Current TJ Student answering questions

[Anonymous]

Another parent of a recent grad. My kid tried to take AP Spanish and was unable to fit it into his schedule. Eh, it worked out fine and as he ended up in a good STEM program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:1) Is Spanish as hard at TJ as others on this board have said?

2) How is the Russian program?

3) Looking at Freshman year, is there anything students should do to prepare for Research Stats or TJ Math 3? biology?

4) How is the college advising?

5) Can you speak to the cheating culture claims?

OP here:

1) For background, I took Spanish 2 freshman year and Spanish 3 Online last summer. All languages at TJ except Latin are taught in immersion, where the teacher speaks primarily in the language taught. Spanish, French, and Latin are the more difficult languages at TJ, while Chinese, Japanese, Russian, and German are not stereotypically as rigorous. This is not to diminish the quality of instruction, as all of the teachers are very qualified and great at what they do, but grade-wise less kids get As and the workload is higher for the former three. The level of difficulty of Spanish at TJ will depend on your freshman year teacher, but then going into Spanish 3 at TJ those students that had the "harder" Spanish 2 teacher will be highly more prepared. I had the harder teacher but she did want to help you learn and if she sees that you're putting in effort she'll be more forgiving. There are more Spanish students at TJ than in any other language. I believe that the reasons that people say Spanish is difficult at TJ are 1) because it is very demanding in comparison to middle school Spanish and freshman that enter Spanish 3 are normally underprepared and some end up taking Spanish 2 again (and tend to do very well) and 2) in simple comparison to the other languages where there is less homework and difficult assessments. Spanish at TJ is seen as a class that takes outside studying to do well in--not a "break" or "easy-A" class. Usually, people don't really want to put so much effort into Spanish at TJ because it's not really something they're interested in spending so much study time on, which also probably adds to why some say it's difficult rather than rewarding. At the beginning of Spanish 2 there is a "Spanish Boot-camp" which is basically a massive review of Spanish 1 content to aid those from less rigorous middle school backgrounds. The program is very good though and if you take advantage of the instruction you'll get very good at Spanish very fast. It's just seen as another academic class with assessments and homework like Biology or CS, except it's not STEM.

2) Russian is seen as an easy A class at TJ. I have many friends in Russian and the program is very chill with a really nice teacher. There's also a Russian Honor Society that does a dance for Inite every year. Sometimes the teacher picks students who can skip Russian 2 and go from Russian 1 to Russian 3, then AP the next year. My friends enjoy the class a lot, there's only 25-ish of them in 2022 so they're pretty good friend. Since middle schools don't really offer Russian, most freshman take Russian 1 then continue three/four years at TJ.

3) I don't know how necessary it is to prep intensely for freshman year unless the student isn't really doing anything else. The year before TJ abolished summer assignments was before my freshman year, and we had a Stats summer packet to complete for an easy first-week-test once we entered school, but since there's no summer assignments anymore--TJ isn't expecting freshman to come in with much prior knowledge. The same goes for Biology--TJ uses an AP Biology textbook for freshman biology, but they don't completely expect or build off of prior knowledge since everyone had different middle school backgrounds. You could probably look on Khan Academy or maybe Bozeman biology videos (we love this guy) on YouTube for some biology content to start looking at. TJ Math 3 uses the textbook Prentice Hall Algebra 2. There's an algebra diagnostic all freshman take twice during the first semester, the second time for a grade, so I'd maybe make sure I was really solid on Algebra 1 Honors fundamentals? I don't remember what textbooks Stats uses, but it's the first half of the AP stats curriculum. Here's a good study guide from one of my upperclassmen friends that I used to review last year: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1k3osPmUe6VNMnnjFyFJxN8qbFDYni_jTkpny_93WKz0/edit?usp=sharing

4) I'm only a sophomore so I don't have much experience with the college advising at TJ, but there is a really great College and Career Center at TJ that is super welcoming and routinely offers one-on-one meetings with kids and information about scholarships, jobs, internships, and the like. There's also many, many college visits open to the student body in the fall and winter, and some other career options like when the FBI recruiters came to give a talk. The student-and-teacher led Writing Center holds workshops about how to write college essays and seniors are always able to ask teachers for guidance on their essays. Around this time of junior year all of the juniors fill out a "Junior packet" about their strengths, extracurriculars, and goals that helps their counselors write a good recommendation for them. There is a lot of emphasis placed on college at TJ and a lot of support for students at that time.

