Older TJ kids: is there regret w/college app results

[Anonymous]

The top two-thirds of the TJ class generally do just fine. It's the bottom third that regrets the most since transferring back to base school midstream also means those Cs and Ds follow them onto their base school transcript.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The top two-thirds of the TJ class generally do just fine. It's the bottom third that regrets the most since transferring back to base school midstream also means those Cs and Ds follow them onto their base school transcript.

Where does a kid around 50%-65% generally go? Emory/UVA type of school?

[Anonymous]

The TJ network is real and pretty awesome. I definitely got interviews early on because of it. I went to a state school, and never once regretted TJ. I found my people at TJ, and am still very good friends with many of them (a trillion years later).

I counsel all my kids' friends to go TJ for what you will get out of it in HS. 4 years is a long time for kids. If you are looking only at college admission, it's probably not the place for you. Of course lots of TJ kids go to amazing schools, but that isn't the best reason to go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Adding one more note - I was not a TJ grad, but at MIT there was a bunch of us that were upset about graduate school admissions. Mostly it was our grade point average that meant we wouldn't get to the interview process.

My friends and I had our graduate school rejection letters from Harvard posted in the bathroom. All of us landed at great schools, so looking back on it, it was no big deal. That said, it still stung.

In the absolute worst case scenario, a friend applied to 25 medical schools and got into none. She had to do a masters and reapply. She did eventually get in and became a MD.

This happened to a friend of mine at HYP. She gave up on med school, got into Wharton, is having a great career.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The TJ network is real and pretty awesome. I definitely got interviews early on because of it. I went to a state school, and never once regretted TJ. I found my people at TJ, and am still very good friends with many of them (a trillion years later).

I counsel all my kids' friends to go TJ for what you will get out of it in HS. 4 years is a long time for kids. If you are looking only at college admission, it's probably not the place for you. Of course lots of TJ kids go to amazing schools, but that isn't the best reason to go.

It does not matter beyond that…and you do understand that kids make and keep connections even when it isn’t TJ, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't go to TJ for the college profile.

Go there for the peer group, the chance to study really cool classes that you can't get anywhere else, and the whole TJ experience.

- really old TJ grad

Hahahahahaha!!! Sure, if you want a peer group os smart socially inept people. Most careers require social skills - mostly learned in HS.

Smart kids with no social skills just become a cog in someone else’s wheel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top two-thirds of the TJ class generally do just fine. It's the bottom third that regrets the most since transferring back to base school midstream also means those Cs and Ds follow them onto their base school transcript.

Where does a kid around 50%-65% generally go? Emory/UVA type of school?

possible, if aiming for a non-competitive major. CS/Mech/Aero engineering "in-state" UVA and VT would be a reach, however OOS any engineering school (excluding T30) is a feasible choice. UVA premed major (ranked 50th) is a target, but Emory pre-med major (ranked 25th) would be a reach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The top two-thirds of the TJ class generally do just fine. It's the bottom third that regrets the most since transferring back to base school midstream also means those Cs and Ds follow them onto their base school transcript.

Where does a kid around 50%-65% generally go? Emory/UVA type of school?

possible, if aiming for a non-competitive major. CS/Mech/Aero engineering "in-state" UVA and VT would be a reach, however OOS any engineering school (excluding T30) is a feasible choice. UVA premed major (ranked 50th) is a target, but Emory pre-med major (ranked 25th) would be a reach.

If those are just possible, then what was meant by: “ The top two-thirds of the TJ class generally do just fine.”

What is “just fine” because a possible admission isn’t just fine.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The school tells people not to go there if you want to go to top schools, there is too much competition. If you really want 0ne of the top 25 schools, go to your base school. I have an 8th grader applying for TJ and we have discussed this with him. It will come up again if he is accepted at TJ.

+1 agree. Even after all the selection changes (including over years). The top 20% (~100 students) will be very competitive and they will be taking over the limited slots at the T20/T30's. If you are not in top 20% the chances of getting to top colleges are lower from TJ.

