No benefit for attending a top ranked high school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:shhhh don't tell the parents of the whiteman kids. shhhhhh

Curious--are you the poster who always does this "Whiteman" schtick? I can't believe there are multiple people who think it's funny, but you sure are busy if you are the only one.

We and most of our friends with kids at Whitman were really happy with college acceptances this year, but we went into it understanding that unhooked kids at Whitman don't have any better odds than kids elsewhere at getting into most ivies (other than Cornell, which seems to really like Whitman kids) or other top 10 schools.

no i am not but i went there and it was called that back then and still is. and i made sure my kids would not go there by moving out of the cluster

[Anonymous]

TJ and UVA- the acceptance data is not out for class of 2017 yet, though apparently 62 students have enrolled from class of 2017. Last year 348 students applied and 224 were accepted. That's a 64% acceptance rate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child goes to high school to grow up and have an education. You don't send them to a school just for college admissions. How is sending your child to a less resourced school with less experienced teachers and weaker classmates going to improve their education? Pick the best education you can for your child. If they love the sciences, send them to a specialized magnet program. Even if they end up at the state land grant, they will start with a better foundation than most of their college classmates. No school is going to automatically get them into a top tier college. Exeter and Andover may send 25% of their class to HYPS, but 20% are legacy development cases.

I mostly agree with this. Ds is at blair science magnet and it is very hard to get straight As and extremely hard to stand out We thought about whether we should send him to our Bethesda area high school to improve his college admissions chances but we never considered it seriously. Ds would not have been happy at his home high school. He loves the challenging curriculum, the other students and the teachers are very good. 40%!of the program goes onto UMD where they typically enroll in their honors program and most get considerable merit aid. This is a definite possibility for ds. We know he will be in good company, and he will have most of his college fund available for grad school. These kids do well upon graduation from UMD so that is reassuring. He will apply to a range of schools mostly top 30 but we don't have tunnel vision

I will never understand parents who skip out on opportunities like TJ to game the system of college admissions. Life does not end when the college letters arrive in May. You are investing in your child's education with a challenging environment and cohort that they will take into college and the workplace. It's a disservice to the student for parents to have this anxiety then consequently steer them away from "hard" things.

To suggest that TJ is the only place in NoVA/Blair (or another magnet) in MoCo where a student can experience "a challenging environment and cohort they will take into college and the workplace" or "hard things", or that a child who elects to attend their base/home school will be unprepared for the rigors of college and career is silly to the point of absurdity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child goes to high school to grow up and have an education. You don't send them to a school just for college admissions. How is sending your child to a less resourced school with less experienced teachers and weaker classmates going to improve their education? Pick the best education you can for your child. If they love the sciences, send them to a specialized magnet program. Even if they end up at the state land grant, they will start with a better foundation than most of their college classmates. No school is going to automatically get them into a top tier college. Exeter and Andover may send 25% of their class to HYPS, but 20% are legacy development cases.

I mostly agree with this. Ds is at blair science magnet and it is very hard to get straight As and extremely hard to stand out We thought about whether we should send him to our Bethesda area high school to improve his college admissions chances but we never considered it seriously. Ds would not have been happy at his home high school. He loves the challenging curriculum, the other students and the teachers are very good. 40%!of the program goes onto UMD where they typically enroll in their honors program and most get considerable merit aid. This is a definite possibility for ds. We know he will be in good company, and he will have most of his college fund available for grad school. These kids do well upon graduation from UMD so that is reassuring. He will apply to a range of schools mostly top 30 but we don't have tunnel vision

I will never understand parents who skip out on opportunities like TJ to game the system of college admissions. Life does not end when the college letters arrive in May. You are investing in your child's education with a challenging environment and cohort that they will take into college and the workplace. It's a disservice to the student for parents to have this anxiety then consequently steer them away from "hard" things.

To suggest that TJ is the only place in NoVA/Blair (or another magnet) in MoCo where a student can experience "a challenging environment and cohort they will take into college and the workplace" or "hard things", or that a child who elects to attend their base/home school will be unprepared for the rigors of college and career is silly to the point of absurdity.

