TJHSST Class of 2017 College Destination List

[Anonymous]

"I do agree that the 31-45% population (who did not make it into UVA but got into VA Tech for instance) may have done way better with far less effort at a base school."

This is totally incorrect. The vast majority of that group will end up at college and will have learned how to study and know what it means to work hard. If they had stayed at their base school, they would think they could do well without working hard.

TJ has gotten rid of that misconception for them. They are much more likely to graduate college with a high GPA than they would be if they went to their base school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
For one of the wealthiest areas of the country with a school that is supposedly the best of the best I am not impressed with these numbers at all. Less than 1/3 are going to truly great schools. Most of these kids could get into UVA or W&M from their base schools. I think this just shows once and for all there is no magic TJ effect. You should go there if you are interested in STEM otherwise just stay at your base school.

I disagree. All the schools listed in the analysis are at the level of UVA/W&M. 55% of the school gets into one of those, essentially the top half of the class. If you add in schools like Virginia Tech, the number is prob 70% (i did not do the actual math). The bottom 30% could have stayed at base and done better. They probably did not do well for a variety of reasons - they did not want to be there and are there due to parental pressure, they are the kids that prepped but would not have gotten in otherwise, etc.

I do agree that the 31-45% population (who did not make it into UVA but got into VA Tech for instance) may have done way better with far less effort at a base school.

I do not have knowledge of financial aid but it does appear that TJ kids get money in some cases. Again, strong base school kids may get the same offers as well.

Exactly what the mother of one of last year's students told me. Her TJ kid was glad to get into VT, but she saw many kids from the base school get into better schools with much less stress and effort during HS. While I'm sure they are proud, it was kind of hard to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"I do agree that the 31-45% population (who did not make it into UVA but got into VA Tech for instance) may have done way better with far less effort at a base school."

This is totally incorrect. The vast majority of that group will end up at college and will have learned how to study and know what it means to work hard. If they had stayed at their base school, they would think they could do well without working hard.

TJ has gotten rid of that misconception for them. They are much more likely to graduate college with a high GPA than they would be if they went to their base school.

It amazes me to see the insecurity and arrogance of these few vocal TJ cheerleaders. I guess you only can learn to work hard and study effectively at TJ. Who knew?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it just me or is this list underwhelming? If the primary goal of having a child attend TJ is to get them into an elite college, I think many of those TJ parents to be (and their kids) might be in for a rude awakening. Certainly not all TJ parents are pushing their kids to attend TJ so Johnny can get into Harvard, Stanford or MIT but prolly a large number do think this way whether they admit it or not.

This doesn't seem underwhelming to me. The number of kids attending ivy leagues far out numbers kids attending Ivys from MCPS public schools. Our school generally has 2 who attend Harvard and 0 who attend Princeton. This seems outstanding from my perspecitve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it just me or is this list underwhelming? If the primary goal of having a child attend TJ is to get them into an elite college, I think many of those TJ parents to be (and their kids) might be in for a rude awakening. Certainly not all TJ parents are pushing their kids to attend TJ so Johnny can get into Harvard, Stanford or MIT but prolly a large number do think this way whether they admit it or not.

This doesn't seem underwhelming to me. The number of kids attending ivy leagues far out numbers kids attending Ivys from MCPS public schools. Our school generally has 2 who attend Harvard and 0 who attend Princeton. This seems outstanding from my perspecitve.

It's probably the same 9 or so kids who were admitted to multiple ivies. Considering how many schools send their best to TJ, that's a very low number.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on my read of the list the top few colleges offered admission to 680 students. Assuming 50% of them took the admission, that's 340. Out of 430 students. 79% admit rate to top schools! That's pretty impressive.

Even if you think some of these schools are not "top" you would still have over 50% of the kids going to "top" schools.

