Wouldn't it be easier for your child to stand out in an average/low rated school vs a high rated?

[Anonymous]

If your kid isn’t in the top 10% of TJ, they are in the same boat as kids at other schools.
TJ has many admits to Ivies, but you are crazy if you think HYP is each taking more than a handful. They want a diverse student body. Admitting all of TJ doesn’t achieve that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If your kid isn’t in the top 10% of TJ, they are in the same boat as kids at other schools.
TJ has many admits to Ivies, but you are crazy if you think HYP is each taking more than a handful. They want a diverse student body. Admitting all of TJ doesn’t achieve that.

TJ barely takes any from HYP it does well in top engineering schools which again shows if you aren't actually into STEM there is no point going to TJ

[Anonymous]

I have no doubt that wherever your kid goes, his association with you will ensure that he “stands out.”

[Anonymous]

What you are going to want is for your kid to stand out at the highly competitive school.

Also, consider the education at both schools. If the lower level school doesn’t provide a great one (good teachers, challenging curriculum, good writing and math skills developed, much reading and analyzing, etc) that will be hard to ever recover from. You can’t fake a great education with high grades.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What you are going to want is for your kid to stand out at the highly competitive school.

Also, consider the education at both schools. If the lower level school doesn’t provide a great one (good teachers, challenging curriculum, good writing and math skills developed, much reading and analyzing, etc) that will be hard to ever recover from. You can’t fake a great education with high grades.

Yes. Your child will never recover for attending high school at Stuart.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What you are going to want is for your kid to stand out at the highly competitive school.

Also, consider the education at both schools. If the lower level school doesn’t provide a great one (good teachers, challenging curriculum, good writing and math skills developed, much reading and analyzing, etc) that will be hard to ever recover from. You can’t fake a great education with high grades.

Yes. Your child will never recover for attending high school at Stuart.

Glasgow, the middle school for Stuart, has a big AAP center, but places very few kids at TJ. Not sure the eye roll is warranted.

[Anonymous]

I have friends at Wakefield -- their DD is loving it! She is white, is involved in sports, and is rocking it for all it's worth.

I also have friends at a "not bottom on the barrel, but on the low-side of FCPS" school and in classes that are not honors (such as world lang. and grade-level math) kids report that their are so many kids who are disruptive in class that the teachers quit, threaten to quit, or finally get sick of the losers and put them in the back so that the 5 kids who want to learn are put in the front where the teacher tries to teach them. That's what you can be dealing with in a school where academic achievement is not the majority's goal. In schools like this, you stay in honors classes whenever you can... and if you do well, you will be noticed. This same school is where another friend's kid was too ashamed to have her friends know that she was taking 4 AP classes at one time. She didn't want them to make fun of her. I don't think that would be the case at other schools -- where many kids are taking 4 APs -- no big deal.

Culture does matter --- but, still, highly motivated kids will do well anywhere. It's those who aren't super stellar who might benefit from an overall culture of academic achievement that exists are middle and higher level schools.

[Anonymous]

Drugs, gangs, alcohol, sex, harrassment, etc. The upper level or focused schools (TJ) - have very little of these high risk issues. And the Ivies/top schools do accept a lot of TJ students - like 25-50% of the class. That doesn't happen at any other school. And the 50% going to non-top name schools are getting full rides and such ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP- I don’t think the Montana analogy is a stretch at all.
When we were looking to move out of state, I started comparing SAT scores and AP pass rates between Wakefield and the new “9” school to which we would be zoned in the Midwest.
The stats were very similar.
It was very eye opening about how much veiled racism plays a part in these discussions, and how much hand wringing I was doing over nothing. My kids would have been fine st Wakefield.
They would likeky have been fine at Langley as well, but I truly am weary of affluent teenagers. My husband went to an extremely wealthy high school. Pitfalls galore.
I’m not concerned that only 12 kids are going to UVA. THats a ridiculous concern.

There are "pitfalls" at every high school. Lower income schools have gangs and violence. You won't find the "perfect" high school with zero pitfalls anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drugs, gangs, alcohol, sex, harrassment, etc. The upper level or focused schools (TJ) - have very little of these high risk issues. And the Ivies/top schools do accept a lot of TJ students - like 25-50% of the class. That doesn't happen at any other school. And the 50% going to non-top name schools are getting full rides and such ...

Dude you are delusional.

[Anonymous]

UVA – 62 students
Virginia Tech 42
William and Mary 38
John Hopkins Univ 3
US Naval Academy 1
Georgetown 5
CalTech 1
Claremont McKenna 2
Harvey Mudd 2
Stanford 5
UC Berkeley 11
US Airforce Academy 2
Yale 4
US Coast Guard 1
U Chicago 6
U Illinois, Urbana 9
Amherst 1
Harvard 4
MIT 8
Williams College 1
Princeton 6
Columbia 4
Cornell 13
Duke 7
CMU 15
UPenn 6
Rice 3
Univ of Michigan 16
Brown 3
Wash Univ in St. Louis 4

The above is where more than half the class of 2017 went -- (not where they were admitted, which was even more impressive).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA – 62 students
Virginia Tech 42
William and Mary 38
John Hopkins Univ 3
US Naval Academy 1
Georgetown 5
CalTech 1
Claremont McKenna 2
Harvey Mudd 2
Stanford 5
UC Berkeley 11
US Airforce Academy 2
Yale 4
US Coast Guard 1
U Chicago 6
U Illinois, Urbana 9
Amherst 1
Harvard 4
MIT 8
Williams College 1
Princeton 6
Columbia 4
Cornell 13
Duke 7
CMU 15
UPenn 6
Rice 3
Univ of Michigan 16
Brown 3
Wash Univ in St. Louis 4

The above is where more than half the class of 2017 went -- (not where they were admitted, which was even more impressive).

Hardly 50% ivy. And those kids would be in the top percent at their respective base school. Also totally irrelevant to this topic. Nice list though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Drugs, gangs, alcohol, sex, harrassment, etc. The upper level or focused schools (TJ) - have very little of these high risk issues. And the Ivies/top schools do accept a lot of TJ students - like 25-50% of the class. That doesn't happen at any other school. And the 50% going to non-top name schools are getting full rides and such ...

I'll give you gangs. But if you think so-called "upper level schools" don't have their fair share of drugs, sex, alcohol or harassment ...well, I suggest you have some honest conversations with your kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Drugs, gangs, alcohol, sex, harrassment, etc. The upper level or focused schools (TJ) - have very little of these high risk issues. And the Ivies/top schools do accept a lot of TJ students - like 25-50% of the class. That doesn't happen at any other school. And the 50% going to non-top name schools are getting full rides and such ...

I'll give you gangs. But if you think so-called "upper level schools" don't have their fair share of drugs, sex, alcohol or harassment ...well, I suggest you have some honest conversations with your kids.

Some of the worst of it. People are willfully blind when it comes to privilege.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:UVA – 62 students
Virginia Tech 42
William and Mary 38
John Hopkins Univ 3
US Naval Academy 1
Georgetown 5
CalTech 1
Claremont McKenna 2
Harvey Mudd 2
Stanford 5
UC Berkeley 11
US Airforce Academy 2
Yale 4
US Coast Guard 1
U Chicago 6
U Illinois, Urbana 9
Amherst 1
Harvard 4
MIT 8
Williams College 1
Princeton 6
Columbia 4
Cornell 13
Duke 7
CMU 15
UPenn 6
Rice 3
Univ of Michigan 16
Brown 3
Wash Univ in St. Louis 4

The above is where more than half the class of 2017 went -- (not where they were admitted, which was even more impressive).

From which school?