Seeking TJHSST moms' advice

[Anonymous]

For the last time. There is no advantage of going to TJ for college admissions. Let me break it down

You stay at base school you are in the top 10% = UVA and crapshoot for Ivies/elite schools
You go to TJ now you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore. what happens how "good" is your child really..... And even if you make top 10% TJ Ivies are still a crapshoot

Bottom Line go to TJ if you actually care about STEM and you are willing to have 4+ hours of hw a night and many times much more

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I looked at last year's data. 1/3 of TJ goes to ivy leagues. Rest of them split between good private schools, UVA and other state schools. Lot of kids who go to UVA also get scholarships or atleast 1/3 tuition scholarship etc.

Wrong. Not even close. But a TJ kid with a weighted 4.4 GPA has a much better chance of getting into an Ivy than a kid from our base school with the same GPA. Colleges recognize that TJ is more challenging and give applicants credit for that.

About 1/3 goes to Ivy and Ivy caliber schools such as Chicago, Duke, Berkeley, Northwestern, MIT, Michigan, Stanford etc.

Yeah, almost 30 attends Cornell alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the last time. There is no advantage of going to TJ for college admissions. Let me break it down

You stay at base school you are in the top 10% = UVA and crapshoot for Ivies/elite schools
You go to TJ now you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore. what happens how "good" is your child really..... And even if you make top 10% TJ Ivies are still a crapshoot

Bottom Line go to TJ if you actually care about STEM and you are willing to have 4+ hours of hw a night and many times much more

Again, it is not 4+ hours of homework every night for the kids for whom the school is a good fit. My kid graduated from TJ with all As and spent hours every week in non-academic activities, including varsity sports(fall, winter, and spring seasons), music(community group, not in school), and volunteer work. He is at a top 10 school now in a STEM major. He had lots of friends at TJ with similar schedules, so he is not unique. Going to TJ does not mean studying every minute: lots of kids there are smart enough and organized enough to be able to combine academics and fun activities to have an enjoyable high school career with other similar-minded kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the last time. There is no advantage of going to TJ for college admissions. Let me break it down

You stay at base school you are in the top 10% = UVA and crapshoot for Ivies/elite schools
You go to TJ now you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore. what happens how "good" is your child really..... And even if you make top 10% TJ Ivies are still a crapshoot

Bottom Line go to TJ if you actually care about STEM and you are willing to have 4+ hours of hw a night and many times much more

Yes, there is an advantage. Certain schools pay no attention to you, even if you have straight A's and 2400 SAT, at some base schools.

For example, at our base school, one of the top HS in the state, one kid, just one, has been admitted to MIT over the last 6 years. At TJ, almost 100 kids have been admitted in that time.
Over the last 2 years at our base school, among Harvard, Yale and Princeton, there's just been one admission. One person's been admitted to Columbia in the last 6 years. Three have gotten into Stanford in that time. Two into Caltach. etc, etc.

And to the other PP, no, 30 kids from TJ didn't go to Cornell last year or any year. 23 was the most, in the 2014.

[Anonymous]

I think the analysis really requires a comparison to Yorktown ( where academically advanced freshmen take int. Alg II/Trig, honors language III, honors english/world history, and the. Move into a 2 or 3 AP soshomore year with honors classes) or W-L (where the IB freshman take AP history and then 3 AP courses and honor classes as sohomore) and you see that there will likely be 3 hour HW nights Mon-Thurs and big blocks of homework on weekends. Plus your DD likely has significant extracurriculars like piano or violin, if I generalize about TJ students. The main differntiators are likely the quality of her life at each of these demaning environments and her quirkiness, once again generalizing about highly gifted children. If she is is HG, TJ may be the best social fit. While she will likely find her people at Y or W-L, those social circles are dominated by the athlete/cheerleader culture where your DD might feel an outsider. My DD is HG but she did not get into TJ but luckliy was accepted into a wonderful DC private school where she is thriving. Her local public is Y and she went to WMS so surely knows your DD as the smart kids there found each other.

[Anonymous]

I think the Cornell poster may have been referring to the total number of TJ kids there now, counting freshmen through seniors.

[Anonymous]

From TJ Naviance - 29 admits to Cornell in 2015, 14 enrolled.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From TJ Naviance - 29 admits to Cornell in 2015, 14 enrolled.

Cornell's one of the easier Ivy's to get into and more people tend to be unhappy there than at other Ivies. I don't know if it's where it's located, or the general culture, but that's been the experience of 3 young people I know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ Naviance - 29 admits to Cornell in 2015, 14 enrolled.

Cornell's one of the easier Ivy's to get into and more people tend to be unhappy there than at other Ivies. I don't know if it's where it's located, or the general culture, but that's been the experience of 3 young people I know.

Yes, every FCPS school has 29 kids admitted to Cornell; it is quite the common event. Yawn. No big deal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From TJ Naviance - 29 admits to Cornell in 2015, 14 enrolled.

Cornell's one of the easier Ivy's to get into and more people tend to be unhappy there than at other Ivies. I don't know if it's where it's located, or the general culture, but that's been the experience of 3 young people I know.

Yes, every FCPS school has 29 kids admitted to Cornell; it is quite the common event. Yawn. No big deal.

TJ is wonderful, but it is so annoying to see comparisons between TJ and the other FCPS schools. The TJ kids were SUCKED OUT OF THOSE SCHOOLS. You can't sensibly compare TJ, which extracts 480 students from the top 10% in the county, with schools that additionally contain the remaining 90% of the student population.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if the all-consuming nature of TJ is any different from the base schools? I remember being very busy with homework and activities in HS. Family was definitely on the periphery.

