This bothers me..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are simply making things up when you claim TJ was built to challenge bored under-performers. It wasn't. It was built for two reasons. First, the county politicians at the time - largely Republicans - wanted a "tech" school that would reinforce the message that Fairfax County was open for business for any company willing to relocate to office parks in Chantilly, Reston and Tysons. Second, FCPS had excess capacity in eastern Fairfax, so it was either going to close one of Annandale, Jefferson or Stuart, or open a magnet there. At the time, FCPS was still overwhelmingly white, so there was no expectation that Asians already familiar with cut-throat admissions to secondary schools would flock there and dominate the school. But they did, so depending on the day of the week FCPS is either proud of having the top high school in the country or embarrassed that its flagship school has demographics that look nothing like the county in which it is located.

I was there when it was approved; I spoke before the school board. I was questioned on the lack of challenges; how one one day, my Algebra II teacher called home to 1) report that I was underperforming in class because of missed homework assignments (got A's on the test), and at the same time I scored the highest in the school on a math assessment, and I was going to be invited to go to states....How the curriculum was crushing my enthusiasm for science.

When include HW on the grade, you punish the truly brilliant kids. For me, it was just busy work. I would do the work until I understood the process. But, when 25% of your grade is homework, then 100% on tests and 0 on homework gives a C. That is how I got a C in Algebra II-Trig.

I'm sure it's nice to think the decision to open TJHSST was all about kids like you, but it really wasn't. Your story is a side note. Most kids attending TJ would have done fine at their base schools, and kids like you probably would get turned away today. TJ students have plenty of homework and problem sets to complete.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

Yes, agree with above. But, also have to add that the curriculum at TJ is unparalled to any high school. When you have bright kids matched with opportunities & resources = sky is the limit.

Sky is the limit ???.. But where are the birds ..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me one well known alumni in science or math from TJ.. Based on being number on school in USA, atleast on average there should be 2-3/year..


Like other Ivy League colleges that are top schools in the country, which produce top undergrads every year, why I don't hear anything from people who did their schooling from TJ over last 20-30 years ?

So much for top facilities/labs. Total waste of funds...

Huh? Facebook was started by a Harvard student, Amazon was started by a Princeton grad, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell me one well known alumni in science or math from TJ.. Based on being number on school in USA, atleast on average there should be 2-3/year..


Like other Ivy League colleges that are top schools in the country, which produce top undergrads every year, why I don't hear anything from people who did their schooling from TJ over last 20-30 years ?

So much for top facilities/labs. Total waste of funds...

So, you're saying that your kid(s) didn't get accepted, eh? Shoot down anything that you can't take part in. Brilliant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

Yes, agree with above. But, also have to add that the curriculum at TJ is unparalled to any high school. When you have bright kids matched with opportunities & resources = sky is the limit.

Sky is the limit ???.. But where are the birds ..

The birds are flying too high for you on the ground to see...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To the original point about UVA, welcome to the wonderful world of quotas.

UVA accepts about 200 TJ kids each year!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

Yes, agree with above. But, also have to add that the curriculum at TJ is unparalled to any high school. When you have bright kids matched with opportunities & resources = sky is the limit.

Sky is the limit ???.. But where are the birds ..

The birds are flying too high for you on the ground to see...

LOL. I don't understand the sour grapes about TJ. I don't have a dog in the fight (my kids had no interest in applying). So, why spend all this time whining about a school. Do you even have a kid who graduated from there to have a credible opinion? Or is it just sour grapes because your kid didn't get in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are simply making things up when you claim TJ was built to challenge bored under-performers. It wasn't. It was built for two reasons. First, the county politicians at the time - largely Republicans - wanted a "tech" school that would reinforce the message that Fairfax County was open for business for any company willing to relocate to office parks in Chantilly, Reston and Tysons. Second, FCPS had excess capacity in eastern Fairfax, so it was either going to close one of Annandale, Jefferson or Stuart, or open a magnet there. At the time, FCPS was still overwhelmingly white, so there was no expectation that Asians already familiar with cut-throat admissions to secondary schools would flock there and dominate the school. But they did, so depending on the day of the week FCPS is either proud of having the top high school in the country or embarrassed that its flagship school has demographics that look nothing like the county in which it is located.

I was there when it was approved; I spoke before the school board. I was questioned on the lack of challenges; how one one day, my Algebra II teacher called home to 1) report that I was underperforming in class because of missed homework assignments (got A's on the test), and at the same time I scored the highest in the school on a math assessment, and I was going to be invited to go to states....How the curriculum was crushing my enthusiasm for science.

When include HW on the grade, you punish the truly brilliant kids. For me, it was just busy work. I would do the work until I understood the process. But, when 25% of your grade is homework, then 100% on tests and 0 on homework gives a C. That is how I got a C in Algebra II-Trig.