The 50th percentile at TJ might get into UVA. The same student will be top 5% or higher at their base school and will likely get into UVA

My fav TJ-parent belief: my kid would have been top x% had kid gone to the base school. Never change, please!! ❤️

And yet, it is true that for college admissions it is better to be top 20% at a base HS than bottom 50% at TJ. Some highly capable students stay at their base school for this reason.

The other reality is that many at TJ are really targeting Medical School, and are not targeting a STEM career.

Yes…but TJ parents truly believe had their kids gone to the base HS they absolutely would have been at the top there. I think being bottom 50% at any HS is a recipe for failure for a highly rejective school.

Because for the most part this is true. Exceptions sure but most TJ kids would rank higher at their base school than they do at TJ just given the nature of the magnet school and the harsh reality that there can only be half of any class in the top 50%.

Thank you!! Again, don’t stop!!! The only way you are right is if the nearly all the mid ranked TJ students are brilliant and the essentially all the base top students are dummies and/or only appear bright bc of grade inflation.

This is such an idiotic post. Someone who does not have basic analytical skills. Can you not see the flaw in your logic?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The school tells people not to go there if you want to go to top schools, there is too much competition. If you really want 0ne of the top 25 schools, go to your base school. I have an 8th grader applying for TJ and we have discussed this with him. It will come up again if he is accepted at TJ.

+1 agree. Even after all the selection changes (including over years). The top 20% (~100 students) will be very competitive and they will be taking over the limited slots at the T20/T30's. If you are not in top 20% the chances of getting to top colleges are lower from TJ.

The 50th percentile at TJ might get into UVA. The same student will be top 5% or higher at their base school and will likely get into UVA

My fav TJ-parent belief: my kid would have been top x% had kid gone to the base school. Never change, please!! ❤️

And yet, it is true that for college admissions it is better to be top 20% at a base HS than bottom 50% at TJ. Some highly capable students stay at their base school for this reason.

The other reality is that many at TJ are really targeting Medical School, and are not targeting a STEM career.

Yes…but TJ parents truly believe had their kids gone to the base HS they absolutely would have been at the top there. I think being bottom 50% at any HS is a recipe for failure for a highly rejective school.

Because for the most part this is true. Exceptions sure but most TJ kids would rank higher at their base school than they do at TJ just given the nature of the magnet school and the harsh reality that there can only be half of any class in the top 50%.

Thank you!! Again, don’t stop!!! The only way you are right is if the nearly all the mid ranked TJ students are brilliant and the essentially all the base top students are dummies and/or only appear bright bc of grade inflation.

This is such an idiotic post. Someone who does not have basic analytical skills. Can you not see the flaw in your logic?

No, but I do see the flaws and idiocy in saying but for attending TJ, my kid would be a top student!

[Anonymous]

Attending TJ is a guaranteed 4 years of high quality courses and smart peer group.

Ivy admissions are a crap shoot and attending base school may improve your odds but won't guarantee admissions...

So our decision was to get 4 years of the best education a public school can offer, and cross the Ivy bridge when we come to it.

[Anonymous]

Is it such a great education with the rampant cheating?

[Anonymous]

The lower half of the class is shaped by political priorities, and the top half earns the merit accolades FCPS loves to highlight in their news articles.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The lower half of the class is shaped by political priorities, and the top half earns the merit accolades FCPS loves to highlight in their news articles.

Please explain what you mean. Where does a kid who is in around the middle of the pack go?

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't the school profile have the graduating class of 2025 precise SAT/ACT avg scores?

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://tjhsst.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/inline-files/TJHSST%20School%20Profile%2025-26%20V.2._0.pdf

Page one says for the class of 2025, 80 were National Merit Semifinalists and 156 were Commended but then on page 3 it says what the class of 2024's average SAT (1510)/ACT (34) was but that is the last class that was under the old admissions standards.

Why not say what the TJ class of 2025's average SAT/ACT was?