Reply to If a kid will fall in top 30-50% in TJ, is going to TJ a better idea

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Periodic reminder that TJ acceptances are going out soon...

... and that parents will say anything on these threads in order to sell you on turning down your spot so their kid can get in off the waitlist.[/quote]

What was that that was false?[/quote]

Plenty. Not here to debate, just to state a pathetic reality about this forum.[/quote]

If it’s true or false, it’s factual and not up for debate. I am genuinely interested in finding out what was false (whether it is to open spots up or not).[/quote]

It genuinely doesn't matter whether or not the things that people are saying are "true" or "false". Like... at all. They'll be true for some kids and false for others and there's not really a good way to determine which will be which unless you actually attend and make the experience what it's going to be for you.

This forum is not a good place to go to decide whether or not TJ is the right place for your kid. It never has been.

Think for a moment about the existing incentive structures. Posters here, in a lot of cases, have a really strong incentive to dissuade people from having their kids apply to or sending them to TJ. This causes them to come to places like this and put a magnifying glass on issues that exist for a small subset of students - or in some cases to invent problems out of whole cloth that don't really exist at all.

There doesn't exist a parallel incentive structure for folks who want to see kids apply to TJ and then accept their offers of admission to try to manipulate readers on this forum.

This is why my advice is almost always to take the negative things that you read here with a grain of salt.

Apply to TJ if there's some level of interest there. There's almost no drawback to doing so.
If your kid is admitted, go to Freshmen Preview Night - you'll get a pretty good sense of what you're signing up for between the commute and the experience.
If your kid doesn't like the vibe, or if they're not up for it, then fine, turn it down.
Otherwise, give TJ a shot. It truly is a unique and exceptional experience and you can't get it back if you turn down your offer - but you can always leave if it's not for you.[/quote]

I disagree.  I think it takes more than a "level of interest"
I think it requires a level of ability.
You don't have to be in the top x%.  TJ doesn't enforce a curve but you want to graduate with mostly A's with zero or almost zero Cs and as few Bs as possible.
If you have a history of scoring below the 95th percentile on standardized exams, you should stay away and try to succeed at your base school.  Preferably 98th or 99th percentile.
Up until this last year, the average TJ student achieved an SAT score at the 99th percentile.
And the average TJ student did not graduate with straight A's

A kid at the 90th percentile can graduate their base school with nearly straight As, this is not possible at TJ for most kids at the 90th percentile.
At least 50 kids didn't come back this year as sophomores.  They went back to their base high school saddled with low freshman GPAs.  If you are not at least 95th percentile (preferably 99th or 98th percentile) on pretty much every standardized exam you have ever taken, you are probably hurting yourself.[/quote]

Balanced and thoughtful view. I’ll add that for [b]many[/b], it will result in worse college options. This is not the only consideration but it is also not irrelevant. Go into it knowing it’s very possible the top ranked schools are unattainable.

I think often the focus is on the here and now (my kid got into a top ranked, well known, STEM focused, free HS which comes with great opportunities) but ignore the study time, commute time, gpa impact, college impact, etc. [/quote]

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