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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What I also heard from a senior and parents is that a lot of these kids already know exactly what they want to study (like down to the exact area of CS merged with some specific kind of research for example), and are choosing colleges that aren't necessarily well-regarded overall, but are perfect fits for what they want to do (and probably already have started doing at TJ).  Some of these kids already have a mentor relationship with a professor at that college.  They mentioned Tulane and a couple other similar schools.  [/quote]

+1. DP, and this is true.  All TJ kids do a senior research lab or mentorship. Many also intern the summer before their senior year. By the time they choose a college, many are on a super specialized track, and are choosing a college the way most people chose a graduate program. They not only know they want to do CS, have taken CS, AP CS, and a year of AI classes, then done a year of research mentorship in AI and are published. They then look for the best AI program they can find.   Not every kid is that laser focused, of course. But it is certainly not uncommon.  When you look at the college list and wonder why a kid is going to a school that might not seem obvious at first glance, the answer is often a certain department, special program, etc.

My TJ kid is planning to do the the AP Chemistry to Organic chemistry sequence, plus a year of Astronomy, and then do the Astronomy senior lab. She wants to intern at Goddard before he senior year. She is researching colleges based on her specific interest in astrobiology (although it's really astrochemistry???, IDK, not my area).  I find it a bit puzzling that she is this focused at her age.  But I went to a SLAC with no idea what I wanted to do with my life, whereas this has been a passion for her since early ES.   If it turns out that the best program in Astro-whatever is someplace that DCUM would sneer at, I have no doubt that's where she'll end up.  [/quote]

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