TJ. vs the privates

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL at thinking that being smart enough to be at TJ would mean handling the academics at a Big 3 easily. They’d handle the workload, and many would do just as well academically. But having gone to TJ, I can tell you that a big chunk of its students are made of one-dimensional superstars in science and math who would be lucky to earn Bs in a rigrorous Big 3 humanities or social science class. The skill set to excel at TJ doesn’t work everywhere, in academics or in life.

Wait, so you went to TJ and took humanities at Big 3?

I have a child that went to TJ and another child that went to Potomac . TJ teaches my child to excel in STEM but that's it. My child went onto a good college, UVA, but while DC has a good job, DC just does not have the social skill and soft skill to be "management" material. DC hated me for not sending DC to Potomac school.

The DC that attended Potomac, also went onto a good college, U of Penn. DC has a great career and is in a high paying management position because of the social and soft skill DC was taught at Potomac.

I am working at an engineering company that there are about 6 people, out of 20, in my department that attended TJ. All of them, myself included, has to report to a boss who graduated from Sidwell Friend. His major in college was history. Go figure.

Was your Potomac kid born with those soft skills or were they taught those? My two kids have very different personalities, and I don't think whether they attended TJ or Potomac or Sidwell or McLean High School would do much to change that. Are all the kids coming out of Potomac the same ie automatically management material?

Actually when you enroll your kids at Potomac they supply special pills to make them 'management' material. I hear big 3 pills are even better. After 4 years the effect of those pills will be apparent. They will graduate with chip on their shoulders and they are better than everyone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL at thinking that being smart enough to be at TJ would mean handling the academics at a Big 3 easily. They’d handle the workload, and many would do just as well academically. But having gone to TJ, I can tell you that a big chunk of its students are made of one-dimensional superstars in science and math who would be lucky to earn Bs in a rigrorous Big 3 humanities or social science class. The skill set to excel at TJ doesn’t work everywhere, in academics or in life.

Wait, so you went to TJ and took humanities at Big 3?

I have a child that went to TJ and another child that went to Potomac . TJ teaches my child to excel in STEM but that's it. My child went onto a good college, UVA, but while DC has a good job, DC just does not have the social skill and soft skill to be "management" material. DC hated me for not sending DC to Potomac school.

The DC that attended Potomac, also went onto a good college, U of Penn. DC has a great career and is in a high paying management position because of the social and soft skill DC was taught at Potomac.

I am working at an engineering company that there are about 6 people, out of 20, in my department that attended TJ. All of them, myself included, has to report to a boss who graduated from Sidwell Friend. His major in college was history. Go figure.

Was your Potomac kid born with those soft skills or were they taught those? My two kids have very different personalities, and I don't think whether they attended TJ or Potomac or Sidwell or McLean High School would do much to change that. Are all the kids coming out of Potomac the same ie automatically management material?

Actually when you enroll your kids at Potomac they supply special pills to make them 'management' material. I hear big 3 pills are even better. After 4 years the effect of those pills will be apparent. They will graduate with chip on their shoulders and they are better than everyone else.

LOL. To the parent with the TJ and Potomac kids. One would have hoped that either one of your highly educated kids could have told you that anecdotes aren't data.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There's screenwriters, comedians and musicians on the TJ notable alumni list. My kid did well in history, a foreign language and English at TJ, and I thought that these subjects were better taught at TJ than at my other kid's base school.

Your reasoning makes no sense. There are Nobel Prize winners in the sciences from non-magnet schools all over the place. Does that mean they're just as good as TJ in STEM?

[Anonymous]

Is the TJ booster a single person or an entire PR Team? We get it...you love it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is the TJ booster a single person or an entire PR Team? We get it...you love it!

No it is an entire PR team, we have been hired by the governors office to engage parents with management material kids one on one. We are also providing TJ kids with internship opportunities to gain real life non-STEM experience on how to deal with management material peers and their parents on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:LOL at thinking that being smart enough to be at TJ would mean handling the academics at a Big 3 easily. They’d handle the workload, and many would do just as well academically. But having gone to TJ, I can tell you that a big chunk of its students are made of one-dimensional superstars in science and math who would be lucky to earn Bs in a rigrorous Big 3 humanities or social science class. The skill set to excel at TJ doesn’t work everywhere, in academics or in life.

Wait, so you went to TJ and took humanities at Big 3?

