can TJ parents share their experiences

[Anonymous]

can you share your experiences of sending your child to TJ.

Did your student stay up late to study for long hours?
Was the commute to the school tiring and time consuming? Did the student study on the bus to make best use of commute time?
what parent intervention did you do for : bad grades, sick days, too much work load days...
Did work load leave any time for hobbies? if so can you mention the hobbies?
How often did you have to look for a tutor for hard subjects?
How did you support your TJ student as a family? did you offer help to pack their lunch, do their chores?
What was the most valuable elective/class/after school club that your child ever took in TJ that helped them the most?
was the whole experience over whelming or better than what you thought?

Those are just some opening questions.
If you all don't mind, can you share your experiences/advice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can you share your experiences of sending your child to TJ.

Did your student stay up late to study for long hours?
Was the commute to the school tiring and time consuming? Did the student study on the bus to make best use of commute time?
what parent intervention did you do for : bad grades, sick days, too much work load days...
Did work load leave any time for hobbies? if so can you mention the hobbies?
How often did you have to look for a tutor for hard subjects?
How did you support your TJ student as a family? did you offer help to pack their lunch, do their chores?
What was the most valuable elective/class/after school club that your child ever took in TJ that helped them the most?
was the whole experience over whelming or better than what you thought?

Those are just some opening questions.
If you all don't mind, can you share your experiences/advice.

Often up to midnight studying...
1 hour each way...slept in the morning, studied in the afternoon.
No intervention
No tutor.
There was no accommodations

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can you share your experiences of sending your child to TJ.

Responses:

Did your student stay up late to study for long hours? Only during Junior year and only because my son was taking all Aps/Post APs
Was the commute to the school tiring and time consuming? Not really, usually 30 to 35 minutes each way.
Did the student study on the bus to make best use of commute time? Usually slept or talked with other kids on the bus.
what parent intervention did you do for : bad grades, sick days, too much work load days... No bad grades, only few sick days and they were easily made up. There certainly were too much work load days and I stayed up with my son to offer moral support until he went to sleep (during junior year).
Did work load leave any time for hobbies? Yes. if so can you mention the hobbies? swimming, golf and drawing.
How often did you have to look for a tutor for hard subjects? There were no tutors. I didn't believe in tutors even with difficult post AP classes.
How did you support your TJ student as a family? did you offer help to pack their lunch, do their chores? Prepared/packed lunch, helped with some administrative matters, picked him up from school at times, drove him to many tournaments, volunteered/chaperoned at school events etc.
What was the most valuable elective/class/after school club that your child ever took in TJ that helped them the most? Elective classes: AI, Linear Algebra, Complex Variables, DNA Science, Required Class: Design & Tech, AP Government, Senior Research Lab, Clubs : Debate, MUN, JeffSoc
was the whole experience over whelming or better than what you thought? Better than expected.

Those are just some opening questions.
If you all don't mind, can you share your experiences/advice.

My son had some rough times during junior year staying up late but he feels he received one of the best high school education and met truly amazing teachers and students with whom he could discuss almost anything (politics, international finance/trade, philosophy, history, classics, particle physics, finer points/rules of grammar, mathematical concepts, moral/ethical dilemmas, classic literature etc.) Excelling in classes/clubs were not looked down upon and there were hardly any (none that I know of) common distractions such as illegal substances, alcohol, bullying etc.

I truly appreciate that my son was able to grow intellectually and as a person and that he is extremely well prepared for any college level work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can you share your experiences of sending your child to TJ.

Did your student stay up late to study for long hours? yes, many many nights up until 2AM
Was the commute to the school tiring and time consuming? Did the student study on the bus to make best use of commute time? Not so long; it would have helped if we could have driven him. He mostly talked in the bus
what parent intervention did you do for : bad grades, sick days, too much work load days... he is sick a lot
Did work load leave any time for hobbies? if so can you mention the hobbies? no. plays on a sports team.
How often did you have to look for a tutor for hard subjects? on and off -- some of the teachers are not great
How did you support your TJ student as a family? did you offer help to pack their lunch, do their chores? do his chores, make lunch to carry in
What was the most valuable elective/class/after school club that your child ever took in TJ that helped them the most? sports. don't really have time for a lot of ex c
was the whole experience over whelming or better than what you thought? compared to base school better. Compared to private, worse.

Those are just some opening questions.
If you all don't mind, can you share your experiences/advice.

