Reasons why one would not accept TJ offer?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does Curie offer Summer classes?

Yes, Curie offers a wide range of summer STEM courses. We are enrolled at Curie during the year for academics, and DC wants to continue challenge during the summer as well, but do something more interesting. We enrolled in Robotics & Arduinos last summer, and this summer looking forward to Product Design STEM Camp. There is also the Creative Writing Bootcamp, where as part of final project DC wrote an amazing story about visiting Galapagos Islands with their favorite Marvel characters.

Thank you we will look into those classes right way. DC is a hard core marvel fan too. lol.

We are very happy with Curie, but almost every Curie class is full. Please be considerate to existing students and don't make it more crowded. Please consider other enrichment centers.

About how many total kids go to Curie?

Curie has multiple locations as well as online classes. They dont publish counts but likely few hundreds.

One year they had over 100 admits to TJ so obviously that many. But could the number be close to 1000 8th graders?

I have a feeling many of those kids would get in without thus program. At the end of the day it's just like taking a practice SAT test. Eventually you have to also keep up in class.

Well no. Obviously they would not have - that was one of the reasons they changed the admissions test. Did they do fine once they got in? Probably. But no, without the specific prep directed at strategies for answering specific test questions, they would not have gotten in

That's why I think the new test is so clever. It's much less hackable (cheatable).

Once you account for per school quota, I think Curie's results have gone up. It is easier to prep kids fpr an essay than for advanced math problems.

You are funny. No one enrolls in Curie to prep for a silly essay. As was mentioned above, Curie Learning has always taught math, science, and english enrichment for advanced learners. It's the significant volume of Curie students that apply to TJ that result in their high acceptance numbers.

DP. Who is funny? The essays are the most important part of the application, since everyone who is eligible is taking similar classes and has a similar profile. They may be "light" or "silly" in your opinion but they are serious enough to allow the admissions people to pick their admitted class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Curie offer Summer classes?

Yes, Curie offers a wide range of summer STEM courses. We are enrolled at Curie during the year for academics, and DC wants to continue challenge during the summer as well, but do something more interesting. We enrolled in Robotics & Arduinos last summer, and this summer looking forward to Product Design STEM Camp. There is also the Creative Writing Bootcamp, where as part of final project DC wrote an amazing story about visiting Galapagos Islands with their favorite Marvel characters.

Thank you we will look into those classes right way. DC is a hard core marvel fan too. lol.

We are very happy with Curie, but almost every Curie class is full. Please be considerate to existing students and don't make it more crowded. Please consider other enrichment centers.

About how many total kids go to Curie?

Curie has multiple locations as well as online classes. They dont publish counts but likely few hundreds.

One year they had over 100 admits to TJ so obviously that many. But could the number be close to 1000 8th graders?

I have a feeling many of those kids would get in without thus program. At the end of the day it's just like taking a practice SAT test. Eventually you have to also keep up in class.

Well no. Obviously they would not have - that was one of the reasons they changed the admissions test. Did they do fine once they got in? Probably. But no, without the specific prep directed at strategies for answering specific test questions, they would not have gotten in

That's why I think the new test is so clever. It's much less hackable (cheatable).

Once you account for per school quota, I think Curie's results have gone up. It is easier to prep kids fpr an essay than for advanced math problems.

You are funny. No one enrolls in Curie to prep for a silly essay. As was mentioned above, Curie Learning has always taught math, science, and english enrichment for advanced learners. It's the significant volume of Curie students that apply to TJ that result in their high acceptance numbers.

DP. Who is funny? The essays are the most important part of the application, since everyone who is eligible is taking similar classes and has a similar profile. They may be "light" or "silly" in your opinion but they are serious enough to allow the admissions people to pick their admitted class.

I agree, essays have words, and words have the power to inspire, motivate, comfort, and heal. TJ is a STEM school, but instead of math and science, words are used to select applicants. Admissions people figured this out, alright.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Curie offer Summer classes?

Yes, Curie offers a wide range of summer STEM courses. We are enrolled at Curie during the year for academics, and DC wants to continue challenge during the summer as well, but do something more interesting. We enrolled in Robotics & Arduinos last summer, and this summer looking forward to Product Design STEM Camp. There is also the Creative Writing Bootcamp, where as part of final project DC wrote an amazing story about visiting Galapagos Islands with their favorite Marvel characters.

Thank you we will look into those classes right way. DC is a hard core marvel fan too. lol.

We are very happy with Curie, but almost every Curie class is full. Please be considerate to existing students and don't make it more crowded. Please consider other enrichment centers.

