Advice for the new TJ batch

[Anonymous]

Would any of you have advice for new TJ kids and parents? This is all very new to us.

[Anonymous]

Congrats! Now a reality check. Look at the extended hours for TJ. Add on the commute. Add on time after school for any extracurriculars. Sit down as a family and look at when your kid will leave and when they will get home every day. Add in time for a shower and dinner. Then 3-4 hours for homework. And most of the weekends.

Make sure you are going into this with your eyes open. That your kid can live with that kind of schedule, day after day and week after week. Make sure you can live with the carpools and giving your kid the extra support they need and still be there for your other kid(s). TJ is a huge family commitment. Make sure you are okay if if, like half the class, your kid “only” goes to UVA, WM or VT. Assume your kid does not get into a better college because of TJ, but is much better prepared for where they do go. That is the most likely outcome 4 years. Will it be worth it? Or will you and your kid be disappointed and feel like all that effort and lost sleep and stress was a waste.

Your kid will make Bs. They will flunk STEM tests. Their GPA will be lower than base school GPAs. They will take AP level classes, like CS and World History, and not get AP credit. Make peace with that now.

Encourage your kid to get involved in the schools non-STEM programs or keep their non-STEM interest. If that is art, music, or drama, or journalism, have them do summer school to keep the class in their schedule. Many of the happiest, healthiest, most well balanced kids are the ones who play one or more sports, march in the band, take fine arts classes, or do the drama production. That break during the school day where they can do something different, or that they love, is important.

And AP Physics arenwhere junior year GPAs go to die. 90% of kids are better served by taking physics 1 first. And most kids doing well in AP Physics are seniors who have had physics 1.

That’s all I got. Good luck and welcome.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Congrats! Now a reality check. Look at the extended hours for TJ. Add on the commute. Add on time after school for any extracurriculars. Sit down as a family and look at when your kid will leave and when they will get home every day. Add in time for a shower and dinner. Then 3-4 hours for homework. And most of the weekends.

Make sure you are going into this with your eyes open. That your kid can live with that kind of schedule, day after day and week after week. Make sure you can live with the carpools and giving your kid the extra support they need and still be there for your other kid(s). TJ is a huge family commitment. Make sure you are okay if if, like half the class, your kid “only” goes to UVA, WM or VT. Assume your kid does not get into a better college because of TJ, but is much better prepared for where they do go. That is the most likely outcome 4 years. Will it be worth it? Or will you and your kid be disappointed and feel like all that effort and lost sleep and stress was a waste.

Your kid will make Bs. They will flunk STEM tests. Their GPA will be lower than base school GPAs. They will take AP level classes, like CS and World History, and not get AP credit. Make peace with that now.

Encourage your kid to get involved in the schools non-STEM programs or keep their non-STEM interest. If that is art, music, or drama, or journalism, have them do summer school to keep the class in their schedule. Many of the happiest, healthiest, most well balanced kids are the ones who play one or more sports, march in the band, take fine arts classes, or do the drama production. That break during the school day where they can do something different, or that they love, is important.

And AP Physics arenwhere junior year GPAs go to die. 90% of kids are better served by taking physics 1 first. And most kids doing well in AP Physics are seniors who have had physics 1.

That’s all I got. Good luck and welcome.

Well that is not true of our TJ kids. He is getting A's; he gets 8+ hours of sleep each night; and most weekends he is doing team travel with TJ extracurriculars. It depends on how well prepared the student was in previous education and how fast they read and how much they handle consistent homework requirements and how much ADD or how little ADD they have. Really though our son is very happy at TJ and has found his tribes multiple times over.

[Anonymous]

It’s not a prize. It’s an opportunity that may (likely) or may not come with a lot of stress and anxiety and may or may not give your child any benefit over not attending. So I guess I’d really make sure your child really wants (needs?) to be there.

[Anonymous]

I too disagree with chunks of the first poster’s response.

Definitely factor in commute time and realize that if your kid does sports, like most TJ kids, you will have to pick them up from school in the evening.

Definitely do not send your kid to TJ because you think he or she will get into a “better” college. Send them because they want to go. Because they love STEM and want to be surrounded by hard-working kids who also love STEM and love to learn.

