Why is there such a racial/ethnic disconnect with TJ Admissions?

[Anonymous]

TJ fairly recent grads are surgeons, playwrights, business owners, lawyers, writers, tech entrepreneurs. It doesn't breed conformists looking for a salary less than $150k. You are just wrong in assuming that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am white and I used to think my kid would apply to TJ. I think he would have enjoyed it. However, it seems like these days TJ is producing students who will then go into STEM jobs that will top out in the low- to mid-$150K range. I'm not sure it's worth it. I think his time and skills would be better spent starting a business or finding a way to help others or becoming well-rounded and worldly so that he can do better than $150K max lifetime salary.

Only in DC would people think STEM jobs would max out at $150k. DH is a specialized surgeon and makes $700k. We have many friends in SF, NY and Boston who are killing it. Have you never heard of Silicon Valley?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am white and I used to think my kid would apply to TJ. I think he would have enjoyed it. However, it seems like these days TJ is producing students who will then go into STEM jobs that will top out in the low- to mid-$150K range. I'm not sure it's worth it. I think his time and skills would be better spent starting a business or finding a way to help others or becoming well-rounded and worldly so that he can do better than $150K max lifetime salary.

Only in DC would people think STEM jobs would max out at $150k. DH is a specialized surgeon and makes $700k. We have many friends in SF, NY and Boston who are killing it. Have you never heard of Silicon Valley?

In IT, there are recent college grads in the metro DC area that are starting out at $110-$125K. They will do better than $150K max lifetime salary, believe me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am white and I used to think my kid would apply to TJ. I think he would have enjoyed it. However, it seems like these days TJ is producing students who will then go into STEM jobs that will top out in the low- to mid-$150K range. I'm not sure it's worth it. I think his time and skills would be better spent starting a business or finding a way to help others or becoming well-rounded and worldly so that he can do better than $150K max lifetime salary.

Only in DC would people think STEM jobs would max out at $150k. DH is a specialized surgeon and makes $700k. We have many friends in SF, NY and Boston who are killing it. Have you never heard of Silicon Valley?

In IT, there are recent college grads in the metro DC area that are starting out at $110-$125K. They will do better than $150K max lifetime salary, believe me.

not really, most software developers get replaced as they hit their late 30's. Replaced with H1B Indians and Chinese. It happens to everyone. Be careful about STEM career. Software is dead end from many people.

It will be fun to watch Asians getting replaced by the next influx of H1Bs whereever they end of coming from. I have lots of Indian friends that started in 90's and want H1B shut down they dont understand how americans let their government screw the workers like this. Would never happen in India. I tell them to go the F'k home, in my head of course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Part of it is almost certainly cultural. I want my smart, high a heaving 6th grader to do well. But, as a third generation Jewish American, I know that there is plenty of time to excel. She can go to a great school from our base HS. And, if you are going to science, guess what? Where you go to college does not matter...grad school matters.

I do not want my dd commuting 1 hr each way, having 4-6 hrs of hw per night.

By comparison, high achieving people in India or Korea have success defined by admittance to the right hs...rejected for the top hs, and your chance at a high achieving life is much lower.

"It really is a mindset and in saying this it is not intended as a value judgement.

My son went to TJ. It was a long trek for him and on top of this the rigorous academic requirements at TJ had him working some long hours especially in his junior year.

He went on to medical school and is currently doing his residency at one of the most prestigious programs in the country and will be done soon.

He says that TJ was the best thing that happened to him. He literally breezed through his undergrad. He said it was a lot easier than TJ from an academic standpoint in terms of the pressure .... and he completed his undergrad in three years!

Given where he is today, ask him whether he has any regrets about the long commute and the academic demands that TJ made on him and he would give an unqualified response that TJ was a huge help to him in getting where he is today. Could he have done it in a different academic environment? More than likely he could have. But that does not take anything away from the role TJ played in getting him to where he is today.

None of the above is meant as a brag ..... after all, I am posting anonymously. It is merely intended as a perspective on how some parents and their children view the downsides (commuting, new friends, academic pressures) of going to TJ."

FYI, I was the person who posted the above about my son on a different thread.

http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/45/376151.page#4975259

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:not really, most software developers get replaced as they hit their late 30's. Replaced with H1B Indians and Chinese. It happens to everyone. Be careful about STEM career. Software is dead end from many people.

Nice to know, since I manage a team of software developers where none are in their late 30s and none are "H1B Indians and Chinese" (as you describe them). Most of them are in the 40s and some in their 50s. All earn six figure salaries. Several VT and UVA grads, too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not really, most software developers get replaced as they hit their late 30's. Replaced with H1B Indians and Chinese. It happens to everyone. Be careful about STEM career. Software is dead end from many people.

Nice to know, since I manage a team of software developers where none are in their late 30s and none are "H1B Indians and Chinese" (as you describe them). Most of them are in the 40s and some in their 50s. All earn six figure salaries. Several VT and UVA grads, too.

