TJ Grades

[Anonymous]

My daughter is currently in TJ, and is having a very hard time trying to "fit in". Not socially, but just get into the grove of things. Her report card is mostly made up of C's and B's. Is this normal?

[Anonymous]

So feeling your pain. DC is also a freshman trying to find his footing academically. He will probably end up with a pretty even split of As and Bs-- with a B- in Biology. For him, things have started to come together the last couple weeks, with a string of stronger grades. Otherwise, he would have ended up with a couple of Cs (and with grades outstanding, still could in Bio). I'm looking at a trend and feeling cautiously optimistic. Grades are slowly going up.

Good luck-- I think the academic adjustment is just tough.

[Anonymous]

DC is a sophmore, and had a really hard time adjusting to the school. First quarter in freshmen year, his highest grade was a b. Most were C+, but then next few quarters we had to work hard to bring his overall to a B. If your child has more B's than C's, its possible to bring it up to a A-, but only if you try really hard.

[Anonymous]

Just curious about whether you feel your child's middle school did an adequate job of preparing kids for TJ academically. My child is not at one of the major TJ feeder schools, and I am advising her not to worry about grades if she goes to TJ. I know it is really hard to adjust. I would say- focus on the positives and ask for support from the school especially in tough subjects. My sibling went to TJ and was able to overcome mediocre 9th and 10th grade grades to go on to an excellent college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just curious about whether you feel your child's middle school did an adequate job of preparing kids for TJ academically. My child is not at one of the major TJ feeder schools, and I am advising her not to worry about grades if she goes to TJ. I know it is really hard to adjust. I would say- focus on the positives and ask for support from the school especially in tough subjects. My sibling went to TJ and was able to overcome mediocre 9th and 10th grade grades to go on to an excellent college.

My DC came out of AAP at Carson, and I would say yes-- and no. I think he has as strong a background in math as any kid at TJ, and they gave him what he needed to succeed in terms of a strong foundation. He is also a very strong writer, which is serving him well. But there is a huge difference in terms of workload and expectations. An A project in 8th grade at Carson is a C at TJ. He has 2-3 times as much homework. And there is a much lower tolerance for late work, missing work and retakes. I'm glad to see he is not the only kid with a difficult adjustment period.

[Anonymous]

B's and C's ar TJ are equivalent to A's and B's anywhere else. Colleges recognize this.

Welcome to the big kids' table.

[Anonymous]

*at

[Anonymous]

What is the implication of getting mostly B's in TJ v/s getting mostly A's in base schools on college admission?

While I understand that TJ kids will be very well prepared for college courses and will do well long term, is it true that they may not get to certain colleges from TJ and might have gotten into those colleges from base school if they would have worked hard in base school?

Do we know how much consideration is given by colleges for TJ students with B grades or lower GPA's? Has it been quantified? For example, is a GPA of 4.1 from TJ (with post AP courses) is considered equivalent to a GPA of 4.5 from base school (with AP courses)? The GPA numbers I mentioned here are for example only and I would like to know numbers closer to reality. This is assuming that other factors like extra-curricular activities, leadership, volunteering, race, SAT scores etc are more or less the same between TJ and base school student.

[Anonymous]

A couple facts. TJ GPA Last year ranged from about a 3.4 to about a 4.5-4.6 (weighted). If you search DCUM and look at last year's college list, you will see that 95% of the TJ kids (GPAs as low as 3.5) went to colleges that FCPS kids with a 4.2-4.4 would love to attend. And many of the schools that do not immediately jump out (like U Illinois Champagna) have a top 10 engineering or CS department. Even the VA Tech kids were accepted to engineering, not general college. Some went to VCU to take advantage of the early/guaranteed admission program to men school. Tons of kids at top privates. And because most TJ kids are not from families wealthy enough to pay full freight private, they are likely getting significant merit aid. I forget the number, but the amount of merit aid for last year's class was shocking.

So yes, colleges know that an even split A-B average at TJ (unweighted 3.5) is stronger than anunweighteed 4.2 at a base school-- or higher, depending on the course load rigor. And a B/C average at TJ is stronger than an A/B at the base school.

Again-- search DCUM, pull the list of where kids are attending college. With a few exceptions for the bottom 5% (weighted 3.4), TJ kids do incredibly well in college admissions. And many are doing so on the school's dime

What do you expect from a school with almost 140 NMSFs?

[Anonymous]

^^ VCU med school. Men school would be...interesting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A couple facts. TJ GPA Last year ranged from about a 3.4 to about a 4.5-4.6 (weighted). If you search DCUM and look at last year's college list, you will see that 95% of the TJ kids (GPAs as low as 3.5) went to colleges that FCPS kids with a 4.2-4.4 would love to attend. And many of the schools that do not immediately jump out (like U Illinois Champagna) have a top 10 engineering or CS department. Even the VA Tech kids were accepted to engineering, not general college. Some went to VCU to take advantage of the early/guaranteed admission program to men school. Tons of kids at top privates. And because most TJ kids are not from families wealthy enough to pay full freight private, they are likely getting significant merit aid. I forget the number, but the amount of merit aid for last year's class was shocking.

So yes, colleges know that an even split A-B average at TJ (unweighted 3.5) is stronger than anunweighteed 4.2 at a base school-- or higher, depending on the course load rigor. And a B/C average at TJ is stronger than an A/B at the base school.

