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

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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]Parent of TJ kid here.

Overall agree that TJ is worth it only if ur kid is someone who is truly academically advanced in math.

Otherwise base school is a much better option.

My own kid got a 1550+ on the SAT but at the same time struggled in courses like Calc B/C and landed with multiple Bs.

That def didn’t help with college admissions

Also getting into clubs is also very competitive- my kid was “denied” in clubs like TJ rocket and TJ TSA.

DC still landed up at a very good school ( U Wisconsin ) but overall TJ was a pain - for us.[/quote]

Balanced view. Not the one TJ booster who sees no downside at all to TJ except for the bottom who should transfer out anyway.
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No downside at all?  I keep saying that for most kids it is a trade-off.  A near absolute benefit for the kids at the top a near absolute detriment for kids near the bottom and a trade-off for most of the kids in the middle.  Unless UVA is your goal, then TJ is almost certainly a bad idea.[/quote]

You've only looked at the downside for the very bottom TJ kids. There is a huge detriment in college results just below the top at TJ on down. Club-enrollment issues, commute, grade deflation/GPA dings, etc. I know it is impossible for you to acknowledge, but no matter how stem forward a kid is, TJ comes with negatives (and negative college results) for many TJ kids. You're compared to others from the same school and that doesn't mean just in your kid's HS graduating class. Colleges look at typical applicants from TJ when evaluating every TJ applicant. So a kid at the very top who applies there - even if they don't accept the spot - has an impact on all other applicants from the same school.  [/quote]

Yes.  College admission results are part of the tradeoff.  Higher rigor and preparation for college is the other part.

Depending on what you consider a good school, a third of the class at TJ used to get into UVA or better before they changed the admissions criteria.  Most of the rest were still getting into good engineering schools that were not top USNWR but top engineering like Georgia Tech, Purdue, UIUC.  Almost everyone got into at least Virginia Tech, Penn State or U Pitt.

More recently, UVA has been applying a TJ penalty in its admissions process.  Most other top colleges and universities understand what TJ is.

What makes last year and this year look so bad is that there are many kids at TJ right now that would never have gotten admitted under the old admissions process.
And those kids would frequently be better off at their base school.  
It is hard to overstate how much of a difference this makes.  The average SAT score dropped from the 99th percentile to the 90th percentile.  The kids are still bright but a kid at the 90th percentile will drown in a setting that is geared towards the 99th percentile.

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