About how many total kids go to Curie?

Curie has multiple locations as well as online classes. They dont publish counts but likely few hundreds.

One year they had over 100 admits to TJ so obviously that many. But could the number be close to 1000 8th graders?

I have a feeling many of those kids would get in without thus program. At the end of the day it's just like taking a practice SAT test. Eventually you have to also keep up in class.

Well no. Obviously they would not have - that was one of the reasons they changed the admissions test. Did they do fine once they got in? Probably. But no, without the specific prep directed at strategies for answering specific test questions, they would not have gotten in

That's why I think the new test is so clever. It's much less hackable (cheatable).

Once you account for per school quota, I think Curie's results have gone up. It is easier to prep kids fpr an essay than for advanced math problems.

You are funny. No one enrolls in Curie to prep for a silly essay. As was mentioned above, Curie Learning has always taught math, science, and english enrichment for advanced learners. It's the significant volume of Curie students that apply to TJ that result in their high acceptance numbers.

DP. Who is funny? The essays are the most important part of the application, since everyone who is eligible is taking similar classes and has a similar profile. They may be "light" or "silly" in your opinion but they are serious enough to allow the admissions people to pick their admitted class.

I agree, essays have words, and words have the power to inspire, motivate, comfort, and heal. TJ is a STEM school, but instead of math and science, words are used to select applicants. Admissions people figured this out, alright.

Most importantly, words communicate. Which is vitally important for STEM - as every STEM professional knows, whether or not they are good at it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Curie offer Summer classes?

Yes, Curie offers a wide range of summer STEM courses. We are enrolled at Curie during the year for academics, and DC wants to continue challenge during the summer as well, but do something more interesting. We enrolled in Robotics & Arduinos last summer, and this summer looking forward to Product Design STEM Camp. There is also the Creative Writing Bootcamp, where as part of final project DC wrote an amazing story about visiting Galapagos Islands with their favorite Marvel characters.

Thank you we will look into those classes right way. DC is a hard core marvel fan too. lol.

We are very happy with Curie, but almost every Curie class is full. Please be considerate to existing students and don't make it more crowded. Please consider other enrichment centers.

About how many total kids go to Curie?

Curie has multiple locations as well as online classes. They dont publish counts but likely few hundreds.

One year they had over 100 admits to TJ so obviously that many. But could the number be close to 1000 8th graders?

I have a feeling many of those kids would get in without thus program. At the end of the day it's just like taking a practice SAT test. Eventually you have to also keep up in class.

Well no. Obviously they would not have - that was one of the reasons they changed the admissions test. Did they do fine once they got in? Probably. But no, without the specific prep directed at strategies for answering specific test questions, they would not have gotten in

That's why I think the new test is so clever. It's much less hackable (cheatable).

Once you account for per school quota, I think Curie's results have gone up. It is easier to prep kids fpr an essay than for advanced math problems.

You are funny. No one enrolls in Curie to prep for a silly essay. As was mentioned above, Curie Learning has always taught math, science, and english enrichment for advanced learners. It's the significant volume of Curie students that apply to TJ that result in their high acceptance numbers.

They still have their TJ admissions class. Do you think they continue to teach the Quant-Q?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Curie offer Summer classes?

Yes, Curie offers a wide range of summer STEM courses. We are enrolled at Curie during the year for academics, and DC wants to continue challenge during the summer as well, but do something more interesting. We enrolled in Robotics & Arduinos last summer, and this summer looking forward to Product Design STEM Camp. There is also the Creative Writing Bootcamp, where as part of final project DC wrote an amazing story about visiting Galapagos Islands with their favorite Marvel characters.

Thank you we will look into those classes right way. DC is a hard core marvel fan too. lol.

We are very happy with Curie, but almost every Curie class is full. Please be considerate to existing students and don't make it more crowded. Please consider other enrichment centers.

About how many total kids go to Curie?

Curie has multiple locations as well as online classes. They dont publish counts but likely few hundreds.

One year they had over 100 admits to TJ so obviously that many. But could the number be close to 1000 8th graders?

I have a feeling many of those kids would get in without thus program. At the end of the day it's just like taking a practice SAT test. Eventually you have to also keep up in class.

Well no. Obviously they would not have - that was one of the reasons they changed the admissions test. Did they do fine once they got in? Probably. But no, without the specific prep directed at strategies for answering specific test questions, they would not have gotten in

That's why I think the new test is so clever. It's much less hackable (cheatable).

