TJ Grades
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Anonymous
| From college admission perspective, at what grade level would you consider moving from TJ back to base school? Would mostly all Bs during Freshmen year be an indicator that you are more middle of pack at TJ and probably better off at base school? |
Anonymous
| Your child will miss out on a great educational experience if you move him or her based on college admissions. Please don’t focus on that. If they are happy at TJ, leave them there. They will be fine for college. |
Anonymous
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Reference point OP: my senior just graduated with a 4.001W (right under the wire), 1520 SAT. That’s about as average as you get at TJ. Had great college options and is attending his “dream school”— by far his number #1 choice after a dozen college visits and a really thoughtful process— with great merit aid. But, it is a SLAC, so he wasn’t competing with the whole school. He got a copy of his transcript with his diploma, and had a 3.85W freshman year classes— and was over a 4.0W when MS math grades factored in. Lots of As/A-, a B+ in Bio— and a C+ in Math 3. Rough fall sophomore grades, then did great spring sophomore and junior years
Yes— your kid is probably middle of the pack— or lower with mostly Bs. But, middle of the pack at TJ has great options— unless they want the same 20 schools every other kid at TJ wants. Outside of the Ivys, Stanford MIT, UVA, The top UCs, Michigan, Duke, etc. middle of the pack at TJ is still impressive, unless you are competing with 50 kids doing better than you. And if you look in Naviance, there are great schools like Tufts, Wake Forest, Notre Dame, Georgia Tech, Rochester, RPI, all od the SLACs, getting very few TJ applicants. And here’s the thing: your kid isn’t getting into Harvard or MIT from a base school either. Important thing to ask yourself: how hard did he work for Bs? TJ lets freshmen settle in first semester. The workload doesn’t really ramp up until about when COVID hit. They haven’t done the robot project, and IBET presentation and Romeo and Juliet and their first post RS math class in full yet, al, at the same time yet. Sophomore and junior years are the tough ones. If your kid was working as hard as he could and there aren’t some B+ and A- and As in the mix, they could really struggle academically sophomore year. Especially since they didn’t get a decent end to freshman year to understand what TJ really expects. Add on: there could/ will be distance learning next year. Most important thing to ask yourself: was my kid happy once they got through the initial adjustment? Did they have an EC they liked? Did they find their people? Do they love TJ or does it make them miserable? Most kids fall into one of these categories. TJ isn’t something most kids are meh about. You need to have an honest talk with your kid about what they want fromHS and if TJ is it. TL; DR: PP who said not to focus on college acceptance is right. Your kid is not likely to go to a T20 school from TJ. And they are not likely to go to a T20 school from the base school with a bunch of Bs freshman year. Plus, base schools have smart, hardworking kids too. Learn to live with that, and help your kid find what he is great at. Then help him do that in whatever school environment is best for him. If you do, and you look for colleges that are a good fit and not just a good car magnet, I promise he will be fine. BTDT. |
Anonymous
| PPs thank you so much for taking the time and providing such informative response. We have some reflection to do. |
Anonymous
This entire post is very thoughtful and well stated. But I did want to comment on this section. My (just graduated) TJ senior was miserable at times during his freshman year, particularly at the beginning, and then at the very end when the IBET project came due. I found out just recently how he really didn't like his entire IBET experience, though his grades on his final project should have clued me in. So I think I would categorize his freshman year as "pretty miserable," though he did OK (grades ranging from a B- in TJ Math 3 to B's and B+'s in his OIBET classes, and A's in Spanish and Ancient Civ, and a cumulative GPA for the year of 3.82). He decided to go back as a sophomore, and while the first few months of the year weren't perfect, they were definitely better than the year before, and things got better from there. He really liked computer science as a 10th grader (to his and our surprise), and this ended up being a big focus the rest of his time at TJ)/ His favorite year was junior year, because of the kids in his classes. He ended up with a 4.41 GPA, and had some excellent college choices, though he mostly applied to smaller, LAC-type schools. I would guess he is probably in the top 1/3 of the class, but its really hard to tell. Bottom line is that for some kids (or at least my kid), things get better and easier after freshman year, so I wouldn't assume that an unhappy freshman year means that your kid won't be happy going forward. |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
Yes! This! Please take this advice! The HS experience is the most important part of an academic career. |
Anonymous
| Agreed. So happy at TJ. Was on the fence on whether to send DC at all, but it is such a great fit. Who knows what college will look like for this bunch - get the amazing TJ education while you can. If it was D’s and not Bs, I may suggest otherwise, but seems like your kiddo is doing just fine. |
Anonymous
| Thank you PPs, you have all really helped a lot with your thoughtful suggestions |