5) I believe that the majority of the student body fairly receives the grades they deserve. However, allegations of cheating and breaking the honor code at TJ are taken very seriously by administration and students get very very mad at their peers if it is discovered that someone unfairly received something better than they deserved--especially concerning college acceptances and national level STEM tests (accusations/reveals which become prevalent around this time of year). I think a few years ago there was a large cheating ring in one of the sophomore classes? That hasn't happened since on such a large scope. There are some really insane individual instances of cheating at TJ which are quickly discovered and punished--just this last year, a junior was caught using a camera pen to sell the physics midterm to other juniors. This caused the physics curve to be removed for many juniors, negatively affecting the class and many uninvolved people on a wide scope. I don't know how often this happens but it's very annoying that some cheaters give the entire school a bad rep. Again, cheating is taken very seriously at TJ and it's definitely not normalized. TJ kids are really willing to help each other out (study guides, tutoring, etc) but not to the point of getting in administrative trouble. And if someone is rewarded unfairly and people are aware of it, they will be called out.

Do most of the kids in TJ take 3 years of world language or 4 years? It seems some of the elite colleges require 4 years of WL. Since TJ kids aspire to get into top colleges, do they go for 4 years of WL? Also if you took Spanish 3 in summer, you will not be able to take 4th year of Spanish. Right? Thanks.

OP here:

You're right -- I am not eligible to take AP Spanish at TJ. Most Spanish students do not continue to AP as it takes up an elective spot that could go to other classes. There are normally two blocks of AP Spanish Lang per year (about 40 kids from grades 10-12). In the other languages where there are only one or two blocks of Level 1, 2, 3 classes, more of the kids continue on to AP, but it generally comes down to the student's decision and course planning. Or, if they know that one of the colleges they may be looking at recommends 4 years and they decide that they like the language enough to take another year. It's true that some colleges do recommend 4 years of language, but I don't think a majority of TJ students (that don't speak one of these languages at home) do more than 3. I'm not sure if any college *requires* 4 years of a language.

Thank you. I understand colleges don't "require" 4 years of WL but when they say "recommend", some people think they actually mean "required'. I wanted to see what TJ kids think about WL as far as colleges are concerned.

Not OP but my S took "only" 3 years of Japanese and it didn't seem to negatively affect his reach college admissions.

[Anonymous]

DP. These responses are quite helpful as we are in the conundrum of whether or not to take AP Latin. DC has no desire to take it but worry about its impact on college admissions

[Anonymous]

I agree. Most of the kids in TJ and other high schools only want to be done with the WL requirement. No one wants to pursue it further but this "recommend' word in Top 20 college's website worries kids and they don't know how seriously to take it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. How do kids in TJ know if they are in top 10% of their class or not. Do kids share their grades and thats how they know? I am assuming school does not share kids grades. Thanks!

OP here:

We don’t have class ranking or valedictorians. People can only assume things based on their GPA and the GPA range given at the graduation of a senior class (in the School Profile) but there’s no actual way for us to know. People might assume—like, if you have a 4.4 freshman year...you’re probably pretty high up there. Generally it’s thought that an average GPA after freshman year is 4.05, 4.15 after sophomore year, and then 4.3 after junior year would be in the upper half of the class. However, this is arbitrary and not everyone really thinks about their grades in comparison to others that much.

I just read from realtalkTj that the average GPA after junior year is around 4.13.

[Anonymous]

I wish the best for OP and her future studies, but reading this at a time when TJ's admissions practices and continued use as a magnet are getting serious attention feels a bit like Donald Trump sending Ivanka out to do PR after he's stepped into it again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wish the best for OP and her future studies, but reading this at a time when TJ's admissions practices and continued use as a magnet are getting serious attention feels a bit like Donald Trump sending Ivanka out to do PR after he's stepped into it again.