Again-- search DCUM, pull the list of where kids are attending college. With a few exceptions for the bottom 5% (weighted 3.4), TJ kids do incredibly well in college admissions. And many are doing so on the school's dime

What do you expect from a school with almost 140 NMSFs?

How do you get an unweighted 4.2? The bottom half at Tj is no better that the top 5-10% of fcps base schoold

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A couple facts. TJ GPA Last year ranged from about a 3.4 to about a 4.5-4.6 (weighted). If you search DCUM and look at last year's college list, you will see that 95% of the TJ kids (GPAs as low as 3.5) went to colleges that FCPS kids with a 4.2-4.4 would love to attend. And many of the schools that do not immediately jump out (like U Illinois Champagna) have a top 10 engineering or CS department. Even the VA Tech kids were accepted to engineering, not general college. Some went to VCU to take advantage of the early/guaranteed admission program to men school. Tons of kids at top privates. And because most TJ kids are not from families wealthy enough to pay full freight private, they are likely getting significant merit aid. I forget the number, but the amount of merit aid for last year's class was shocking.

So yes, colleges know that an even split A-B average at TJ (unweighted 3.5) is stronger than anunweighteed 4.2 at a base school-- or higher, depending on the course load rigor. And a B/C average at TJ is stronger than an A/B at the base school.

Again-- search DCUM, pull the list of where kids are attending college. With a few exceptions for the bottom 5% (weighted 3.4), TJ kids do incredibly well in college admissions. And many are doing so on the school's dime

What do you expect from a school with almost 140 NMSFs?

The total scholarship/merit aid (not financial aid) was approximately 39 million dollars for class of 2015.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple facts. TJ GPA Last year ranged from about a 3.4 to about a 4.5-4.6 (weighted). If you search DCUM and look at last year's college list, you will see that 95% of the TJ kids (GPAs as low as 3.5) went to colleges that FCPS kids with a 4.2-4.4 would love to attend. And many of the schools that do not immediately jump out (like U Illinois Champagna) have a top 10 engineering or CS department. Even the VA Tech kids were accepted to engineering, not general college. Some went to VCU to take advantage of the early/guaranteed admission program to men school. Tons of kids at top privates. And because most TJ kids are not from families wealthy enough to pay full freight private, they are likely getting significant merit aid. I forget the number, but the amount of merit aid for last year's class was shocking.

So yes, colleges know that an even split A-B average at TJ (unweighted 3.5) is stronger than anunweighteed 4.2 at a base school-- or higher, depending on the course load rigor. And a B/C average at TJ is stronger than an A/B at the base school.

Again-- search DCUM, pull the list of where kids are attending college. With a few exceptions for the bottom 5% (weighted 3.4), TJ kids do incredibly well in college admissions. And many are doing so on the school's dime

What do you expect from a school with almost 140 NMSFs?

How do you get an unweighted 4.2? The bottom half at Tj is no better that the top 5-10% of fcps base schoold

You don't. That's a typo. Should say an unweighted 3.5 at TJ is worth a lot more than a perfect (or close to perfect) unweighted base school GPA with a full compliment of honors and Aps. Again-- search DCUM for where the where TJ kids are attending college. Top 90% is mind blowingly impressively-- especially in top STEM schools. And especially considering the amount of merit aid the pull in.

Also-- remember SATs count. And the average TJ kid has 400-500 point on the average Langley, Madison, Woodson, Oakton, etc kid.

[Anonymous]

What helped my TJ kid was to get involved. Then they had to actually manage their time. In MS they were able to phone in work and get As (not at a big feeder). Tried to do the same first quarter freshman year and got a huge wake up call. They started getting involved in activities and we said "grades first". They were able to keep the grades up bc they wanted to stay involved, and so stopped the mindless screen wandering and Netflix watching. May (or may not) work for your kid. If that's not enough, ask for help - from the teachers, counselors, Asst Princ. Some are better than others, so keep asking.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A couple facts. TJ GPA Last year ranged from about a 3.4 to about a 4.5-4.6 (weighted). If you search DCUM and look at last year's college list, you will see that 95% of the TJ kids (GPAs as low as 3.5) went to colleges that FCPS kids with a 4.2-4.4 would love to attend. And many of the schools that do not immediately jump out (like U Illinois Champagna) have a top 10 engineering or CS department. Even the VA Tech kids were accepted to engineering, not general college. Some went to VCU to take advantage of the early/guaranteed admission program to men school. Tons of kids at top privates. And because most TJ kids are not from families wealthy enough to pay full freight private, they are likely getting significant merit aid. I forget the number, but the amount of merit aid for last year's class was shocking.

So yes, colleges know that an even split A-B average at TJ (unweighted 3.5) is stronger than anunweighteed 4.2 at a base school-- or higher, depending on the course load rigor. And a B/C average at TJ is stronger than an A/B at the base school.

Again-- search DCUM, pull the list of where kids are attending college. With a few exceptions for the bottom 5% (weighted 3.4), TJ kids do incredibly well in college admissions. And many are doing so on the school's dime

What do you expect from a school with almost 140 NMSFs?

The total scholarship/merit aid (not financial aid) was approximately 39 million dollars for class of 2015.

Wow. With 450 grads (about) that"s more than $85,000 a kid. And many kids went to IVy's, that don't give merit money. Given that caliber of school that the middle of the pack attends. Just wow.