Here's my basis for the 680

UVA 191
W&M 142
Michigan 65
UMCP 54
UIUC 48
CMU 36
Georgia tech 35
UC Berkeley 34
Cornell 25
Upenn 15
Duke 13
Chicago 12
MIT 10

Total 680

Why not do the same analysis with actual enrollment figures from last year?

http://thebullelephant.com/college-destinations-for-tjhsst-class-of-2017/

Including some missing schools to the above analysis and using actual admits from the link above, 237 of the 430 kids end up going to "top" schools. Here's the list.

Accepted Attending
UVA 191 62
W&M 142 38
Michigan 65 16
UMCP 54 5
UIUC 48 9
CMU 36 15
Georgia tech 35 1
UC Berkeley 34 11
Cornell 25 13
Upenn 15 6
Duke 13 7
Chicago 12 6
MIT 10 8
Stanford 7 5
Princeton 9 6
Harvard 6 4
Yale 8 4
Williams 3 1
Amherst 3 1
Columbia 4
US Military academy 1
Rice 3
Brown 3
Johns Hopkins 3
Harvey Mudd 2
US Airforce academu 2
US Coast guard 1

Total 716 237
% of acceptances 33%
Total students 430 55%

So...roughly half the class is accepted to W&M, UVA or both, and roughly 60% attend a school of at least W&M stature. From a selective magnet that only accepts top students that seems about right.

For one of the wealthiest areas of the country with a school that is supposedly the best of the best I am not impressed with these numbers at all. Less than 1/3 are going to truly great schools. Most of these kids could get into UVA or W&M from their base schools. I think this just shows once and for all there is no magic TJ effect. You should go there if you are interested in STEM otherwise just stay at your base school.

My DC is a 2017 TJ grad who's attending one of those "top" colleges listed above. I have another DC who attends our base HS so I can see the Naviance stats - no one from the base HS has been admitted to the college my TJ kid attends for the last 4 years. So, yeah, going to TJ made a difference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on my read of the list the top few colleges offered admission to 680 students. Assuming 50% of them took the admission, that's 340. Out of 430 students. 79% admit rate to top schools! That's pretty impressive.

Even if you think some of these schools are not "top" you would still have over 50% of the kids going to "top" schools.

Here's my basis for the 680

UVA 191
W&M 142
Michigan 65
UMCP 54
UIUC 48
CMU 36
Georgia tech 35
UC Berkeley 34
Cornell 25
Upenn 15
Duke 13
Chicago 12
MIT 10

Total 680

Why not do the same analysis with actual enrollment figures from last year?

http://thebullelephant.com/college-destinations-for-tjhsst-class-of-2017/

Including some missing schools to the above analysis and using actual admits from the link above, 237 of the 430 kids end up going to "top" schools. Here's the list.

Accepted Attending
UVA 191 62
W&M 142 38
Michigan 65 16
UMCP 54 5
UIUC 48 9
CMU 36 15
Georgia tech 35 1
UC Berkeley 34 11
Cornell 25 13
Upenn 15 6
Duke 13 7
Chicago 12 6
MIT 10 8
Stanford 7 5
Princeton 9 6
Harvard 6 4
Yale 8 4
Williams 3 1
Amherst 3 1
Columbia 4
US Military academy 1
Rice 3
Brown 3
Johns Hopkins 3
Harvey Mudd 2
US Airforce academu 2
US Coast guard 1

Total 716 237
% of acceptances 33%
Total students 430 55%

So...roughly half the class is accepted to W&M, UVA or both, and roughly 60% attend a school of at least W&M stature. From a selective magnet that only accepts top students that seems about right.

For one of the wealthiest areas of the country with a school that is supposedly the best of the best I am not impressed with these numbers at all. Less than 1/3 are going to truly great schools. Most of these kids could get into UVA or W&M from their base schools. I think this just shows once and for all there is no magic TJ effect. You should go there if you are interested in STEM otherwise just stay at your base school.

My DC is a 2017 TJ grad who's attending one of those "top" colleges listed above. I have another DC who attends our base HS so I can see the Naviance stats - no one from the base HS has been admitted to the college my TJ kid attends for the last 4 years. So, yeah, going to TJ made a difference.

