order to receive such an internship as a freshman, a student needs to take a complicated technical test, they are expected to be able to work as software engineers at that point. When I read DCUM in the past, I was impressed that some of the CS students were offered $140k upon graduation. Now based on my DD’s experience, I know that there are companies that pay $230-270k as an entry level salary to those who interned for them as freshmen and sophomores.

That is inspirational! I will share this with my son.
Where can we find the complicated technical test?
Thanks

Every company has their own test. Often times, it's administered over Zoom when they are watching how a candidate solves the problems and explains their logic.
A decent CS candidate should be able to break through the company's system and download the test beforehand (I'm joking here and would never support/approve such an approach but I know that this truly happens).

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I hear getting into UVA, VT is really tough from TJ. A large majority of TJ kids go out of state (with parents footing the bill!)

I agree with this comment. My kid graduated from TJ last year with high stats but is attending an out of state university (with very high costs) because of rejection at UVA and wait list at VT. Many TJ kids go out of state for college.

Available data simply do not support this. 49 kids went to UVA from TJ. UVA yield is around 40% that means at least 120+ kids were accepted from TJ. UVA's overall acceptance rate is 21%. That means 583 kids from TJ applied must have applied to have that many acceptance which cannot not be the case because TJ class size is less than 450 kids. So the only way the math works if the acceptance rate is higher - between 35% - 40% ( almost double the UVA's overall acceptance rate). This means about 300 -350 kids applied to UVA which is very very close to actual application number UVA received from TJ in 2022.

The simple reality is that UVA and VT practice yield protection. A couple of years ago, my kid got into UVA but not VT while also getting into a slew of OOS schools (one of which he chose to attend). We know of several that did not get into UVA and VT at that time and some of them had a better profile that my kid. So yield protection is real. If UVA/VT is your goal, go ED. IF waitlisted, make sure your LOCI clearly indicates your interest (send one even if they are not asking for one).

VT definitely engages in yield protection. UVA does not

UVA does not. They have consistently addmitted the top TJ kids, even though those kids go elsewhere.

UVA yield protects for TJ students.

Please provide a citation or proof -I know VT engages in yield protection; I don’t think UVA does.

How would you know definitively?

[Anonymous]

TJ parents seem annoying based on this thread

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure most TJ kids who are in the top 25% or so of the class will aim for Harvard, MIT, Duke, etc. but UVA ends up being a great value for TJ kids. Maybe some of the disappointment comes from a belief that the kids who end up at UVA could've have gotten the same outcome with much less stress and rigor, but TJ is about the experience not just the college admissions

+1 many people say college is easier than TJ so it’s an experience beyond just the results

Why would you want college to be easier than high school?

First, less chance of struggling when first year can be overwhelming aside from academic requirements;
Second, more time to engage in club activity or leisure activities or preparing for even research/internships;
Third, very likely to stick to the intended major (even STEM) and to receive and maintain very high GPA;
Fourth, thus more options for med/law schools or even graduate school etc.

So at the price of playing a sport/club or having leisure time in high school, TJ lets you do those things in college.
In the mean time, all those kids who cruised through HS are now working harder in college and catching up with the TJ kids who front-loaded their academics in HS.

I'm still not seeing the benefit. It's looking more like a trade.

At the same time, there are few advantages to TJ that you may not heard of as well:

1) More students actually participate in organized sports/athletic programs than almost all the other HSs in the County since almost all TJ students will play in 'B' or 'C' teams if they wanted and hardly any BS of giving a tough time to perceived lesser players,
2) Almost non-existent bullying, school violence, school harassment, racial discrimination among students etc.
3) Built in 8th period - allows for all TJ students to have club activities w/o much opportunity cost,
4) Required IBET/senior research requirements mean writing and researching much more than typical HS students and even some college students.
4) Access to advanced lab systems, equipment and tools not avilable at some universities etc.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a commonly held view at TJ that VT yield protects in a big way. The school has a 66% admit rate and TJ kids are routinely rejected.

Is it possible that a disproportionate number are applying for STEM majors and VT can’t accept all of them?

There were only 7 reported in TJ Today as matriculating at VT in fall 2022. That compares to 49 at UVA, 26 at W&M, 10 at GMU, and 10 at VCU. UVA is smaller and W&M is much, much smaller than VT. The more likely explanation is that many are choosing to matriculate elsewhere.

Wow. Why the aversion from TJ students for VT?