You do realize that the premise of this thread is "why bother going to a top high school when you can just go to a 'lesser' high school and stand out?". Reading comprehension is useful.

[Anonymous]

I recall when my DC was accepted to TJ there was a meeting for parents who were deciding whether to send their kids to TJ. During the meeting, the principal or counselor giving the presentation told all assembled parents that if we (parents) thought sending our child to TJ was a ticket to the Ivy League, we were mistaken and that it could in most cases make it tougher for our kids to get in. However, if your child had a love of STEM, TJ is a wonderful place to learn for 4 years with the best and brightest, and they will come out well prepared for the rigors of any college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is precisely why my DD did not consider TJ. There is no life-time advantage. She is probably in the top 5% of her FCPS high-school (mostly all A's.) More importantly, she is happy and relaxed. She will do fine.

Silly way of looking at things. Polished TJ kids that don't get into the elites still breeze through colleges like UVA, UMich, Wisconsin, VTech.

124 TJ seniors were rejected by UVA this year. Your statement is false.

However, almost 2/3 were accepted to UVA and almost 90% to Va Tech (and many of those to the engineering program) and William & Mary. What other school in Northern VA can claim admission #s like that?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child goes to high school to grow up and have an education. You don't send them to a school just for college admissions. How is sending your child to a less resourced school with less experienced teachers and weaker classmates going to improve their education? Pick the best education you can for your child. If they love the sciences, send them to a specialized magnet program. Even if they end up at the state land grant, they will start with a better foundation than most of their college classmates. No school is going to automatically get them into a top tier college. Exeter and Andover may send 25% of their class to HYPS, but 20% are legacy development cases.

I mostly agree with this. Ds is at blair science magnet and it is very hard to get straight As and extremely hard to stand out We thought about whether we should send him to our Bethesda area high school to improve his college admissions chances but we never considered it seriously. Ds would not have been happy at his home high school. He loves the challenging curriculum, the other students and the teachers are very good. 40%!of the program goes onto UMD where they typically enroll in their honors program and most get considerable merit aid. This is a definite possibility for ds. We know he will be in good company, and he will have most of his college fund available for grad school. These kids do well upon graduation from UMD so that is reassuring. He will apply to a range of schools mostly top 30 but we don't have tunnel vision

I will never understand parents who skip out on opportunities like TJ to game the system of college admissions. Life does not end when the college letters arrive in May. You are investing in your child's education with a challenging environment and cohort that they will take into college and the workplace. It's a disservice to the student for parents to have this anxiety then consequently steer them away from "hard" things.

To suggest that TJ is the only place in NoVA/Blair (or another magnet) in MoCo where a student can experience "a challenging environment and cohort they will take into college and the workplace" or "hard things", or that a child who elects to attend their base/home school will be unprepared for the rigors of college and career is silly to the point of absurdity.

You do realize that the premise of this thread is "why bother going to a top high school when you can just go to a 'lesser' high school and stand out?". Reading comprehension is useful.

Ya, that was my point. To suggest that IF a student goes to a lesser high school/not TJ to stand out (or for any other reason), then said student is going to miss out on a rigorous education/be unprepared for college and career/be in a challenging environment (as the PPs I was replying to did) is silly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is precisely why my DD did not consider TJ. There is no life-time advantage. She is probably in the top 5% of her FCPS high-school (mostly all A's.) More importantly, she is happy and relaxed. She will do fine.

Silly way of looking at things. Polished TJ kids that don't get into the elites still breeze through colleges like UVA, UMich, Wisconsin, VTech.

124 TJ seniors were rejected by UVA this year. Your statement is false.

However, almost 2/3 were accepted to UVA and almost 90% to Va Tech (and many of those to the engineering program) and William & Mary. What other school in Northern VA can claim admission #s like that?

Your assertion is totally meaningless. You can not compare TJ acceptances to base acceptances...it is silly. What is of interest to me is...if the TJ students had attended their base schools and applied to the same colleges would the results have been similar? I would suspect that those in the lower half at TJ would have done better on average at the base school.

