Would/did anybody pick TJ over a private school?

[Anonymous]

Some of you seem to think, or want to think, that TJ kids do nothing but math and science and have no exposure to english, languages, or the arts. That's not true, or fair. I'm not that familiar with TJ, but I am familiar with the Blair magnet. The kids take about 3 math/science/computer science classes a semester. The other classes are the high-level english, history and elective classes any other high school student takes. By junior or senior year, most of the english and other electives are APs. So while magnets can have intensive science and math, they are as "well rounded" as any other school when it comes to non-magnet classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ receives about 3,000-4,000 applications a year for about 450 slots. Many of those turned down had a perfect score on the entrance exam. It's not really something you can just choose... and you need to reside in VA to apply, not move to VA after acceptance.

You need to reside in Fairfax county or an adjoining municipality city or county which are separate in VA), EXCEPT for City of Alexandria residents which are not eligible for TJ, they get stuck with TCW. Hence if where you live is not in or next to Fairfax you cannot go. The pressure and stress those children are under is incredible, do some google searches on articles that have run in Washingtonian or Post, etc. it is an intense school.

[Anonymous]

TJ is a destination school. Korean families (from S. Korea usually with just the mom) move into the area just so their kid can attend TJ. It's better known internationally than any private school around here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ is a destination school. Korean families (from S. Korea usually with just the mom) move into the area just so their kid can attend TJ. It's better known internationally than any private school around here.

That's funny. I wouldn't say that TJ is known nationally, let alone internationally.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is a destination school. Korean families (from S. Korea usually with just the mom) move into the area just so their kid can attend TJ. It's better known internationally than any private school around here.

That's funny. I wouldn't say that TJ is known nationally, let alone internationally.

Probably b/c you are not Korean. It's certainly well known in S. Korea with lots of newspaper and magazine articles about it. Asian parents generally know the best public and private high schools in the US just as well as they know Harvard, Yale.... But you are probably right about TJ not being known nationally, Americans don't pay much attention to education in general.

[Anonymous]

The kids at TJ and Blair are generally pretty far ahead of the kids at SiIdwell, ST Albans etc in math. GDS and NCS offer multivariate calculus/linear algebra, which a few of their top kids take. One of those schools will have an Intel /Siemens semifinalist once every five years or so. They are generally lawyers' kids. That's who can shell out 30k per yr per child. They also take classes in Latin and art history.

Thomas Jefferson kids take multivariate calculus as sophomores or juniors, and kids at Blair publish journal articles in academic math journals. Those schools have tons of Intel/Siemens semifinalists. They are the children of department heads at NIH/EPA/NIST.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of you seem to think, or want to think, that TJ kids do nothing but math and science and have no exposure to english, languages, or the arts. That's not true, or fair. I'm not that familiar with TJ, but I am familiar with the Blair magnet. The kids take about 3 math/science/computer science classes a semester. The other classes are the high-level english, history and elective classes any other high school student takes. By junior or senior year, most of the english and other electives are APs. So while magnets can have intensive science and math, they are as "well rounded" as any other school when it comes to non-magnet classes.

Very true! TJ has an excellent foreign language program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is a destination school. Korean families (from S. Korea usually with just the mom) move into the area just so their kid can attend TJ. It's better known internationally than any private school around here.

That's funny. I wouldn't say that TJ is known nationally, let alone internationally.

Probably b/c you are not Korean. It's certainly well known in S. Korea with lots of newspaper and magazine articles about it. Asian parents generally know the best public and private high schools in the US just as well as they know Harvard, Yale.... But you are probably right about TJ not being known nationally, Americans don't pay much attention to education in general.

Exaggerate much? And in so many different ways. You sound like an absolute ass.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is a destination school. Korean families (from S. Korea usually with just the mom) move into the area just so their kid can attend TJ. It's better known internationally than any private school around here.

That's funny. I wouldn't say that TJ is known nationally, let alone internationally.