[Anonymous]

If I were a TJ student, I probably would be applying to places like University of Cambridge (UK), Imperial College London, University of St Andrews, U. Waterloo (CA), or U. Toronto. The schools in England only take 3 years for an undergrad, while schools in either Scotland or Canada have fewer general education course requirements and more within-major content. Top tech employers actively recruit from all of those schools for positions in multiple countries, including the US.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Are you telling me that the kid from TJ who goes to a top 20 has better career prospects than the kid from the base school that goes to a top 20? I'd love to see the data on that.

I’m observing a career path of DD who graduated from TJ last year and took a lot of post-AP math and CS classes at school. Last summer, right after her HS graduation she interned as a software engineer. The company she interned for told her that based on her skill set acquired at TJ she doesn’t need to go to college at all and can continue working for them full time. As a college freshman, she learned that the most competitive companies that pay over $200k upon graduation have internship programs for freshmen - because they want to hire the best of the best. In order to receive such an internship as a freshman, a student needs to take a complicated technical test, they are expected to be able to work as software engineers at that point. When I read DCUM in the past, I was impressed that some of the CS students were offered $140k upon graduation. Now based on my DD’s experience, I know that there are companies that pay $230-270k as an entry level salary to those who interned for them as freshmen and sophomores.

That is inspirational! I will share this with my son.
Where can we find the complicated technical test?
Thanks

Every company has their own test. Often times, it's administered over Zoom when they are watching how a candidate solves the problems and explains their logic.
A decent CS candidate should be able to break through the company's system and download the test beforehand (I'm joking here and would never support/approve such an approach but I know that this truly happens).

Employer perspective: We do not have a fixed test. We do ask probing questions of each applicant, based on both our current needs and candidate’s resume. We are more interested in seeing how candidate approaches a hard problem than in whether they have memorized/know the answer. We need people who can reason outside the box (creatively) based on what they know, not merely someone who can turn an existing crank. Other employers will differ, of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ parents seem annoying based on this thread

Your mom is more annoying

[Anonymous]

CMU is the sexiest

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Are you telling me that the kid from TJ who goes to a top 20 has better career prospects than the kid from the base school that goes to a top 20? I'd love to see the data on that.

I’m observing a career path of DD who graduated from TJ last year and took a lot of post-AP math and CS classes at school. Last summer, right after her HS graduation she interned as a software engineer. The company she interned for told her that based on her skill set acquired at TJ she doesn’t need to go to college at all and can continue working for them full time. As a college freshman, she learned that the most competitive companies that pay over $200k upon graduation have internship programs for freshmen - because they want to hire the best of the best. In order to receive such an internship as a freshman, a student needs to take a complicated technical test, they are expected to be able to work as software engineers at that point. When I read DCUM in the past, I was impressed that some of the CS students were offered $140k upon graduation. Now based on my DD’s experience, I know that there are companies that pay $230-270k as an entry level salary to those who interned for them as freshmen and sophomores.

That is inspirational! I will share this with my son.
Where can we find the complicated technical test?
Thanks

Every company has their own test. Often times, it's administered over Zoom when they are watching how a candidate solves the problems and explains their logic.
A decent CS candidate should be able to break through the company's system and download the test beforehand (I'm joking here and would never support/approve such an approach but I know that this truly happens).

Employer perspective: We do not have a fixed test. We do ask probing questions of each applicant, based on both our current needs and candidate’s resume. We are more interested in seeing how candidate approaches a hard problem than in whether they have memorized/know the answer. We need people who can reason outside the box (creatively) based on what they know, not merely someone who can turn an existing crank. Other employers will differ, of course.

PP here. DD was just invited to take a math test for some trader program. She said it consists of 75 questions, 8 seconds per each to answer. She also said that she can write a program that will solve the questions for her as they appear on the screen and then she would just need to wait for 5 seconds each time before providing the answers to make it appear as if she solved them by herself. She isn’t going to do that but this is what is possible after taking CS classes at TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a commonly held view at TJ that VT yield protects in a big way. The school has a 66% admit rate and TJ kids are routinely rejected.

Is it possible that a disproportionate number are applying for STEM majors and VT can’t accept all of them?

There were only 7 reported in TJ Today as matriculating at VT in fall 2022. That compares to 49 at UVA, 26 at W&M, 10 at GMU, and 10 at VCU. UVA is smaller and W&M is much, much smaller than VT. The more likely explanation is that many are choosing to matriculate elsewhere.

Wow. Why the aversion from TJ students for VT?

VT has a reputation for being anti-Asian even more so than UVA etc.

[Anonymous]

Wow. Why the aversion from TJ students for VT? VT has a reputation for being anti-Asian even more so than UVA etc.

Do you have any data to support this blank statement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Wow. Why the aversion from TJ students for VT? VT has a reputation for being anti-Asian even more so than UVA etc.

Do you have any data to support this blank statement.

The data should be the location.