Anonymous wrote:Currently a parent of kid at TJ. Basically its all about the GPA. Kids are cheating left and right to get A's and also taking relatively easy courses to get an A.

The TJ name provides enough cover to consider all course quite rigorous as compared to base schools

Am I the only one seeing this?

No, it is rampant. TJ and FCPS are trying to do something about the cheating. They should kick those students out of the school.

Anonymous wrote:"AI" studenta are a dime a dozen. Jumping on that bandwagon is not a way to make an impression.

If all you care about is getting into a selectively competitive college, get out of CS.

get out of CS? interested students enroll in even more challenging courses, like ML, that require advanced math.

"AI" studenta are a dime a dozen. Jumping on that bandwagon is not a way to make an impression.

If all you care about is getting into a selectively competitive college, get out of CS.

Colleges don't care about your school's weighting system. TJ offers those courses to satisfying your child's lust for learning. If you treat TJ like a cram school, your won't be happy or satisfied with TJ. TJ is for kids who are above that.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Currently a parent of kid at TJ. Basically its all about the GPA. Kids are cheating left and right to get A's and also taking relatively easy courses to get an A.

The TJ name provides enough cover to consider all course quite rigorous as compared to base schools

Am I the only one seeing this?

TJ applicants get compared among themselves, especially at their popular destinations, not with base school applicants. College admissions know all about TJ grades and course rigor. Without taking the most rigorous courses, it is not practical to go over the 4.5+ weighted GPA. UVA's cutoff for TJ applicants has been 4.3, according to Naviance scattergram.

Cheating was inevitable with the switch in admission criteria from merit to essay lottery. Colleges admissions are most likely aware of this too.

This is a strange post, full of misstatements and half-truths.

Anonymous wrote:Currently a parent of kid at TJ. Basically its all about the GPA. Kids are cheating left and right to get A's and also taking relatively easy courses to get an A.

The TJ name provides enough cover to consider all course quite rigorous as compared to base schools

Am I the only one seeing this?

TJ applicants get compared among themselves, especially at their popular destinations, not with base school applicants. College admissions know all about TJ grades and course rigor. Without taking the most rigorous courses, it is not practical to go over the 4.5+ weighted GPA. UVA's cutoff for TJ applicants has been 4.3, according to Naviance scattergram.

Cheating was inevitable with the switch in admission criteria from merit to essay lottery. Colleges admissions are most likely aware of this too.

Currently a parent of kid at TJ. Basically its all about the GPA. Kids are cheating left and right to get A's and also taking relatively easy courses to get an A.

The TJ name provides enough cover to consider all course quite rigorous as compared to base schools

Am I the only one seeing this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP - honest question - you dont think seeing AI 1 & 2 on the transcript will be seen as taking the 'most rigorous' courses available?

Or

do you think taking an easier course and getting a sure shot A is a better option - just from a college admissions angle?

OP here - my question too. Seeing kids taking unrelated simple courses just to score an A. These courses are much tougher - so want to confirm they have some value to them.

AI 1 & 2 are easy, ML 1 & 2 are considered rigorous.

Anonymous wrote:PP - honest question - you dont think seeing AI 1 & 2 on the transcript will be seen as taking the 'most rigorous' courses available?

Or

do you think taking an easier course and getting a sure shot A is a better option - just from a college admissions angle?

OP here - my question too. Seeing kids taking unrelated simple courses just to score an A. These courses are much tougher - so want to confirm they have some value to them.

PP - honest question - you dont think seeing AI 1 & 2 on the transcript will be seen as taking the 'most rigorous' courses available?

Or

do you think taking an easier course and getting a sure shot A is a better option - just from a college admissions angle?

Anonymous wrote:AI 1&2 are considered as post AP CS courses and 5.0W - so helps with GPA - which is factor #1 in admissions

These are HARD courses. Colleges will give credit to the student when they see it on their transcript

"Choose to be optimistic. It feels better."

AI 1&2 are considered as post AP CS courses and 5.0W - so helps with GPA - which is factor #1 in admissions

These are HARD courses. Colleges will give credit to the student when they see it on their transcript

Anonymous wrote:DD in TJ has taken Artificial Intelligence 1 & 2 which was AV courses. Do they get counted as AP level courses or have any additional weight in college admissions, or no.

Unfortunately, these courses won't be a differentiator because all the TJ students interested in computer science would be exhausting AI/ML/CV/Mobile/Web courses. These are good courses, but they're not really in-depth due to their semester length; they introduce concepts and quickly move on to the next. Of course, students would gain exposure to emerging technologies, which is an advantage to expand their horizons. The TJ computer science staff appears to have put a lot of thought into designing these courses, notably picking a different programming language for each, so students would be exposed to a broad range of programming and underlying platform skills. For a high schooler, going through these courses is a unique experience. However, from a college admissions perspective, they are not AP or DE courses and thus not a significant differentiator.

Anonymous wrote:DD in TJ has taken Artificial Intelligence 1 & 2 which was AV courses. Do they get counted as AP level courses or have any additional weight in college admissions, or no.

Have you asked your DD, she'd very likely know.

DD in TJ has taken Artificial Intelligence 1 & 2 which was AV courses. Do they get counted as AP level courses or have any additional weight in college admissions, or no.