A question about the actual students at Thomas Jefferson for anyone who has actually met them:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In your educated opinion .... what percentage of the entering TJ kids would you say moved to the United States only within the last year or so? And, is this becoming more common?

Put another way, what percentage of successful applicants do most of their preparation in another country (their native country), then move to the US just before application season begins? ie, in enough time to get a legitimate written recommendation from that year's teacher, as is required, but having spent most of the first 13.5 years of life in _[name of foreign country here]___
I can read the published demographic stats just like you can, so I'm not asking to be pointed to mere numbers (such as, 'this year, 66% of the entering class is Asian.')

Many of the Korean students there aren't actually US citizens and are only here to attend TJ.

The mother is sent here with the kids while the father stays in Korea, and the family returns to Korea in the summer time.

This is shocking. I had no idea that my tax money was being used this way.

NPR did a segment about families in California who did this. There were apartment buildings in primo school districts who would cater to this crowd, even rent the apartment out for the school year

I heard that segment, but the difference is it was done very much out in the open and the school was fine with it and they were if fact quite proud of it.

Now if FCPS would just come out and do the same - instead of trying to keep this a secret. That's the source of an OP like this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are Americans living in Europe allowed to attend their schools?

could you give examples of this? What schools in what countries. I'd be interested.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Now, interestingly, the University of California system went to a completely "race blind" admissions policy years ago and the result has been the predominance of Asian students at the state's flagship universities - 66% at UC Berkeley, for instance.

they pay tuition. The recent immigrants here to game the system should do the same.

[Anonymous]

In regard to pregnant woman coming to NY to only deliver. I do not think that flight's allow pregnant women to travel after so many months? and in re: to people coming here just to attend TJ. You have to have a green card to come here, unless it's illegally. I do not think there are a lot of Koreans here illegally. I do not understand how this could be.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm not sure I'd be upset about the races of other children, but I would be upset about having my child attend with many children that would move overseas after graduation and who might not be very interested in American history and government. Would kids really stay friends with each other if they moved back overseas and come back to attend high school reunions? Some of my best friends from high school still live in this area.

This is a good point. Will these kids go back to their home countries after graduation and take the knowledge and education we taxpayers paid for and use it to benefit of those countries or will they stay here and use this taxpayer funded education for the benefit of America?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In regard to pregnant woman coming to NY to only deliver. I do not think that flight's allow pregnant women to travel after so many months? and in re: to people coming here just to attend TJ. You have to have a green card to come here, unless it's illegally. I do not think there are a lot of Koreans here illegally. I do not understand how this could be.

This is how it could be: You can come to this country legally on a tourist visa and just overstay your visa. It happens all the time. That's how undocumented kids can enroll in public schools, they just have to show that they live in the school district. Landlords/sellers don't care if you're here legally or illegally, as long as you can pay, so it's relatively easy to get a place to live even if you're not here legally (assuming you can pay for it). No reason why Koreans would NOT do this, while people from all over the rest of the world do it regularly. Attending a school like TJ for free would be a pretty strong incentive to put down temporary roots here, and actually doing it is not that hard. You might not be able to go back to your home country for a long while, but that's probably a price worth paying for some people. And if you have a wage-earner back in your home country who can support you, then you wouldn't need to prove you are here legally to find work, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In regard to pregnant woman coming to NY to only deliver. I do not think that flight's allow pregnant women to travel after so many months? and in re: to people coming here just to attend TJ. You have to have a green card to come here, unless it's illegally. I do not think there are a lot of Koreans here illegally. I do not understand how this could be.

People that do this are not here illegally. They are here perfectly legally. Sometimes the employer transfers a parent to a location here for a time, sometimes a parent will enroll here as a university student in order to be here legally. You can be in the country legally and not be a US citizen.
I have no idea if this practice is prevalent or not. I do personally know two students whose parents made employment arrangements so that they could be here at the right time for the child to go to TJ. No one in either family is a US citizen, but they are definitely in the country legally.