Went to TJ, have kids at a Big 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing to really know is DC private parents have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to TJ. And probably for good reason.

Actually it is the other way around.

No on wants to be poor. DC privates parents are not worried about nerdy STEM kids in the burbs.... and TJ is not sending a large percentage of kids to elite schools so its kind of not thought about at all. There are not a ton of kids doing CS or engineering and applying to Pitt, VT or CM. TJ is not discussed or thought about, at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing to really know is DC private parents have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to TJ. And probably for good reason.

Actually it is the other way around.

No on wants to be poor. DC privates parents are not worried about nerdy STEM kids in the burbs.... and TJ is not sending a large percentage of kids to elite schools so its kind of not thought about at all. There are not a ton of kids doing CS or engineering and applying to Pitt, VT or CM. TJ is not discussed or thought about, at all.

When our DC was applying to privates we had to assure the ADs that we are not considering TJ.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This whole thread is dumb. The vast majority of private school students in DC wouldn’t even get into Thomas Jerfferson.

And the opposite is true too, insofar as the most selective DC private schools are concerned. What's your point? They're two completely different animals aiming for two distinct types of student bodies. Neither is better.

100% agree that TJ and the top privates are very different schools that are looking for different things as part of their admissions process. And no one is saying that TJ or the top privates aren't good (at least I hope no one is saying that, as it would be ridiculous) - obviously they both are, and several kids from both regularly gain admission to HYPMS and other top colleges and universities each year. Rather, they are just different.

It seems the point several PPs have tried to make, which I believe is a narrow albeit valid one, is that strictly in terms of the academic ability of the students, the difference between TJ and the top DC privates is immense. A very small proportion of the students at Sidwell/STA/NCS/GDS/other top privates could possibly gain admission to TJ, and an even smaller proportion could realistically handle the work. Probably just the very top students at those schools would be capable of getting into TJ (let alone thriving there). While it's true that most TJ students would not get into those same top DC privates either, the reason has nothing to do with those students' academic ability/smarts. Every single student who makes it into TJ could more than easily handle the academics at Sidwell/STA/NCS/etc. (whether they can thrive in high-pressure environments, whether TJ or the top privates, is another question, but what isn't in question if they got accepted to TJ in the first place is their smarts). This isn't to say that the academics at the top privates are bad by any stretch - given their selectivity, the average SAT scores of their students, and their track record getting kids into top colleges, they obviously attract students that are academically stronger than the average at most other schools. TJ is just an extreme outlier in that sense - it's a generalization to be sure, but take the top 10% of the kids at the top DC privates (based on grades/testing/smarts alone) and the majority of them would likely fall in the bottom half at TJ.

NOt trust just because you are good at tests and stem does not meean you are a top student in humanties. Lots of Stem kids struggle mightly , inlcuding TJ kids, when they hit elite colleges with strong humanties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing to really know is DC private parents have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to TJ. And probably for good reason.

Actually it is the other way around.

No on wants to be poor. DC privates parents are not worried about nerdy STEM kids in the burbs.... and TJ is not sending a large percentage of kids to elite schools so its kind of not thought about at all. There are not a ton of kids doing CS or engineering and applying to Pitt, VT or CM. TJ is not discussed or thought about, at all.

Agree. No one wants to be poor and live in the "burbies".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really, no one cares the slightest about TJ on this board. Different animal.

All the defensiveness, not to mention the seven pages of comments, suggest otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Really, no one cares the slightest about TJ on this board. Different animal.

All the defensiveness, not to mention the seven pages of comments, suggest otherwise.

+1. I had no ideas how insecure the private school folks are.

[Anonymous]

I sense plenty of insecurity from public school folks here too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The only thing to really know is DC private parents have a massive inferiority complex when it comes to TJ. And probably for good reason.

Actually it is the other way around.

No on wants to be poor. DC privates parents are not worried about nerdy STEM kids in the burbs.... and TJ is not sending a large percentage of kids to elite schools so its kind of not thought about at all. There are not a ton of kids doing CS or engineering and applying to Pitt, VT or CM. TJ is not discussed or thought about, at all.

Agree. No one wants to be poor and live in the "burbies".

Actually most rich asians would much prefer the NoVA burbs compared to living in NW DC

[Anonymous]

Why all the angst towards TJ? Because rich people hate meritocracies.