You must require clearances or us citizenship so it must be defense/govt contracting. That is the only software industry that I have seen that haven't been inundated. other than the top end 1% of developers at google/amazon/paypal etc that don't really count for normal developers.

normal corporate IT or most non-clearance type work has been hit by a huge influx of cheaper labor.

[Anonymous]

H1Bs used to be a problem at Fannie. Now it's outsourcing to MSPs, and converting long-time employees to contractors, in the same seat, doing the same job, for the same money - "Guaranteed" for 6 months, then your ass is at the mercy of the contracting firm - HP, IBM, CGI, Accenture, etc...

Benefits? who knows? retirement plan? something... And who's to say your new employer won't decide to move your ass out to St. Louis, or Alabama, or some other project location at their whim?

I guess if your attitude is "Boy, am I lucky just to have a job, any job", then you resign your self and suck it up.
I'd rather get a package/parachute and take my chances on the market but that's not an option.

I'm not especially happy about the situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:normal corporate IT or most non-clearance type work has been hit by a huge influx of cheaper labor.

... with the product quality to match!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not really, most software developers get replaced as they hit their late 30's. Replaced with H1B Indians and Chinese. It happens to everyone. Be careful about STEM career. Software is dead end from many people.

Nice to know, since I manage a team of software developers where none are in their late 30s and none are "H1B Indians and Chinese" (as you describe them). Most of them are in the 40s and some in their 50s. All earn six figure salaries. Several VT and UVA grads, too.

You must require clearances or us citizenship so it must be defense/govt contracting. That is the only software industry that I have seen that haven't been inundated. other than the top end 1% of developers at google/amazon/paypal etc that don't really count for normal developers.

normal corporate IT or most non-clearance type work has been hit by a huge influx of cheaper labor.

If you're a very good Developer, you won't be replaced. I'm in SV IT, so is DH. Yes, there are several H1Bs here. But the really good Developers are hard to come by so they are worth their weight in gold. Every industry evolves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not really, most software developers get replaced as they hit their late 30's. Replaced with H1B Indians and Chinese. It happens to everyone. Be careful about STEM career. Software is dead end from many people.

Nice to know, since I manage a team of software developers where none are in their late 30s and none are "H1B Indians and Chinese" (as you describe them). Most of them are in the 40s and some in their 50s. All earn six figure salaries. Several VT and UVA grads, too.

You must require clearances or us citizenship so it must be defense/govt contracting. That is the only software industry that I have seen that haven't been inundated. other than the top end 1% of developers at google/amazon/paypal etc that don't really count for normal developers.

normal corporate IT or most non-clearance type work has been hit by a huge influx of cheaper labor.

No, we do not require clearances or US citizenship, and we are not defense/govt contractors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:not really, most software developers get replaced as they hit their late 30's. Replaced with H1B Indians and Chinese. It happens to everyone. Be careful about STEM career. Software is dead end from many people.

Nice to know, since I manage a team of software developers where none are in their late 30s and none are "H1B Indians and Chinese" (as you describe them). Most of them are in the 40s and some in their 50s. All earn six figure salaries. Several VT and UVA grads, too.

You must require clearances or us citizenship so it must be defense/govt contracting. That is the only software industry that I have seen that haven't been inundated. other than the top end 1% of developers at google/amazon/paypal etc that don't really count for normal developers.

normal corporate IT or most non-clearance type work has been hit by a huge influx of cheaper labor.

If you're a very good Developer, you won't be replaced. I'm in SV IT, so is DH. Yes, there are several H1Bs here. But the really good Developers are hard to come by so they are worth their weight in gold. Every industry evolves.

+1

We have low turnover rates as our good developers are long term employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:TJ fairly recent grads are surgeons, playwrights, business owners, lawyers, writers, tech entrepreneurs. It doesn't breed conformists looking for a salary less than $150k. You are just wrong in assuming that.

'
That sounds like at least 5 years ago -- it takes a while to become a surgeon. Things are changing quickly at TJ is what I've heard from at least one teacher there and at one of the "feeder" middle schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ fairly recent grads are surgeons, playwrights, business owners, lawyers, writers, tech entrepreneurs. It doesn't breed conformists looking for a salary less than $150k. You are just wrong in assuming that.

'
That sounds like at least 5 years ago -- it takes a while to become a surgeon. Things are changing quickly at TJ is what I've heard from at least one teacher there and at one of the "feeder" middle schools.

TJ is almost 30% Indians and good many of them if not almost ALL of them plan to study medicine so we are likely to see many physicians, medical researchers and surgeons from TJ in the future. Good thing since we currently have a shortage of physicians and this shortage is expected to worsen in the next 10 years.

[Anonymous]

Many TJ grads also become patent attorneys with technical HS and college background in CS, engineering bio-chemistry etc. Patent attorneys are actually necessary with all the technology we have and will continue to have in the future.