OP here:

Lol I didn’t consciously do it for that reason, but I could definitely see that. Ivanka is honestly kind of janky tho tbh so I’m not sure how effective her PR is. Anyway at the time I made the forum post I wasn’t really thinking about the negative conversation surrounding TJ —I was just looking at some outdated threads about TJ on here—but I know that there are a lot of alumni calling for TJ to end being a magnet school since it only serves a privileged subset of the population. Honestly, their arguments make a lot of sense. I’m admittedly not as informed as some others about initiatives that have been proposed in the past or what people have proposed and why, so I’m not really against or for defunding TJ as a magnet school. There are a lot of articles from the past 15 years or so about issues with TJ’s admissions—I’m sure a google search would bring up a few of these. The systematic racism that the admissions cycle demonstrates is definitely a large issue that has been a problem for many, many years—and I am in full support of changing the admission system or even further measures that would make TJ more equitable and fair for students in FCPS. There’s...a lot of different thoughts in the student body about what the alumni are proposing in the Facebook groups. TJ Vents demonstrates a few of these different thoughts. As current students we probably have a different view than the alumni do. But for now, I’ll still answer questions about what it’s like to attend if anyone still has them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just curious. How do kids in TJ know if they are in top 10% of their class or not. Do kids share their grades and thats how they know? I am assuming school does not share kids grades. Thanks!

OP here:

We don’t have class ranking or valedictorians. People can only assume things based on their GPA and the GPA range given at the graduation of a senior class (in the School Profile) but there’s no actual way for us to know. People might assume—like, if you have a 4.4 freshman year...you’re probably pretty high up there. Generally it’s thought that an average GPA after freshman year is 4.05, 4.15 after sophomore year, and then 4.3 after junior year would be in the upper half of the class. However, this is arbitrary and not everyone really thinks about their grades in comparison to others that much.

I just read from realtalkTj that the average GPA after junior year is around 4.13.

OP here:

Their word is probably closer to reality than what I said. Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DP. These responses are quite helpful as we are in the conundrum of whether or not to take AP Latin. DC has no desire to take it but worry about its impact on college admissions

My two kids (one at TJ) went through college admissions recently. You go to these college seminars or tours and they say "we want to see four years of a language, four years of band/drama, the most challenging courses (which at TJ are incredibly challenging), well-rounded but pointy, leadership, passionate yadda, yadda, yadda. After they get their 1550+ SATs, high GPAs, nmsf, multiple top scoring APs etc, the kids tend to look the same, especially when you read through profiles of rejected kids on College Confidential. Often admissions to highly selective places are dependent on hooks that many kids cannot control. I remember going on one college tour where they mentioned they admitted a kid who was on rodeo circuit - I guess they stood out compared to the average applicant.

Regarding Latin, check whether taking the AP test would get your kid out of the language requirement at the college they hope to attend. Passing the Latin SAT subject test might achieve the same thing. Some colleges we visited make students do a language regardless - either a new one or higher levels of a language previously studied.

[Anonymous]

I agreed with OP responses 100%. Parent who has two kids graduated from TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agreed with OP responses 100%. Parent who has two kids graduated from TJ.

+1 from another parent of TJ grads

And kudos to OP for this thread. Not only is it a wealth of good information, but OP's intelligence, grace and maturity shine through. I've always thought that the best aspect of TJ was the students themselves, and OP proves that point. Best wishes, OP, for continued success!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agreed with OP responses 100%. Parent who has two kids graduated from TJ.

+1 from another parent of TJ grads

And kudos to OP for this thread. Not only is it a wealth of good information, but OP's intelligence, grace and maturity shine through. I've always thought that the best aspect of TJ was the students themselves, and OP proves that point. Best wishes, OP, for continued success!

OP here:

Thank you so much anon!

[Anonymous]

I noticed you didn’t describe the consequences for the cheating incidents. That’s puzzling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I agreed with OP responses 100%. Parent who has two kids graduated from TJ.

+1 from another parent of TJ grads

And kudos to OP for this thread. Not only is it a wealth of good information, but OP's intelligence, grace and maturity shine through. I've always thought that the best aspect of TJ was the students themselves, and OP proves that point. Best wishes, OP, for continued success!

+1
OP, I am very impressed by your maturity and intelligence. I was one of the parents who wanted to warn you to stay away from this forum, as anonymous adults can be nasty and mean sometimes, but you handed everything with grace and kindness. I rarely see such detailed and positive responses here. Great job!

[Anonymous]

Do the kids burn out like everyone thinks?

I have two mixed Asian American sons in elementary in the Langley pyramid. Both boys are smart and in AAP. They are not the hardest working. One kid seems to want to go to TJ. I think he should be able to get in.

How is TJ’s golf, tennis and soccer teams?

We are relatively new to the area and don’t know much about TJ except for what I read online.