I'm sure it's nice to think the decision to open TJHSST was all about kids like you, but it really wasn't. Your story is a side note. Most kids attending TJ would have done fine at their base schools, and kids like you probably would get turned away today. TJ students have plenty of homework and problem sets to complete.

Hence transformation of TJ to achievement factory -- from place where math and science-oriented kids who love learning can truly explore --- is complete. This is sad. I'll take the kid whose smart enough to see when he's done enough busywork and goes off to research some tangent he's interested in over the kid who promptly completes all his homework, any day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You are simply making things up when you claim TJ was built to challenge bored under-performers. It wasn't. It was built for two reasons. First, the county politicians at the time - largely Republicans - wanted a "tech" school that would reinforce the message that Fairfax County was open for business for any company willing to relocate to office parks in Chantilly, Reston and Tysons. Second, FCPS had excess capacity in eastern Fairfax, so it was either going to close one of Annandale, Jefferson or Stuart, or open a magnet there. At the time, FCPS was still overwhelmingly white, so there was no expectation that Asians already familiar with cut-throat admissions to secondary schools would flock there and dominate the school. But they did, so depending on the day of the week FCPS is either proud of having the top high school in the country or embarrassed that its flagship school has demographics that look nothing like the county in which it is located.

I was there when it was approved; I spoke before the school board. I was questioned on the lack of challenges; how one one day, my Algebra II teacher called home to 1) report that I was underperforming in class because of missed homework assignments (got A's on the test), and at the same time I scored the highest in the school on a math assessment, and I was going to be invited to go to states....How the curriculum was crushing my enthusiasm for science.

When include HW on the grade, you punish the truly brilliant kids. For me, it was just busy work. I would do the work until I understood the process. But, when 25% of your grade is homework, then 100% on tests and 0 on homework gives a C. That is how I got a C in Algebra II-Trig.

I'm sure it's nice to think the decision to open TJHSST was all about kids like you, but it really wasn't. Your story is a side note. Most kids attending TJ would have done fine at their base schools, and kids like you probably would get turned away today. TJ students have plenty of homework and problem sets to complete.

Hence transformation of TJ to achievement factory -- from place where math and science-oriented kids who love learning can truly explore --- is complete. This is sad. I'll take the kid whose smart enough to see when he's done enough busywork and goes off to research some tangent he's interested in over the kid who promptly completes all his homework, any day.

Wow - what assumptions you all make about kids you don't know from Adam. You do realize that base school kids also know how to "play the game" of getting good grades and padding the college resume, right? It's a sad state of affairs on US education. But, it's not isolated to TJ alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And here's where they went:

http://thebullelephant.com/college-destinations-for-tjhsst-class-of-2015/

Wow. 6 to Stanford, 8 to U. Chicago, 8 to MIT -- Wonder what other school in this region comes close to matching that?

None. TJ has the best overall college acceptances in the country since UVA and W&M are among the top schools in the country.

[Anonymous]

TJ is not for math or science genius.. The admission process is skewed towards holistic approach, where they have to be good at SIS, essays, middle school grades, teacher recommendations , and 20 - 30% from TJ test(math + English) ..

A pure math or science genius would have benefited from TJ labs, top teachers, facilities, etc... And TJ don't want them.

You have to see how coaching starts in the Asian communities from cogat and NNAT. Everything has to be spoon fed to their children .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

Yes, agree with above. But, also have to add that the curriculum at TJ is unparalled to any high school. When you have bright kids matched with opportunities & resources = sky is the limit.

Sky is the limit ???.. But where are the birds ..

The birds are flying too high for you on the ground to see...

Did you pad the bird with with electric wings ? It will run out of battery soon ..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

There are more "geniuses" at TJ than at top privates. You can't buy your way in and you can't use connections either. I thought people wanted meritocracy? Can't have it both ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

Yes, agree with above. But, also have to add that the curriculum at TJ is unparalled to any high school. When you have bright kids matched with opportunities & resources = sky is the limit.

Sky is the limit ???.. But where are the birds ..

The birds are flying too high for you on the ground to see...

Did you pad the bird with with electric wings ? It will run out of battery soon ..

Its wax wings will melt when it gets too close to the sun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ is not for math or science genius.. The admission process is skewed towards holistic approach, where they have to be good at SIS, essays, middle school grades, teacher recommendations , and 20 - 30% from TJ test(math + English) ..

A pure math or science genius would have benefited from TJ labs, top teachers, facilities, etc... And TJ don't want them.

You have to see how coaching starts in the Asian communities from cogat and NNAT. Everything has to be spoon fed to their children .

I don't think anyone denies this isn't the case. Again, it's sad. I'm not sure about the turning away geniuses comment. If your genius can't put sentences together, then yes that process is not for you.