[Gypsyzoo]

My son is from one of the smaller middle school centers but every one of the kids who was admitted to TJ has been in FCPS with him since third grade. Could there be a few kids who recently moved here from abroad? I am sure there could be, but it is not a significant number. I just called a good friend of mine who has a sophomore at TJ and asked about how many kids just moved here... She laughed. She said while there may be a handful, most are born and bred in good ole Fairfax County. She is not aware of any kids who do not speak fluent English.

The Student Information Sheet which used to be a "take home" essay, was given in the middle schools in a controlled setting this year. In our school there were no big surprises. The kids that I assumed would get in did - good grades, hard workers, very involved in school activities and all around nice kids. A couple of very bright kids did not get in but they had few (if any) extra activities and had not taken on any leadership roles. I am not sure if it really should matter, but I do think they look at how much time you spend volunteering and following your interests outside of school, especially math & science interests.

Lastly, I have never posted on this site and only recently started looking at it now and then. I am shocked about how much misinformation there is. TJ is clearly not for everyone. Lots of very bright kids my son knew didn't apply - not because there are "too many Asians" - but because they decided that they didn't want the high pressure environment. Sound reasonable because again it is not for everyone. Some very bright kids don't get in because there are simply not enough slots. Sad but true.

I went to a TJ meet and greet the other night and the kids on the student panel from our cluster were awesome. Nice, well rounded and honest about both the work load and the amazing student culture at the school.

Lastly, I now see that people are bashing that this school is number 4 in the nation. Wow, just wow! I think everyone needs to relax. I would also encourage people to look at the number of students in the top rated schools. Imagine how much easier it must be to run a school of under 300 kids! Imagine if TJ only took the top 70 or so from the area each year. You can't compare these schools, it is ridiculous. They are all good and give kids a great education.

I am now going to leave DCUM and not return. Too many mean people!

[Anonymous]

Face it. The Asian kids are just smarter and work harder.

[Anonymous]

I do not think it racist to think that your government tax money is paying other nationals to come study at your top school without any fees, while your child sits out because of these students. Other countries would probably allow only their citizens or green card holders to attend those type of schools.

[Anonymous]

my spouse wen tthere and is from here

[Anonymous]

My dog goes there and she was born here.

[Anonymous]

This is the Washington Post article from a while back.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/as-thomas-jefferson-adds-help-for-poor-english-skills-some-va-parents-fume/2011/03/10/ABK7qVx_story.html

The article was controversial because it uncovered the fact that the Korean Embassy's website had a section with advice to Koreans on "how to get your kid into TJHSST." Two recent immigrants were interviewed in the article--both came to the US from Korea--one in 5th Grade, one at age 13. The article also mentioned that 13 of the 1700 kids at TJHSST were limited english proficient (LEP), so the school was having to hire a half-time LEP teacher.

From these facts, aspersions are cast that lots/tons/most of the Koreans/Asians at TJ are entering the U.S. solely to attend TJ, so that they can then get admissions to Ivy League/Stanford/MIT etc.

I don't know why the Korean families would bother to do this. Those universities are increasingly admitting more and more students directly from Asian high schools anyway, since the kids are really smart, well prepared, and their parents can afford to pay full freight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:my spouse wen tthere and is from here

Where are you from?

[Anonymous]

13/1700 limited english proficient is not a lot, it's not even 1%.

All this talk about foreigners taking spots at TJ is really meaningless. Probably better to focus on helping your kids do well so they can get into TJ themselves.

All of the Asians I know who attended TJ were kids of Korean immigrants, and I know quite a few from college. Vast majority were born in the US. All successful professionals now... hardly the robot Asians that this forum has alluded to.

Also, if you look at the elite magnet schools in New York (Stuy, Brox Science, etc), you will find that Asian students also make up the majority. Is this ideal? No, racial diversity is always better, but that is what it is now. Perhaps TJ can start setting racial quotas.