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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Rigor at TJ compared to regular FCPS high Schools is much more.. Every course that is taught on Math, Science, CS side is more in depth and the testing way tougher than in a regular High school. Grading is tougher. So how do colleges not keep this in mind while evaluating student applications. It is definitely easy to get A's in a HS where rigor is lesser ! Looking for advice[/quote]

When it comes to coursework, both regular high schools and TJ have minimum graduation requirements. While TJ's requirements are notably higher than those of a base HS, merely meeting the minimum won't obviously suffice at either schools. However, at TJ, the minimum math requirement is Calc AB, but most students go beyond that to take Calc BC and often pursue one or more advanced math courses. Given the potential for inflated GPAs and variations across schools, externally validated indicators like AP scores carry significant weight. Whether it's TJ or base HS, maintaining an overall GPA of 4 or higher is typically expected from competitive applicants. Whether it's a 4.0 or a 4.3, it doesn't make a significant difference.

Colleges take into account whether students have challenged themselves with the most rigorous courses available at their [u]respective schools[/u]. For TJ, this often means completing courses like AP Calc BC, AP Physics/Chem/Bio, AP Statistics, AP Lang, AP Lit, and four additional AP courses in humanities (e.g., history, macro/micro econ, gov), alongside electives. If a student from a regular high school manages to complete a similar number of AP courses and achieves similar scores, they can stand on equal footing with an above average TJ student, regardless of the rigor of coursework and grading at TJ. Strong AP scores can naturally drive higher SAT scores, which are also expected to be near perfect for competitive student. 1560 or 1600 is treated the same.

Your question narrowly focuses on coursework, which constitutes only half of the college application. The next quarter of the application involves demonstrating in-depth study and passion through activities such as research publication, participation in national-level competitions, and relevant internships. Here, a TJ student, depending on their utilization of available opportunities and peer support, can differentiate themselves from a base high school student applicant. Nevertheless, if a base high school student manages to get their research paper published in a reputable journal, participates in or wins national/world-level competitions, and secures an internship at a prestigious institution like Google Research, they will surpass a TJ applicant lacking these credentials.

The final quarter of the application makeup includes school team sports, volunteer work, extracurricular activities like clubs, team projects, recommendation letters, and personal essays, among others. TJ's advantage lies in its offering of over 80 clubs, with dedicated blocks for participation during school hours, giving its students an edge over base high school students who may need to figure out how to fit these activities into their after-school schedules. Leadership roles, club size, concrete work products, and publicly recognized accomplishments matter more than mere enrollment. The same applies to school sports and volunteer work. These achievements should be mentioned by by teacher, coach, and counselor recommendation letters and should be passionately addressed in the personal essay.

When it comes to college admissions, all evidence shows that applicants primarily compete within their own racial classification, unfortunately.

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Those APs are not the most rigorous courses at TJ. My kid got 5s in all his APs without even trying. The post AP courses are the hard ones. TJ doesn't (or didn't) offer AP lit. Not many top students are going to bother with the econ APs or AP stats because they are taking more interesting post APs.

I think people overestimate how much part time temp college application readers beyond this region understand about the rigor of TJ (or for that matter Sidwell or GDS).[/quote]

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