That's usually because the very few kids from your base school who would get into that "top" college are removed and placed at TJ. Even with all the amazing resources TJ provides, its extracurricular teams regularly get their clock cleaned at all sorts of competitions by teams all over the country that don't even come from magnets. It's not a magic recipe.

[Anonymous]

The cost of Harvard:

https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/123014/what-harvard-actually-costs.asp

Apply. You really never know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know the TJ 2017 applied/accepted numbers for Dartmouth?

2017: 41 applied/5 accepted/1 enrolled
2016: 40 applied/5 accepted/4 enrolled
2015: 48 applied/8 accepted/2 enrolled

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"I do agree that the 31-45% population (who did not make it into UVA but got into VA Tech for instance) may have done way better with far less effort at a base school."

This is totally incorrect. The vast majority of that group will end up at college and will have learned how to study and know what it means to work hard. If they had stayed at their base school, they would think they could do well without working hard.

TJ has gotten rid of that misconception for them. They are much more likely to graduate college with a high GPA than they would be if they went to their base school.

It amazes me to see the insecurity and arrogance of these few vocal TJ cheerleaders. I guess you only can learn to work hard and study effectively at TJ. Who knew?

I'm not sure why you are taking offense to that statement. It is a fact that you don't pushed as much at a base HS as you do at TJ. This translates into a level of preparedness that you simply won't get at base. The kids HAVE to work hard to stay in the game. At base HS, some kids work hard, because they WANT to. Those kids are easily comparable to the ones at TJ and I know a few that chose to go that route. One of them even told me that UVA was their "safety" school and has it in the bag while waiting on HYP. But how many such kids are there?

Does that mean the other base kids won't be successful? Not at all. Is this "advantage" sustainable throughout college? Most likely not. I'm guessing it will level out after the first semester or year.

[Anonymous]

Funny. I didn’t go to TJ. And I still managed to get into both W&M and UVA.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny. I didn’t go to TJ. And I still managed to get into both W&M and UVA.

W&M and to a lesser extent UVA are considered safety schools by many at TJ. 75% of those who apply get into W&M and roughly 60% get into UVA.

[Anonymous]

Admission to professional schools (premed, McIntire etc.) is dominated in these two schools by TJ kids. For the limited slots for these professional programs, there is intense competition. TJ rigor certainly helps. OOS kids are also high caliber at these schools as it more difficult for them to get in. I have heard first hand from base school kids at these two schools as how TJ kids know how to study and handle the grades. While there are exceptions (there are certainly talented and hard working kids in base schools), on an average, the TJ kids are better prepared due to TJ rigor. The science and math taught at TJ is way advanced compared to base schools.
I have also heard that base schools students from Loudoun county find college courses tough due to grade inflation in Loudoun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Admission to professional schools (premed, McIntire etc.) is dominated in these two schools by TJ kids. For the limited slots for these professional programs, there is intense competition. TJ rigor certainly helps. OOS kids are also high caliber at these schools as it more difficult for them to get in. I have heard first hand from base school kids at these two schools as how TJ kids know how to study and handle the grades. While there are exceptions (there are certainly talented and hard working kids in base schools), on an average, the TJ kids are better prepared due to TJ rigor. The science and math taught at TJ is way advanced compared to base schools.
I have also heard that base schools students from Loudoun county find college courses tough due to grade inflation in Loudoun.

I have a small sample size of one child and one semester but my D found the first semester of college very manageable and daresay easy compared to TJ. She said she found herself with alot more free time. She didn't always love her time at TJ but she says the rigors of TJ prepared her well for college certainly better prepared than many of her classmates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Funny. I didn’t go to TJ. And I still managed to get into both W&M and UVA.

W&M and to a lesser extent UVA are considered safety schools by many at TJ. 75% of those who apply get into W&M and roughly 60% get into UVA.[/quote

Those were my safety shcools too. And I did manage to do wonderfully at my chosen school. And I didn’t have the intense pressures from TJ. Is it worth it? Will anyone admit if it wasn’t?