Once you account for per school quota, I think Curie's results have gone up. It is easier to prep kids fpr an essay than for advanced math problems.

You are funny. No one enrolls in Curie to prep for a silly essay. As was mentioned above, Curie Learning has always taught math, science, and english enrichment for advanced learners. It's the significant volume of Curie students that apply to TJ that result in their high acceptance numbers.

DP. Who is funny? The essays are the most important part of the application, since everyone who is eligible is taking similar classes and has a similar profile. They may be "light" or "silly" in your opinion but they are serious enough to allow the admissions people to pick their admitted class.

I agree, essays have words, and words have the power to inspire, motivate, comfort, and heal. TJ is a STEM school, but instead of math and science, words are used to select applicants. Admissions people figured this out, alright.

Most importantly, words communicate. Which is vitally important for STEM - as every STEM professional knows, whether or not they are good at it.

TJ admission essays are never short of passionate about STEM cliche words, on which selection heavily relies. However, just knowing the words alone dont seem to be preventing a student from receiving smoothly curved C or D in TJ Math 1. That the irony of admitting student based on sob words, instead of math and science.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not wanting to be surrounded by myopic students solely focused on grades. I’ve heard some white students say it’s too Asian.

TJ students as a whole have much more in the way of extracurricular activities than the kids at base schools.
It's not even close.

If being a racial minority is a white student's biggest problem, then they got no problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We didn't believe our child would be in the top 10% or even the top 25% at TJ, so we declined the offer last year. Child was part of middle school math club, but there was significant gap between their math proficiency and that of students on the school's MathCounts team. We knew this gap would only be wider if our child were to attend TJ.

+1 here. The peer group at TJ is so high-achieving that if your kid isn't far-and-away the highest-achieving at his MS, DC will be mediocre at TJ. In that case, you/DC have to decide whether the opportunities at TJ outweigh the suppressed college choices.

People keep saying this but I'd like to see some data. I went to a magnet school in nyc and people said there was a penalty in college admissions because harvard wouldn't accept more than ~10 kids per year from my high school. After recent data released by harvard during the affirmative action litigation, it turns out that the penalty for attending my high school approximated the asian racial penalty. Staying at your base school doesn't make you any less asian, going to tjhsst doesn't make you any more asian. We don't know what the future looks like but i'd like to see data before believing that uva is flat out lying about discriminating against tj students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does Curie offer Summer classes?

Yes, Curie offers a wide range of summer STEM courses. We are enrolled at Curie during the year for academics, and DC wants to continue challenge during the summer as well, but do something more interesting. We enrolled in Robotics & Arduinos last summer, and this summer looking forward to Product Design STEM Camp. There is also the Creative Writing Bootcamp, where as part of final project DC wrote an amazing story about visiting Galapagos Islands with their favorite Marvel characters.

Thank you we will look into those classes right way. DC is a hard core marvel fan too. lol.

We are very happy with Curie, but almost every Curie class is full. Please be considerate to existing students and don't make it more crowded. Please consider other enrichment centers.

About how many total kids go to Curie?

Curie has multiple locations as well as online classes. They dont publish counts but likely few hundreds.

One year they had over 100 admits to TJ so obviously that many. But could the number be close to 1000 8th graders?

I have a feeling many of those kids would get in without thus program. At the end of the day it's just like taking a practice SAT test. Eventually you have to also keep up in class.

Well no. Obviously they would not have - that was one of the reasons they changed the admissions test. Did they do fine once they got in? Probably. But no, without the specific prep directed at strategies for answering specific test questions, they would not have gotten in

That's why I think the new test is so clever. It's much less hackable (cheatable).

Once you account for per school quota, I think Curie's results have gone up. It is easier to prep kids fpr an essay than for advanced math problems.

You are funny. No one enrolls in Curie to prep for a silly essay. As was mentioned above, Curie Learning has always taught math, science, and english enrichment for advanced learners. It's the significant volume of Curie students that apply to TJ that result in their high acceptance numbers.

DP. Who is funny? The essays are the most important part of the application, since everyone who is eligible is taking similar classes and has a similar profile. They may be "light" or "silly" in your opinion but they are serious enough to allow the admissions people to pick their admitted class.

I agree, essays have words, and words have the power to inspire, motivate, comfort, and heal. TJ is a STEM school, but instead of math and science, words are used to select applicants. Admissions people figured this out, alright.

Most importantly, words communicate. Which is vitally important for STEM - as every STEM professional knows, whether or not they are good at it.