Your kid needs to love STEM to be there. There are amazing non-STEM extracurriculars and the humanities classes are also good (and rigorous) but there are additional STEM course requirements that might seem a burden to kids who don’t love it.

My kids are having a great experience at TJ. They are making good grades, learning a lot and love being with their peers. They appreciate the large number of specialty classes that are available in STEM fields. They didn’t do sports before but have been able to at TJ. The extracurriculars are amazing.

Not all kids love it but many do. If your kid isn’t happy, make sure they know that it is more than OK to leave TJ and go to their base school. It is not failure. It is smart to know what is the right fit.

Good luck.

[Anonymous]

Would also caution that the atmosphere can be a bit nutty. Our child likes the stems and is very active is school activities. However, gets frustrated by many of the students who can be pretty nasty in trying to get a leg up over their peers and trying to sabotage others. Was surprised to see this. Our child is doing well and likes the stems opportunities, but number of times voiced regret at coming due to the atmosphere and administration.

[Anonymous]

New pp here. Thank you for all your input here and our first DC got in.

Can first PP or others expand on this : "They will take AP level classes, like CS and World History, and not get AP credit. Make peace with that now. " '

Does that mean, they don't get AP Credit at all for many classes?

Please keep your views coming and your opinions are extremely helpful for parents like me and OP.

[Anonymous]

Find your liaison ASAP (especially for folks in counties that don’t send as many kids, like Falls Church, Arlington etc) - ours was an amazing resource. Very grateful for good advice and reality checks we got. DC is super happy at TJ (working very hard, but happily engaged, and finally found their tribe).

[Anonymous]

How will student athlete be doing in TJ. DC is playing sports almost 3 hours per day. Anyone can share any experience?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:New pp here. Thank you for all your input here and our first DC got in.

Can first PP or others expand on this : "They will take AP level classes, like CS and World History, and not get AP credit. Make peace with that now. " '

Does that mean, they don't get AP Credit at all for many classes?

Please keep your views coming and your opinions are extremely helpful for parents like me and OP.

NP here. I have a currrent TJ Junior. What this means is that some classes teach material at an AP level, but are not technically AP courses and, therefore, only get a 0.5 GPA bump, rather than a 1.0 GPA bump. The two classes I can think of are the same as the PP mentioned: Foundations of Computer Science and World History II. My son is currently taking AP Comp. Sci after a year of Foundations. He tells me that most of what is on the AP test they learned in Foundations. With Workd History II, he took the AP test last spring a got a 5. The teacher he had was good, but didn't specifically teach to the AP curriculum. My son gets plenty of sleep, but he's not much of a joiner, so he doesn't have the same time pressures as many of his classmates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find your liaison ASAP (especially for folks in counties that don’t send as many kids, like Falls Church, Arlington etc) - ours was an amazing resource. Very grateful for good advice and reality checks we got. DC is super happy at TJ (working very hard, but happily engaged, and finally found their tribe).

Please stop saying your TJ kids found their “tribe.” It’s offensive on many levels.

[Anonymous]

Thank you 14:49 pp for answering my question. Helpful response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How will student athlete be doing in TJ. DC is playing sports almost 3 hours per day. Anyone can share any experience?

Individual or team sport? Individual sports seem to do well, team sports while a great EC aren’t always competitive. If your talking about time commitment, your kid will quickly learn time management or will start to struggle. Definitely doable (along with other TJ Is ECs), but your kid has got to be able to stay on top of their work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find your liaison ASAP (especially for folks in counties that don’t send as many kids, like Falls Church, Arlington etc) - ours was an amazing resource. Very grateful for good advice and reality checks we got. DC is super happy at TJ (working very hard, but happily engaged, and finally found their tribe).

Please stop saying your TJ kids found their “tribe.” It’s offensive on many levels.

What alternative word would you suggest that captures the same meaning / connotation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find your liaison ASAP (especially for folks in counties that don’t send as many kids, like Falls Church, Arlington etc) - ours was an amazing resource. Very grateful for good advice and reality checks we got. DC is super happy at TJ (working very hard, but happily engaged, and finally found their tribe).

Please stop saying your TJ kids found their “tribe.” It’s offensive on many levels.

What alternative word would you suggest that captures the same meaning / connotation?

The connotation is part of what makes it offensive. Be better.