This bothers me..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

So 1 TJ student every two years goes to a non-top 25 school, like Virginia Tech, or UVA, Or Georgetown?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

Yes, agree with above. But, also have to add that the curriculum at TJ is unparalled to any high school. When you have bright kids matched with opportunities & resources = sky is the limit.

Sky is the limit ???.. But where are the birds ..

The birds are flying too high for you on the ground to see...

Did you pad the bird with with electric wings ? It will run out of battery soon ..

I think I did hear about TJ kids conducting research into allowing brain cells to control wheelchairs to help disabled people in their Neuroscience lab! Is that what you mean?

Yeah.. Is that your kid ?

Similar stories happen at all schools across other USA..There will be one or two gems everywhere..

What TJ does is, they put most of the top high school students in FCPS at one place.. That's it

There are more than one or two gems at TJ and almost all of the TJ students conduct significant research.

Of course there are more than one.. If you pool all the top students from 10 high schools in the region, that's definitely what happens..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

i am sorry, I just looked it up. Georgetown is top 25. But UVA is not.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

So 1 TJ student every two years goes to a non-top 25 school, like Virginia Tech, or UVA, Or Georgetown?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP - what is your base school. If you are so concerned about getting into Ivys and the bloated reputation of TJ, then you must know your base school's general college acceptances. Does it even compare?

A rough back-of-the-envelope figurin...

Assume the approx. 12500 seniors in Fairfax County Schools are ranked by your favorite SPR (Smarty Pants Ranking)

Assume 1/6 of TJ students are not from Fairfax County, so approx. 375 seniors at TJ are from Fairfax County.

Assume all TJ kids from Fairfax County are from the top 10% of the ranked students, i.e. from the top 1250 ranked students.

That leaves 825 top 10% senior students for the other 21 Fairfax County high schools, or 39 per school.

So on average, each HS has around 1/10 the number of top 10% students as TJ, so if TJ has 10 MIT admits, each other FFX hs would have at most 1. But I would guess the TJ strips out almost all of the top STEM students with the ability and ambition to get into MIT, so an MIT admit from a base school would be rare.

Nice figurin', PP! Still don't understand what OP is saying about TJ being "just any other high school".

You have the same (or worse) teaching compared with any other school in the county. But, they have on average, the brightest kids. Those kids would be equally bright at there base schools. The peer group would not be as good there. Where it gets interesting is TJ has critical mass to have far more advanced opportunities than any other school in the region. Unfortunately, that is not why many people go to TJ; they go because it looks good to go to the best.

TJ is now dominated by students from families that would view failure to be at the top as an indicator of failure. They grew up in cultures where resources were extremely limited and their society could only afford to educate the top 1-5%. In the US, we educate every one. While in other societies, there are many exits from the path to success -- many gate ways where people are winnowed out, in the US, everyone has the opportunity (in theory). Anyone can go to a community college and do well, transfer to a top state school, and then the sky is the limit. This is why America is great.

TJ was initially built for the brilliant child that was underperforming in high school because they were bored. Like the STEM oriented kid who went on to be an internationally known physicist, but had a 2.3 GPA in HS because he was not challenged: why do the Homework when you know the answers?

The over-achievers co-opted TJ so the true genius -- the Albert Einsteins (who underachieved in HS) could not be admitted.

Yes, agree with above. But, also have to add that the curriculum at TJ is unparalled to any high school. When you have bright kids matched with opportunities & resources = sky is the limit.

Sky is the limit ???.. But where are the birds ..

The birds are flying too high for you on the ground to see...

Did you pad the bird with with electric wings ? It will run out of battery soon ..

I think I did hear about TJ kids conducting research into allowing brain cells to control wheelchairs to help disabled people in their Neuroscience lab! Is that what you mean?

Yeah.. Is that your kid ?

Similar stories happen at all schools across other USA..There will be one or two gems everywhere..

What TJ does is, they put most of the top high school students in FCPS at one place.. That's it

There are more than one or two gems at TJ and almost all of the TJ students conduct significant research.

Depends on how you define significant. Some do, most don't, at least what I saw as a science fair judge.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

So 1 TJ student every two years goes to a non-top 25 school, like Virginia Tech, or UVA, Or Georgetown?

Yes.. All other go to top 10 in country. Attending TJ gives you like god like powers, over other insignificant high schools in FCPS..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

So 1 TJ student every two years goes to a non-top 25 school, like Virginia Tech, or UVA, Or Georgetown?

UVA and Georgetown would be considered top 25.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

So 1 TJ student every two years goes to a non-top 25 school, like Virginia Tech, or UVA, Or Georgetown?

UVA and Georgetown would be considered top 25.

UVA IS NOT TOP 25. It is #26

[Anonymous]

Looks to me like about 20% of TJ students go to schools outside the top 25 national universities or top 25 liberal arts schools every year. Last year about 8% went to Ivies, which was a significant drop from the Class of 2014, about 13% of which went on to Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks to me like about 20% of TJ students go to schools outside the top 25 national universities or top 25 liberal arts schools every year. Last year about 8% went to Ivies, which was a significant drop from the Class of 2014, about 13% of which went on to Ivies.

TJ students are increasingly less interested in Ivy schools except maybe Princeton and Cornell (schools with decent STEM programs) and more interested in Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell, Michigan, CMU... TJ is a STEM magnet school after all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

So 1 TJ student every two years goes to a non-top 25 school, like Virginia Tech, or UVA, Or Georgetown?

UVA and Georgetown would be considered top 25.