I think the days of all the geek you can be are over at TJ. Now it is all the driven you can be. There are quite a few wealthy families at TJ who are aiming high for their DCs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:can you share your experiences of sending your child to TJ.

Did your student stay up late to study for long hours?
Was the commute to the school tiring and time consuming? Did the student study on the bus to make best use of commute time?
what parent intervention did you do for : bad grades, sick days, too much work load days...
Did work load leave any time for hobbies? if so can you mention the hobbies?
How often did you have to look for a tutor for hard subjects?
How did you support your TJ student as a family? did you offer help to pack their lunch, do their chores?
What was the most valuable elective/class/after school club that your child ever took in TJ that helped them the most?
was the whole experience over whelming or better than what you thought?

Those are just some opening questions.
If you all don't mind, can you share your experiences/advice.

1. Yes, my child stayed up late, but so does his sibling who attends the neighborhood high school.
2. Commute is an unusual circumstance for us. TJ is kind of on my way to work, so I dropped of DS very often for the first two years. We also frequently paid an older neighbor who attended TJ to drive DS to school. The latter is a fairly common experience. I think you will find that many TJ kids get cars once they get licenses, if it is at all financially feasible for the family. Once DS started to drive, it was a real game-changer.
3. No intervention for bad grades besides following up with DS. I occasionally called in "sick" for him (like, twice or so a year) so he could stay home and rest and relax.
4. DS played varsity sports in multiple seasons over all four years. Most TJ kids are heavily involved in sports, clubs or other extra-curriculars.
5. No tutors or other academic interventions, including prep classes or summer classes. My thought on this is that if the kid can't do it on his/her own with the internal supports provided by the school, he/she shouldn't be there.
6. DS was so busy with school and sports that he rarely had time for chores. I gave him a lot more "free" spending and gas money than I would have otherwise.
7. Extra-curriculars depend on the child. IMO if the kid just studies all the time and ends up with a 4.5 GPA and no ECs then the time at TJ has been wasted. I love the school spirit and the heavily involved student body. You'll be told that every student should try something. I heartily concur with this.

[Anonymous]

Thank you TJ parents for posting your comments.
It is really helpful.

[Anonymous]

The sports and EC comments are the truth. No matter how busy the students are with homework, most of them play a sport or have a heavy EC (Model UN, theater acting or production, band, orchestra, science / math clubs, etc.) in addition to the courseload. Some have multiple such activities. It can end up a lot of driving and overlap of activities so you have to juggle. When that intersects with major project deadlines it gets even more interesting. But the really involved kids seem like they love what they are doing and would not change it.

[Anonymous]

The bottom 1/3 of the TJ graduating class will make up top 1/3 of any colleges in the country except maybe Caltech and MIT. TJ is great if one wants to go on to medical school/graduate school.

[Anonymous]

TJ parent here -- we live in Arlington. Son takes bus to school (leaves house at 7:20--school starts at 8:30). He gets home late because of sports at school (around 6:30/7:00). Normal homework load is 3-4 hours. Never in bed before 11:00. Latest he's been up is 1:00 (twice this year). Kids are very driven but not at all competitive with each other -- it is not a cut throat place as far as we've seen. I'll tell you what I tell everyone: if your child REALLY wants to go then they should. If not, send them to their base school. You have to really want to be there to be happy. And forget the nonsense about "whites" being lonely. The kids are far less aware of race than the crazies on this list serve!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ parent here -- we live in Arlington. Son takes bus to school (leaves house at 7:20--school starts at 8:30). He gets home late because of sports at school (around 6:30/7:00). Normal homework load is 3-4 hours. Never in bed before 11:00. Latest he's been up is 1:00 (twice this year). Kids are very driven but not at all competitive with each other -- it is not a cut throat place as far as we've seen. I'll tell you what I tell everyone: if your child REALLY wants to go then they should. If not, send them to their base school. You have to really want to be there to be happy. And forget the nonsense about "whites" being lonely. The kids are far less aware of race than the crazies on this list serve!

+1

[Anonymous]

My non-Asian child loves TJ. He's happy and doesn't seem to mind the long hours and heavy workload. The Arlington PP's experience is similar to ours. However, I do worry about balance as there is not a lot of downtime for these kids and I hate how my TJ child's workload drives the train for the rest of the family. But, I bite my tongue because he is happy.