Probably b/c you are not Korean. It's certainly well known in S. Korea with lots of newspaper and magazine articles about it. Asian parents generally know the best public and private high schools in the US just as well as they know Harvard, Yale.... But you are probably right about TJ not being known nationally, Americans don't pay much attention to education in general.

Exaggerate much? And in so many different ways. You sound like an absolute ass.

I wouldn't say being known in Korea is being known internationally. How many Europeans, Africans or Indians know about TJ? More importantly, how many Americans know about it?

[Anonymous]

It isn't much of an exaggeration. If you lived in the McLean area and saw the number of Korean students in the schools, you might believe this too.

Here's an article in the McLean Connection that talks about a group of Korean educators taking a tour of Churchill Road ES in McLean, which is an Advanced Academic Program (AAP) Center and one of the big feeder schools to TJ.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2013/jan/16/korean-teachers-visit-churchill-road/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It isn't much of an exaggeration. If you lived in the McLean area and saw the number of Korean students in the schools, you might believe this too.

Here's an article in the McLean Connection that talks about a group of Korean educators taking a tour of Churchill Road ES in McLean, which is an Advanced Academic Program (AAP) Center and one of the big feeder schools to TJ.

http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2013/jan/16/korean-teachers-visit-churchill-road/

Teachers are always making international visits to see how other systems do things, and I support them doing this. I'm curious to know if the Korean educators also visited an IB program or arts school, but that doesn't detract from the point that there's a lot of interchange between European, African and Asian and American educators.

What would be relevant to this discussion would be a rough estimate of the number of Korean kids who are living with just their moms in suburban VA, if you have such a number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is a destination school. Korean families (from S. Korea usually with just the mom) move into the area just so their kid can attend TJ. It's better known internationally than any private school around here.

That's funny. I wouldn't say that TJ is known nationally, let alone internationally.

Probably b/c you are not Korean. It's certainly well known in S. Korea with lots of newspaper and magazine articles about it. Asian parents generally know the best public and private high schools in the US just as well as they know Harvard, Yale.... But you are probably right about TJ not being known nationally, Americans don't pay much attention to education in general.

Exaggerate much? And in so many different ways. You sound like an absolute ass.

Why so defensive? I have nothing to gain in this and am only telling you what I know. My kids are all under 5 and we don't live in the area that feeds into TJ.

I am Korean and when we moved to DC prekids the first question out of many of my Korean friends including my elderly parents who live in S Korea was whether we were going to send our kids to TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Probably b/c you are not Korean. It's certainly well known in S. Korea with lots of newspaper and magazine articles about it. Asian parents generally know the best public and private high schools in the US just as well as they know Harvard, Yale.... But you are probably right about TJ not being known nationally, Americans don't pay much attention to education in general.

Exaggerate much? And in so many different ways. You sound like an absolute ass.

Why so defensive? I have nothing to gain in this and am only telling you what I know. My kids are all under 5 and we don't live in the area that feeds into TJ.

I am Korean and when we moved to DC prekids the first question out of many of my Korean friends including my elderly parents who live in S Korea was whether we were going to send our kids to TJ.

You know exactly why you were called an ass.

[Anonymous]

^No I don't. Enlighten me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is a destination school. Korean families (from S. Korea usually with just the mom) move into the area just so their kid can attend TJ. It's better known internationally than any private school around here.

That's funny. I wouldn't say that TJ is known nationally, let alone internationally.

Probably b/c you are not Korean. It's certainly well known in S. Korea with lots of newspaper and magazine articles about it. Asian parents generally know the best public and private high schools in the US just as well as they know Harvard, Yale.... But you are probably right about TJ not being known nationally, Americans don't pay much attention to education in general.

Exaggerate much? And in so many different ways. You sound like an absolute ass.

Why so defensive? I have nothing to gain in this and am only telling you what I know. My kids are all under 5 and we don't live in the area that feeds into TJ.

I am Korean and when we moved to DC prekids the first question out of many of my Korean friends including my elderly parents who live in S Korea was whether we were going to send our kids to TJ.

I can verify this is true. It's common knowledge in Fairfax County and we are not Asian.