UVA IS NOT TOP 25. It is #26

That is what happens when you try to correct a TJ parent.. Now their ego is hurt..

Looks like you failed miserably in your attempt at putting down TJ parents and made yourself appear unintelligent and incoherent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks to me like about 20% of TJ students go to schools outside the top 25 national universities or top 25 liberal arts schools every year. Last year about 8% went to Ivies, which was a significant drop from the Class of 2014, about 13% of which went on to Ivies.

I try to behave like a humble TJ parent in public, but I'm not. I have been a TJ parent since 2006 and now I will stay one until 2020. Last few years have been rough but I'm thrilled about the renovations now that I have another rising freshman. Class of 2015 DC went to VA Tech. I'm three for three, so I can't compare to other high school(s) But I hope TJ will keep getting better for the future TJ Students, and the new labs and renovations are way so cool. What I really think is the best thing about TJ is the social environment the kids enjoy of mutual respect, that has been the experience I think my DCs have had that is different from base High Schools. I hope and suppose the "holistic" approach is netting students who have a lot of indicators supporting appreciation and respect for others, strong collaboration skills, I imagine the teacher recs help convey that. It is lots of work and pressure and for most of us a long commute, and not all the teachers are great. My DCs have all been highly motivated to be very good TJ students, I hope students who are not would not choose to accept admission, if offered, because it's not a great place to be for those who don't want to be there. Many students "dropped out" from the class of 2015 in particular, not sure if maybe they went in the first place because their families pushed them into it. If your family does not prioritize your education and ensure you have plenty of resources, it will be much much harder to compete for those slots with others whose families prioritize and work hard to support them to have the best advantage in admission. Some students have more luck, some have more smarts, then there are the ones who have more luck and more smarts. I hope in the future we will see more clearly that TJ students are making a big contribution to advancements of benefit to community/country/world etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to me like about 20% of TJ students go to schools outside the top 25 national universities or top 25 liberal arts schools every year. Last year about 8% went to Ivies, which was a significant drop from the Class of 2014, about 13% of which went on to Ivies.

TJ students are increasingly less interested in Ivy schools except maybe Princeton and Cornell (schools with decent STEM programs) and more interested in Stanford, Berkeley, Cornell, Michigan, CMU... TJ is a STEM magnet school after all.

I disagree that they are "less interested". For most TJ students, getting accepted at IL is a hurdle, for each acceptance offer from ILs to TJ grads, their are many more rejections. But the bigger problem is Cost, so that many don't apply or at least don't apply ED where they would have a better chance. To look at the Need Based Aid eligibility of TJ families for ILs, you would see they are mainly in that category where they could not readily afford full Cost but the IL calculators tell them they can. It leads TJ families to UVA, W&M, VT, where cost is about a third of IL Sticker.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why should other schools in FCPS have the same acceptance rate in colleges as TJ. TJ gets all the top students, who would have done better any way at local high school..

They would have gone to top colleges even if they were in local high schools..

But, this is blessing in disguise for students who go to local
High schools,as they can easily get into top colleges, based on their performances minus TJ feeding frenzy..

are you insane? very few students at any high school around here "easily" get into top colleges.

That's fine.. Those few can get to top colleges from local high schools with less amount of stress.. In TJ you have to be top of the top ..

No. About 75% of the graduates go on to top 10 to top 25 colleges.

75% is too low.. It is 99.9% ..

So 1 TJ student every two years goes to a non-top 25 school, like Virginia Tech, or UVA, Or Georgetown?

UVA and Georgetown would be considered top 25.

UVA IS NOT TOP 25. It is #26

That is what happens when you try to correct a TJ parent.. Now their ego is hurt..

Looks like you failed miserably in your attempt at putting down TJ parents and made yourself appear unintelligent and incoherent.

Your response is as pathetic as his with no evidence to support or deny..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Looks to me like about 20% of TJ students go to schools outside the top 25 national universities or top 25 liberal arts schools every year. Last year about 8% went to Ivies, which was a significant drop from the Class of 2014, about 13% of which went on to Ivies.

I try to behave like a humble TJ parent in public, but I'm not. I have been a TJ parent since 2006 and now I will stay one until 2020. Last few years have been rough but I'm thrilled about the renovations now that I have another rising freshman. Class of 2015 DC went to VA Tech. I'm three for three, so I can't compare to other high school(s) But I hope TJ will keep getting better for the future TJ Students, and the new labs and renovations are way so cool. What I really think is the best thing about TJ is the social environment the kids enjoy of mutual respect, that has been the experience I think my DCs have had that is different from base High Schools. I hope and suppose the "holistic" approach is netting students who have a lot of indicators supporting appreciation and respect for others, strong collaboration skills, I imagine the teacher recs help convey that. It is lots of work and pressure and for most of us a long commute, and not all the teachers are great. My DCs have all been highly motivated to be very good TJ students, I hope students who are not would not choose to accept admission, if offered, because it's not a great place to be for those who don't want to be there. Many students "dropped out" from the class of 2015 in particular, not sure if maybe they went in the first place because their families pushed them into it. If your family does not prioritize your education and ensure you have plenty of resources, it will be much much harder to compete for those slots with others whose families prioritize and work hard to support them to have the best advantage in admission. Some students have more luck, some have more smarts, then there are the ones who have more luck and more smarts. I hope in the future we will see more clearly that TJ students are making a big contribution to advancements of benefit to community/country/world etc.

Dropping out and stressful for average TJ student ??

So, the one's who passed,which college are they attending ?