TJ admission essays are never short of passionate about STEM cliche words, on which selection heavily relies. However, just knowing the words alone dont seem to be preventing a student from receiving smoothly curved C or D in TJ Math 1. That the irony of admitting student based on sob words, instead of math and science.

Eh. You can blather about "sob stories" but it just shows you don't know what you're talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not wanting to be surrounded by myopic students solely focused on grades. I’ve heard some white students say it’s too Asian.

TJ students as a whole have much more in the way of extracurricular activities than the kids at base schools.
It's not even close.

If being a racial minority is a white student's biggest problem, then they got no problems.

DP. You're being disingenuous (or possibly clueless). There are even Asian kids who don't want to go to a school that is too Asian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not wanting to be surrounded by myopic students solely focused on grades. I’ve heard some white students say it’s too Asian.

TJ students as a whole have much more in the way of extracurricular activities than the kids at base schools.
It's not even close.

If being a racial minority is a white student's biggest problem, then they got no problems.

Apart from the extraordinarily advanced STEM curriculum, this is probably the biggest separator between TJ and other schools. The existence of the during-school 8th-period activities program not only creates literally hundreds of club opportunities for students to choose from, but also allows students to participate both in those clubs AND in three seasons of varsity sports without significant conflict.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
It appears you are not familiar with the current diversity at TJ. We are first-generation German immigrants, and our DD interacts with peers of various ethnic backgrounds, including Russian, Chinese, Indian, and West Indies, in a multifaceted manner reminiscent of the cultural exchange experiences one might hope for in college with international students. Her circle of close friends, which began with TJ freshman projects like iBET, 8th-period clubs, and lacrosse team, has flourished with mutual cultural learning and collective participation in monthly cultural festival celebrations. Just this month, we all volunteered and celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year, and we are now preparing for the Indian festival of colors, among others.

We were also misinformed by racists who said TJ is all Asian Americans. As the principal mentioned, the last year class of students represented ethnicities from 40 plus countries, of which about 8 are Asian countries. Racists who tend to be weak in World Geography narrow down their focus to just Asian Americans, when there are two to three dozen other ethnicities ranging from Africa, Caribbean including West Indies, Latin America, North America, Europe, and Australia.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I understand every middle school will be given a few seats, but last year no one at our middle school accepted the offer. I could be mistaken, as I also heard one kid attended for a year, and returned to base high school. DC took the admissions test this month, and we think there is a good chance we will be made an offer. What I want to understand is why would one not accept a TJ offer? I hear everyone saying how much harder one has to study, but is it significantly more than what a student at base high school enrolled in all honors courses would need to study? How much time would be available to do sports? Trying to figure out if DC would be better off going to our high school with known friends and teammates, or tryout TJ, but definitely want to avoid the hassle of transferring if TJ isnt the right fit.

The lack of diversity is why my nephew declined.

feel sorry for your "nephew"
Diversity is why we accepted the offer. DC has made friends with kids with ethinic backgrounds from at least a dozen different countries - saudi arabia, china, sri lanka, south korea, india, philippines, bangladesh, afghanistan, malaysia, japan turkey, etc. In fact the principal at the orientation, made the crowd repeat "hello" in 15+ languages. Apparently, this year's class has kids speaking 40+ languages at home. wow!

We were present at the event and were surprised when the Principal came prepared to lead the crowd in saying "hello" in so many languages spoken by student families. Despite the stereotype that the school was predominantly American Asian, she employed a simple technique to ensure everyone recognized the diverse range of ethnic backgrounds represented in the recent class.

Next year maybe she can say hello in Greek, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Galic, Swedish, French, German, Croation, Serbian, Russian, . . .

I'm not sure Europe needs so much representation.
Europe is a different continent and the countries there have very different cultures than the culture here in this country. When the culture of this country is not predominant, then people in this country, whether their parents were born here or came here, there's an obvious mismatch.

It appears you are not familiar with the current diversity at TJ. We are first-generation German immigrants, and our DD interacts with peers of various ethnic backgrounds, including Russian, Chinese, Indian, and West Indies, in a multifaceted manner reminiscent of the cultural exchange experiences one might hope for in college with international students. Her circle of close friends, which began with TJ freshman projects like iBET, 8th-period clubs, and lacrosse team, has flourished with mutual cultural learning and collective participation in monthly cultural festival celebrations. Just this month, we all volunteered and celebrated the Chinese Lunar New Year, and we are now preparing for the Indian festival of colors, among others.

