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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I will play devils advocate:  did TJ make a difference for the kids that went there?  We know the average kid at TJ will perform better than the average at any other school, but if those kids stayed at the base school would they just make up the upper 5% of the school, and get into the same colleges?  I really do not know the answer, but suspect the answer is that, in the end, it does not matter.

Any more than, for a career in STEM, the college does not matter (the grad school does matter).

It would be interesting to track kids that were admitted, but chose not to go to TJ, and see how they compare to the TJ cohorts at college admission.

For my DD, who is in 4th grader AAP, I think our base school (Madison) is probably fine.

[/quote]

You're not thinking about it correctly. Students from TJ aren't competing only against other TJ students to get into colleges. They are competing against the HS population at large. Thus, if TJ does a good job preparing students for college, even the lowest-ranking TJ student would be, in theory, better prepared than a top performing student at another school. The baseline is so much higher. So, your thinking is a bit flawed.

That said, TJ isn't for everyone, even students who are qualified to attend.[/quote]

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