Our non-TJ kid (at another phenomenal school) has a much better balance of school, work, and activities. I had a senior TJ mom warn me about the workload/stressful climate when my son got in and to be honest, I thought she was exaggerating. She was not and I wish I had listened to her. In the end, you have to do what is best for your child and your family.

I have one at TJ and one at top FCPS. There is no comparison between the two academically -- TJ is MUCH more work, more in depth, many more hours of studying. If your HS student does certain sports they will be "busy" but the academic level at TJ is far different than any FCPS. There is a list of top public schools in the US on another thread -- FCPS do not even make the list, and TJ is #1.

My DS at TJ stats: Never made a B in anything before TJ, AAP, IQ 135, SAT 2275 (old) National Merit scholar, attending MIT in the fall -- just an ordinary student at TJ. MANY hours of homework.
Congrats new TJ acceptances! just know its a ton of work!

Congrats on your D's success...admittance to MIT is amazing!!! Its comforting to see you don't need straight As to get into the super-elite schools!

Just so people don't get the wrong idea, though, your D is not an "ordinary" TJ student! The average SAT score is around 2182, not the very impressive 2275. Admission to UVA is not automatic as some suggest. Many TJ students are rejected from there each year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the last time. There is no advantage of going to TJ for college admissions. Let me break it down

You stay at base school you are in the top 10% = UVA and crapshoot for Ivies/elite schools
You go to TJ now you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore. what happens how "good" is your child really..... And even if you make top 10% TJ Ivies are still a crapshoot

Bottom Line go to TJ if you actually care about STEM and you are willing to have 4+ hours of hw a night and many times much more

Agreed. In fact, TJ students not in the top 20% are probably at a disadvantage wrt elite schools. As mentioned on Stanford's admissions page, "We expect that these students have taken high school course loads of reasonable and appropriate challenge in the context of their schools." Since TJ kids have more opportunities in terms of labs, a strong academic culture, internships, etc, they are held to a higher standard than most applicants. Can most TJ students say that they took full advantage of the STEM courses and opportunities made available to them?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the last time. There is no advantage of going to TJ for college admissions. Let me break it down

You stay at base school you are in the top 10% = UVA and crapshoot for Ivies/elite schools
You go to TJ now you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore. what happens how "good" is your child really..... And even if you make top 10% TJ Ivies are still a crapshoot

Bottom Line go to TJ if you actually care about STEM and you are willing to have 4+ hours of hw a night and many times much more

Agreed. In fact, TJ students not in the top 20% are probably at a disadvantage wrt elite schools. As mentioned on Stanford's admissions page, "We expect that these students have taken high school course loads of reasonable and appropriate challenge in the context of their schools." Since TJ kids have more opportunities in terms of labs, a strong academic culture, internships, etc, they are held to a higher standard than most applicants. Can most TJ students say that they took full advantage of the STEM courses and opportunities made available to them?

Many TJ students attend TJ for the experience and to learn not to try to get into certain college. Most TJ students end up at very good colleges.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the last time. There is no advantage of going to TJ for college admissions. Let me break it down

You stay at base school you are in the top 10% = UVA and crapshoot for Ivies/elite schools
You go to TJ now you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore. what happens how "good" is your child really..... And even if you make top 10% TJ Ivies are still a crapshoot

Bottom Line go to TJ if you actually care about STEM and you are willing to have 4+ hours of hw a night and many times much more

Yes, there is an advantage. Certain schools pay no attention to you, even if you have straight A's and 2400 SAT, at some base schools.

For example, at our base school, one of the top HS in the state, one kid, just one, has been admitted to MIT over the last 6 years. At TJ, almost 100 kids have been admitted in that time.
Over the last 2 years at our base school, among Harvard, Yale and Princeton, there's just been one admission. One person's been admitted to Columbia in the last 6 years. Three have gotten into Stanford in that time. Two into Caltach. etc, etc.

And to the other PP, no, 30 kids from TJ didn't go to Cornell last year or any year. 23 was the most, in the 2014.

I would think any student capable of being admitted to MIT from the base school would end up at TJ anyway. The question, really, is would they have been admitted to MIT if they had attended the base school. My guess is probably yes. Its the quality to the student's entire application that is the deciding factor, not the HS he/she attended, methinks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the last time. There is no advantage of going to TJ for college admissions. Let me break it down

You stay at base school you are in the top 10% = UVA and crapshoot for Ivies/elite schools
You go to TJ now you are not a big fish in a small pond anymore. what happens how "good" is your child really..... And even if you make top 10% TJ Ivies are still a crapshoot

Bottom Line go to TJ if you actually care about STEM and you are willing to have 4+ hours of hw a night and many times much more

Agreed. In fact, TJ students not in the top 20% are probably at a disadvantage wrt elite schools. As mentioned on Stanford's admissions page, "We expect that these students have taken high school course loads of reasonable and appropriate challenge in the context of their schools." Since TJ kids have more opportunities in terms of labs, a strong academic culture, internships, etc, they are held to a higher standard than most applicants. Can most TJ students say that they took full advantage of the STEM courses and opportunities made available to them?

Many TJ students attend TJ for the experience and to learn not to try to get into certain college. Most TJ students end up at very good colleges.

Agreed point being they would end up at very good colleges with or without TJ