I get that there are celebrations for Asian cultures, but is there anything comparable for Hispanics or children of African descent?

Yes, they had very large events for Hispanic Heritage Month and Black History Month. You do not see this in most high schools.

Maybe they should celebrate American culture too, here and there. Especially for a school with so many immigrants - they want to learn about the US too, not just other countries.

You don't seem to know anything about the school culture so perhaps your ideas are not that relevant. It doesn't feel like you're going to school in a foreign country . Of course there are US-related things too.

Do all these immigrants even pay taxes or are they just milking FCPS?

Wait, do you think immigrants don't pay taxes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the kids are more well-rounded coming out of our local base HS, and I care about social things - wanted my kid to be with friends from the neighborhood and at a school closer to our house more than I care about prestige. He never applied in the first place because he agreed with me on these things. He's in 9th grade now and trust me - my husband and I don't use this loosely - but we think one of his friends is an actual genius. We've only said that about one other kid - a third grader who pushed up to our middle son's 5th grade AAP math class, and I think still knows more than the 5th graders. Anyway, this friend is applying to TJ for 10th grade, and they are idiots if they don't accept him. That said - I don't know if it wouldn't behoove him to stay at the base and be #1 there for college admissions. I hear the kids from TJ have a harder time getting into UVA because they think it's their safety school. ANYWAY - not my circus, not my monkey - so I'll mind my own business.

Very good points.

My child was at base in 9th grade and at TJ afterwards. The primary reason is social for the move.

My child cared very much about 2 activities. A sport that would be too competitive for child to be able to be on the team at base. Child likes it very much but weak in that sport. Child was able to play at TJ. Another activity had literally one other child who is interested in at base. Child had (well I had to remind child) to remind teachers about due dates to apply to that activity. It was lonely. At TJ, it is tough to get into the top 30 in that activity and there are nearly 100 who are interested. This is a fantastic social experience and the one of the most enjoyable parts of TJ for child.

Anyway went to TJ for the social aspects and HS experience in our case, but not due to prestige or college admissions perspective.

I really don’t see the justification to maintain a magnet school and provide transportation if one of the main remaining benefits is that it allows some kids to make sports teams they couldn’t make at their base schools.

Give it time, merit will come back into fashion at some point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Yes, they had very large events for Hispanic Heritage Month and Black History Month. You do not see this in most high schools.

Maybe they should celebrate American culture too, here and there. Especially for a school with so many immigrants - they want to learn about the US too, not just other countries.

American culture is celebrated every day, every minute, every second, etc... not just at TJ, but all FCPS schools. You know how? Student don't just "celebrate" American culture, instead they live it!
As a TJ community, we take time every month and pay special tribute to each unique culture through collective participation, contribution, and mutual respect. It is much more involved that what one would have noticed at other FCPS schools. Whether it be Black History month, Hispanic Heritage month, Chinese Lunar New Year, Indian Diwali & Holi, Thanksgiving & Christmas, etc., we are looking to take the time and effort to celebrate our unique cultural backgrounds collectively.

TJ diversity celebration events are the best. I volunteer and get there early for the unique ethnic food We are from Caribbean, and love spicy dishes. Mine and my DS's favorite is these steamed rice cakes with white spicy sauce with peanuts. I tried making them at home, and dont taste even close

Praise the lord! They might as well change the name to TJ School of Diversity. Holi celebration with hundreds of TJ kids was something. The TJ parking lot was in a riot of color, echoing with laughter and joyous shouts. Students in white t-shirts, were hurling vibrant Holi color powders into the air, creating like a kaleidoscope of hues, never seen anything like this. Faces smeared with colors, laughter in the air, breaking down barriers and bringing people together in a joyous celebration of life, love, and unity.

There are literally MORE white students under the new system than under the old system.
There were 86 white students admitted for the class of 2024 and 123 white students admitted for the class of 2025.
White students had the biggest absolute increase out of any racial group the year they lowered standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not wanting to be surrounded by myopic students solely focused on grades. I’ve heard some white students say it’s too Asian.

TJ students as a whole have much more in the way of extracurricular activities than the kids at base schools.
It's not even close.

If being a racial minority is a white student's biggest problem, then they got no problems.

Apart from the extraordinarily advanced STEM curriculum, this is probably the biggest separator between TJ and other schools. The existence of the during-school 8th-period activities program not only creates literally hundreds of club opportunities for students to choose from, but also allows students to participate both in those clubs AND in three seasons of varsity sports without significant conflict.

Agreed but when do they sleep?