Reply to TJHSST vs Base School for College Admissions

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]If college admissions is the primary reason for you wanting your kid to go to TJ, back the F off.  Why?  Because 1) it does not help, and 2) TJ is hard and the kid has to be interested.

Now, if the kid wants to go because they are passionate about STEM, and really smart....that is a different story.

The reality of TJ is:

1: every kid should be in the top 15% of the base HS (4.0+ GPA).
2: College admissions from TJ break down as:
top 25%:  Elite schools (Ivy, MIT, Stanford, CMU, JHU, etc).
About 50% to good schools/really good schools (e.g., UMD, UVA, W & M, VT Engineering, etc)
25%: more of a meh school (VCU, UDEL, JMU, etc).

At my DD's college, one of the top (but not TJ) schools:
5% elites
25% to good schools
50% meh
leaving 20% to the other schools (which you don't see at TJ).

But, almost every kid at TJ would be in the elite or good category if they stayed at the base.

If college is the primary reason, and you kid is both a Genious and hard-working such that they can be at the top of the class at TJ, then TJ can get you in to a better school.  The difference is very few kids get all A's at TJ -- those that do are special.  That is not the case at a base school.  (actually, it may be the same number of kids, but, the quality of the students are much higher).

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This is great analysis and summarizes this discussion. If you think your kid is really smart and is willing to work hard, you have more chance at TJ but if you just got into TJ and have little passion for STEM and no willingness to work really hard, its better to stay at base school.[/quote] 1000+ If you succeed at TJ, then you have a better shot at top colleges than you would at a base school. And by "succeed," this can mean a variety of things--good GPA is the big one and arguably hardest to maintain, but a couple dozen still manage it every year. There are also some really strong ECs that can get you places. However, the reality is that the majority of TJ students do not fall into these categories.

[b]If you find yourself to be on the bottom half of TJ, then you're most likely better off at base school.[/b] UVA is a great indicator (though it really shouldn't be) of this cutoff since it literally just splits the class down the middle based on GPA to determine who to admit. There's always talk about the cutoff getting higher and higher every year, but inter-school drama and rumor mill aside (it's really dumb imo), most talk comes from people getting shocked that they have failed at TJ where they would have succeeded at base.

I realize I'm largely reiterating the two PPs' points, but still wanted to highlight this. Most people with experience at TJ would agree.[/quote]

My DC is a freshman at TJ.   We are considering to switch to base school.  
How do you know if you are on the bottom half or not?   What GPA would be a mid point for a rising sophomore?

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