A question about the actual students at Thomas Jefferson for anyone who has actually met them:

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Einsteins,[b] So why do they do it? I mean if they can get in to a good American college straight from Korea?

I'm going to assume this is a sincere question and take a stab at it. One reason is that they want to master English--really speak it fluently. After all, English is the international language and you need to know it to be successful. And what is the best way to learn a language other than to live in the country that speaks it? It's like studying abroad to learn a language & its culture. The US is not the only country they go to. I've heard of people going Canada, Europe, China (to learn Chinese, that is)... I don't think it's really about the education here or even TJ. In fact, the education is so advanced in Korea that after a few years here, they would be behind (at least in Math) when they go back, except maybe TJ. It's really more about the experience. I think they value the experience of living abroad and learning English and really getting to know the culture. I think a lot of Americans feel the same way. I think Americans value the experience of, say, living in Spain and really mastering Spanish and understanding the culture. I would find that experience valuable. The difference is that they're doing it at a much younger age (ES, MS, HS age), hence splitting up the family, and not waiting until college or after college, which is when most Americans who do it would go. Because as we all know, the earlier you learn a language, the better you are at it (especially the accent). I think this goes to, depending on how you look at it, how competitive they are or how much they're willing to sacrifice in raising their kids. Who wants to split a family up? And it's certainly more expensive to do this, but they feel like it's important for their kids if they are going to be competitive.

so they come to the U.S. in middle school so they can learn to speak English without an accent? And they can't do this at say Centerville or Chantilly or Westfield etc., but choose TJ so they won't fall as far behind in math when they go back? Is that about right.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey Einsteins, they don't need to come here and go to TJ just to get into the Ivies. They get accepted in droves right from the prestigious High Schools in S. Korea.

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy South Korea South Korea 133 14 10.5%

higher acceptance rate than TJ!!!

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Alexandria Va. 428 39 9.1%

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Man, I wish many of Xenophobes here would go back to their Tea Party rallies with their ridiculous conspiracy theories about how their tax dollars are being wasted...

+1 -- I doubt this is happening on a large scale and am not worried about it in any case. Get a life, people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey Einsteins, they don't need to come here and go to TJ just to get into the Ivies. They get accepted in droves right from the prestigious High Schools in S. Korea.

Korean Minjok Leadership Academy South Korea South Korea 133 14 10.5%

higher acceptance rate than TJ!!!

Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Alexandria Va. 428 39 9.1%

------------

Man, I wish many of Xenophobes here would go back to their Tea Party rallies with their ridiculous conspiracy theories about how their tax dollars are being wasted...

+1 -- I doubt this is happening on a large scale and am not worried about it in any case. Get a life, people

depends on what you call large scale. Many, many credible sources have reported on this well-known phenomenon. Nevetheless I agree it's not worth running into the ground any further. It is what it is.

[Anonymous]

Have you ever noticed the large number of people who "went to Harvard" on this site. All the people I know that went to school in Boston are much too busy to write on a public forum. Their version of a public forum is the newspaper or magazine, or publish.

[Anonymous]

Thanks, everyone. This thread and the one about the racism against Asians have been incredibly helpful to me. We had been thinking about moving to NoVa but we will stay in the District. I grew up in a rural area and faced frequent racism, mostly from other children, who of course can be mean to anyone who is different and we were one of only 3-4 asian families in the entire school district.

i want to spare my kids as much of that as I can but it's clear to me Northern Virginia is not the place to do that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, everyone. This thread and the one about the racism against Asians have been incredibly helpful to me. We had been thinking about moving to NoVa but we will stay in the District. I grew up in a rural area and faced frequent racism, mostly from other children, who of course can be mean to anyone who is different and we were one of only 3-4 asian families in the entire school district.

i want to spare my kids as much of that as I can but it's clear to me Northern Virginia is not the place to do that.

I am an asian living in Northern Virginia and work in DC. Racism is always existing. It does not matter where you live and work. People maybe friendly outside, but not inside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks, everyone. This thread and the one about the racism against Asians have been incredibly helpful to me. We had been thinking about moving to NoVa but we will stay in the District. I grew up in a rural area and faced frequent racism, mostly from other children, who of course can be mean to anyone who is different and we were one of only 3-4 asian families in the entire school district.

i want to spare my kids as much of that as I can but it's clear to me Northern Virginia is not the place to do that.

NoVa has the most Asians of any local jurisdiction. A few loose canons on an anonymous internet forum won't change that. Of course, being Asian in the District will come closer to recreating your childhood.