VT is a fine school, but it has an admission rate of over 72%.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Your child goes to high school to grow up and have an education. You don't send them to a school just for college admissions. How is sending your child to a less resourced school with less experienced teachers and weaker classmates going to improve their education? Pick the best education you can for your child. If they love the sciences, send them to a specialized magnet program. Even if they end up at the state land grant, they will start with a better foundation than most of their college classmates. No school is going to automatically get them into a top tier college. Exeter and Andover may send 25% of their class to HYPS, but 20% are legacy development cases.

I mostly agree with this. Ds is at blair science magnet and it is very hard to get straight As and extremely hard to stand out We thought about whether we should send him to our Bethesda area high school to improve his college admissions chances but we never considered it seriously. Ds would not have been happy at his home high school. He loves the challenging curriculum, the other students and the teachers are very good. 40%!of the program goes onto UMD where they typically enroll in their honors program and most get considerable merit aid. This is a definite possibility for ds. We know he will be in good company, and he will have most of his college fund available for grad school. These kids do well upon graduation from UMD so that is reassuring. He will apply to a range of schools mostly top 30 but we don't have tunnel vision

I will never understand parents who skip out on opportunities like TJ to game the system of college admissions. Life does not end when the college letters arrive in May. You are investing in your child's education with a challenging environment and cohort that they will take into college and the workplace. It's a disservice to the student for parents to have this anxiety then consequently steer them away from "hard" things.

To suggest that TJ is the only place in NoVA/Blair (or another magnet) in MoCo where a student can experience "a challenging environment and cohort they will take into college and the workplace" or "hard things", or that a child who elects to attend their base/home school will be unprepared for the rigors of college and career is silly to the point of absurdity.

You do realize that the premise of this thread is "why bother going to a top high school when you can just go to a 'lesser' high school and stand out?". Reading comprehension is useful.

Ya, that was my point. To suggest that IF a student goes to a lesser high school/not TJ to stand out (or for any other reason), then said student is going to miss out on a rigorous education/be unprepared for college and career/be in a challenging environment (as the PPs I was replying to did) is silly.

NP here: no it's not silly. If you think all FCPS schools (for example) are the same rigor/Cohort/challenging, then you're delusional.

[Anonymous]

One would think that the 124 TJ students rejected by UVA, who had the grades and test scores to get into TJ in the first place, would have probably done a lot better in getting accepted at UVA if they had stayed at their base school and continued to work as they had in middle school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One would think that the 124 TJ students rejected by UVA, who had the grades and test scores to get into TJ in the first place, would have probably done a lot better in getting accepted at UVA if they had stayed at their base school and continued to work as they had in middle school.

But will they have learned as much if they attended their base schools. Maybe some but certainly not most.

[Anonymous]

But would they have had a more balanced, less stressed-out life, and perhaps better self-esteem from not ending up at the bottom of their class.

[Anonymous]

I got flamed earlier but if they aren't in the top 50% at TJ then they are going to get the same benefit as taking your typical track at most of the decent highschools in this area assuming that they would have been in the top 10% at their base school

Read multiple APs every year and at least up to Calculus AB and more if desired

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is precisely why my DD did not consider TJ. There is no life-time advantage. She is probably in the top 5% of her FCPS high-school (mostly all A's.) More importantly, she is happy and relaxed. She will do fine.

Silly way of looking at things. Polished TJ kids that don't get into the elites still breeze through colleges like UVA, UMich, Wisconsin, VTech.

124 TJ seniors were rejected by UVA this year. Your statement is false.

However, almost 2/3 were accepted to UVA and almost 90% to Va Tech (and many of those to the engineering program) and William & Mary. What other school in Northern VA can claim admission #s like that?

Your assertion is totally meaningless. You can not compare TJ acceptances to base acceptances...it is silly. What is of interest to me is...if the TJ students had attended their base schools and applied to the same colleges would the results have been similar? I would suspect that those in the lower half at TJ would have done better on average at the base school.

VT is a fine school, but it has an admission rate of over 72%.

That 72% is for the school overall. TJ kids go to the engineering school which is much tougher to get into.

[Anonymous]

Well, if you all are interested, TJ Today just published the class of 2017 and I think it's very impressive all-around from top to bottom.