TJ College Admissions 2011

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

For a top FCPS student, it's entirely possible to get into MIT and CMU or wherever and not get into UVA. UVA is just that competitive for VA students from our area. There's no question that less qualified applicants are accepted from out of state and ROVA (rest of VA) simply because UVa can't become a NOVA outpost (which we've seen over and over and over).

I've read a few comments like the one above, saying that admission to UVa from Northern Virginia is very difficult. I'm sure it is difficult, but I cannot find anything that proves it. All I find is some general statistics about UVa having an overall admissions rate of about 32-39% of applicants (depending on year), other statistics showing that about 70% of UVa's undergraduates come from Virginia, and some numbers showing that a large percentage of those undergraduates (about 20% I think) come from NoVa. But I don't see anything (other than anecdotal claims on anonymous message boards) suggesting that applicants from NoVa face significantly tougher admissions standards than applicants from other parts of Virginia.

The UVa admissions people state this matter-of-factly and unapologetically during info sessions with prospective families.

I've done no research on this, and this is purely based on my personal experience. I personally know 5 VA students who were accepted to UVA but did not get into any Ivy schools (although they applied). On the other hand, I don't know any VA students who were accepted to an Ivy school but did not get accepted to UVA. I'm just saying...this is based on a handful of students I know who graduated in the last several years. Of course, there are lots of stories of kids getting into Ivies and UVA and opting for UVA.

[Anonymous]

Look at the common data set. Here is UVa's. Kids getting accepted to Ivies and rejected from UVa is mostly myth. I am sure it does happen anecdotally. However, UVa is really not that competitive in-state. Great school but not at the same selectivity range.

http://www.web.virginia.edu/IAAS/data_catalog/institutional/cds/current/admissions.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look at the common data set. Here is UVa's. Kids getting accepted to Ivies and rejected from UVa is mostly myth. I am sure it does happen anecdotally. However, UVa is really not that competitive in-state. Great school but not at the same selectivity range.

You can let all those students at TJ who got rejected by UVA know that UVA is not that competitive in-state!! It is very competitive if you live in NOVA.

[Anonymous]

Why all this talk about UVA and TJ? Isn't TJ a tech school? Why don't these TJ grads go to a tech college - or at least more of a tech college than UVA? Last I checked, even VT had a purer engineering program than UVA, which gears more toward consulting/business.

[Anonymous]

Lots of high schoolers (and parents) clamor to get into TJ because it's hard to get into. Many are all around gifted -- but not more or less suited for science and technology.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lots of high schoolers (and parents) clamor to get into TJ because it's hard to get into. Many are all around gifted -- but not more or less suited for science and technology.

The current principal is pushing to make it more math/science-oriented. A lot of the "all around gifted" kids and their parents are unhappy about the changes.

[Anonymous]

I know several "all around gifted" kids who were not accepted because they were not specifically STEM focused. (Science Technology Engineering, Math)

[Anonymous]

It is odd to see all the kids wonderfully gifted in English and history and the arts all lining up to get into TJ. TJ is not the "gifted" high school as it's so widely perceived. It really is for students whose focus is on science and technology. Lots of parents don't get this and/or don't care.

[Anonymous]

It is because these parents want the "prestige" factor of having a child at TJ. TJ is a "science and math" school and if your child is not into science/math/technology then they will do just as well at their local high school.

[Anonymous]

I think the use of the term "gifted" is misplaced here. My son is a straight A student at TJ, but he is no more gifted than a significant majority of his peers (in Fairfax county public schools) that I have gotten to know since he was 5 years old. However, he was better prepared than most of his peers for admission to tj, and at tj takes his coursework seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Class of 2011 Destinations - (not all colleges listed)

Brown 3
Cal Tech 4
Carneige Mellon 14
William & Mary 56
Columbia 7
Cornell 13
Dartmouth 2
Duke 12
Georgetown 8
Harvard 6
MIT 13
Princeton 10
Rose Hulman 2
Stanford 7
West Point 2
Naval Academy 1
UC/Berkley 4
University of MD 5
University of PA 4
UVA 106
VA Tech 31
Washington Univ./St. Louis 5
Yale 7

Here are links for the college admissions for TJ classes of 2010 http://www.tjhsst.edu/curriculum/dss/docs/tjprofile_2011.pdf and 2009 http://www.tjhsst.edu/curriculum/dss/docs/tjprofile_2010.pdf

In 2010, 148 admissions to 7 of the 8 Ivy League schools were granted (Harvard is omitted) to a TJ class of 442. In 2009, 132 admissions to the Ivies (except for Harvard) out of a TJ class of approximately 450.