TJHSST Class of 2015 College Acceptance Data

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The schools that people were talking about; Ivy League, MIT etc. offer need based aid only. No merit aid, so middle class kids with top stats might go to a Michigan or UMD with significant merit aid vs. MIT or Princeton at 60K per year.

When looking at the top schools, it's good to be poor and it's good to be rich.

Michigan doesn't offer a whole lot of aid to out-of-staters these days

Maybe TJ grads receive most of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That is good. We need very bright people in the humanities who understand science.

+1

And there is no reason a student who does well in STEM in high school should be required or expected to stay on the STEM track in college and beyond.

I have honestly never understood the handwringing about students from TJ studying other things in college. Personally, I was a literature kid who wrote poetry and was deeply interested in independent film in high school. Now I have a PhD in chemistry. People's interest change.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The number for UVa really jumps out. Why do some people say there is a bias against applicants from nova with impressive numbers like this? Is it because it's such a crapshoot in terms of getting in there from other nova high schools?

Too many people think their kids deserve UVA admissions despite the kids being just above average.

[Anonymous]

never understood the handwringing about students from TJ studying other things in college

Because the privileged few have been accepted to TJ based on their "need" for an elite STEM education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The schools that people were talking about; Ivy League, MIT etc. offer need based aid only. No merit aid, so middle class kids with top stats might go to a Michigan or UMD with significant merit aid vs. MIT or Princeton at 60K per year.

When looking at the top schools, it's good to be poor and it's good to be rich.

Michigan doesn't offer a whole lot of aid to out-of-staters these days

Maybe TJ grads receive most of them.

perhaps, but a listing of scholarships seems to be slanted to those with financial need or Michigan residents http://www.finaid.umich.edu/Home/TypesofAid/ScholarshipsandGrants/OFAScholarshipListing.aspx

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about these lists is that they may or may not be meaningful. There are many kids at these magnet programs, including Blair, who are qualified for but whose families cannot afford e.g. Harvard or MIT. These kids wind up at "lesser" schools like U.Va, U.Md, or Pitt, with lots of merit aid.

This doesn't make sense. The cost is really not an issue for low income families at the very top schools. If you are a stellar student, it is to your advantage to be in the low income status. Harvard will give you a full ride if you qualify.

Sure, how many poor kids are there at TJ though? Most are probably middle class/upper middle class who don't qualify for much if any aid.

Many qualify for merit aid including full rides to top public schools and few private ones.

The schools that people were talking about; Ivy League, MIT etc. offer need based aid only. No merit aid, so middle class kids with top stats might go to a Michigan or UMD with significant merit aid vs. MIT or Princeton at 60K per year.

When looking at the top schools, it's good to be poor and it's good to be rich.

MIT and Princeton are very affordable for the middle class. If your income is at or below $180K, you will pay 10% of your income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's the families in the middle who cannot afford e.g. Harvard or MIT. Our HHI is $230K and with two college-bound kids, we cannot pay $65k/year/kid x 8 years. Not possible. Our kid will wind up at a state school or someplace that gives him merit aid bc Harvard and MIT et al do not give merit or financial aid to families like us.

Harvard actually does, assuming your FAFSA shows that with $150K after-tax HHI, you can't afford to take out $120K tuition/board out of that $150K.

FAFSA will often if not most of the time show a higher EFC than what a family can actually pay.

PP here with the $230K gross HHI. FAFSA says we can pay $60k. Impossible.

Interesting. Even if you paid $60K per year for college, you'd still have a household income greater than 98% of the country. Really makes you wonder how the "others" live, eh?.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The number for UVa really jumps out. Why do some people say there is a bias against applicants from nova with impressive numbers like this? Is it because it's such a crapshoot in terms of getting in there from other nova high schools?

Precisely. UVA takes mostly from TJ. Ten if a good year from Langley. 8 from McLean. Zero from others, etc. That's why you see posters coming on here complaining about how difficult it is to get into UVA from NoVA. There is simply no way Langley was going to support our son's application to UVA when they have 600 in the senior class and know only a few will get picked - hence it has now become very competitive for Va Tech and GMU. The VA parents need to send their kids somewhere they can afford. It's simply too difficult to get into UVA from NoVA so parents try W&M, Va Tech, GMU, JMU, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The number for UVa really jumps out. Why do some people say there is a bias against applicants from nova with impressive numbers like this? Is it because it's such a crapshoot in terms of getting in there from other nova high schools?

Precisely. UVA takes mostly from TJ. Ten if a good year from Langley. 8 from McLean. Zero from others, etc. That's why you see posters coming on here complaining about how difficult it is to get into UVA from NoVA. There is simply no way Langley was going to support our son's application to UVA when they have 600 in the senior class and know only a few will get picked - hence it has now become very competitive for Va Tech and GMU. The VA parents need to send their kids somewhere they can afford. It's simply too difficult to get into UVA from NoVA so parents try W&M, Va Tech, GMU, JMU, etc.

Why do you say 0 from other schools? I live in PWC and know of kids from each high school who are at UVA.

[Anonymous]

How many students were in the class of 2015?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The thing about these lists is that they may or may not be meaningful. There are many kids at these magnet programs, including Blair, who are qualified for but whose families cannot afford e.g. Harvard or MIT. These kids wind up at "lesser" schools like U.Va, U.Md, or Pitt, with lots of merit aid.

This doesn't make sense. The cost is really not an issue for low income families at the very top schools. If you are a stellar student, it is to your advantage to be in the low income status. Harvard will give you a full ride if you qualify.

Sure, how many poor kids are there at TJ though? Most are probably middle class/upper middle class who don't qualify for much if any aid.

Many qualify for merit aid including full rides to top public schools and few private ones.

The schools that people were talking about; Ivy League, MIT etc. offer need based aid only. No merit aid, so middle class kids with top stats might go to a Michigan or UMD with significant merit aid vs. MIT or Princeton at 60K per year.

When looking at the top schools, it's good to be poor and it's good to be rich.

MIT and Princeton are very affordable for the middle class. If your income is at or below $180K, you will pay 10% of your income.

And if your income is $200k, you will pay $65k/year. Which most people in that bracket cannot afford. And so their kids go to the other schools mentioned in this thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

It's the families in the middle who cannot afford e.g. Harvard or MIT. Our HHI is $230K and with two college-bound kids, we cannot pay $65k/year/kid x 8 years. Not possible. Our kid will wind up at a state school or someplace that gives him merit aid bc Harvard and MIT et al do not give merit or financial aid to families like us.

Harvard actually does, assuming your FAFSA shows that with $150K after-tax HHI, you can't afford to take out $120K tuition/board out of that $150K.

FAFSA will often if not most of the time show a higher EFC than what a family can actually pay.

PP here with the $230K gross HHI. FAFSA says we can pay $60k. Impossible.

Interesting. Even if you paid $60K per year for college, you'd still have a household income greater than 98% of the country. Really makes you wonder how the "others" live, eh?.

Yes. But bear in mind that FAFSA does not take COL into account. Most people in the country are not paying $$$ for housing as we do her eyes.

[Anonymous]

*as we do here*

IOW, $230K in Columbus, OH is treated the same as $230K in metro DC. Which, as we all know, it is not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many students were in the class of 2015?

TJ class of 2015 was about 425 graduates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do we have the stats for enrolled numbers? I don't understand why that's not collected.

One word: FERPA