Reply to How important is TJ for college?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It's not important.

The big benefit of going to TJ is that kids around you have very high expectations for themselves and so the baseline expectation among peers is very high. Being in that kind of environment, where going to UVA is kind of average, can be good for some kids. It's an environment of positive examples and everyone living it. Now, if your kid is not up to that level academically then it can be detrimental. Thankfully where you are on that ladder of college exclusivity is not determined until middle of senior year.

So if you go to TJ, you aren't around HS drop outs. That might positively influence your child. Your child might work a little harder because everyone around them is. When they graduate, they have friends at Harvard, Yale, UVA (tons of people), William and Mary... college rate is around 99% and the 1% is due to people who do special things during gap year. When they are in their 30's they will know a ton of doctors and lawyers and entrepreneurs.

Having access to specialized engineering classes is another benefit at TJ.

Now does going to TJ automatically get you in the better college for being the same kid that they would be at the base school? Absolutely not.
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The majority of this post is everything that is wrong with the current obsession with TJ environment

Child should not go to TJ so the child will be pushed.  The majority of schools in Fairfax county have at least one top class of people taking mostly honors/lots of AP which are full of motivated students as well.

Child will not be around high school dropouts in base school.  High school has tracking and assuming your child is near the top see point 1

The only reason to go to TJ is a legitimate actual interest in STEM PERIOD

As others have stated the college admissions are generally the same TJ vs staying in base school and if anything its more harmful to go to TJ if you are bottom half of the class vs staying at base school you would probably still be top 10%

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You are entitled to your opinion. But not every kid who is happy and successful at TJ is there for STEM PERIOD. My kid was all around bright and the fact he was not being challenged at Carson AAP definitely played a role. He knows kids who went on to SLHS and Chantilly and complain about these schools having a slow pace and being boring. Maybe it picks up in 11th with full IB and more AP options, but  many kids are looking for the challenge.

As for my kid, he is losing interest in STEM and is talking about liberal arts for college. But he is adamant about not moving back to his base school, because he loves the peer group. Many parents and kids say that the highly motivated peers with a strong academic focus is the best part of TJ. I agree with this.

Fact is that all base schools do have some dropouts and kids not headed to college. TJ does not. 
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That’s true, but if you are good enough to get into TJ, you would be good enough to take all AP classes and your peer group really wouldn’t be those drop outs anyway. TJ May  even hurt your chances at he in state shcools bc of the invisible quotas.[/quote]

AP PE?  AP Spanish I, II, III?  AP band or art?  Lots of classes aren’t offered as APs, or even honors.  And TJ AP is a whole different ballgame than base school AP. [/quote]

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