Anonymous wrote:I met a kid at WandL admitted students who was going into 10th. They returned to APS for work life balance.

My kid has friends with straight As going back for the same reason. From what I was told before I was a parent there, most kids go back because they don't feel socially integrated.

I think it's a much more complex story. I think there are a good number of kids that aren't thriving and their parents force them to stay (a teacher told me this).

Anonymous wrote:My APS kid got into TJ, went to accepted students night and decided not to go when no one would give him a straight answer on how much homework they have. My student never really wanted to go to TJ though, he just wanted to say he got in. Hopefully whoever took his spot off the waitlist has a great 4 years there!!!

You should've come over to the APS table in the cafeteria I was telling everyone my kid did zero homework. Not to my liking of course.

Freshman parent here, I'll try to give a balanced perspective despite having a pretty bad taste in my mouth from TJ at the moment.

The good:
Really interesting curriculum
Opportunities to talk to / get recruited by universities
Interesting clubs and after-school opportunities

The bad:
We came from a small school system like APS and FCPS is AWFUL. Even at TJ you feel like a number and can't get a hold of anyone at the school pretty much ever. After 12 attempts over phone and email to get assigned to a bus (we submitted the form) no one ever got back to us and we were never assigned.

My child's counselor seemed impressive when we met her. Turns out she was awful. Which didn't matter until we needed answers. Never answered a single email. Got her on the phone once. When I requested an in person meeting I never got a response. Finally the school reassigned us because there was an issue (which I could have told you months ago)

There are some really awful teachers and departments at TJ. I've ranted on here before, but essentially, they aren't there to help. They are there to make TJ more stressful and may not actually know how to teach. Anyone who claims that your kid isn't smart enough...that's just not true. These teachers come up with impossible questions that an entire class working together can't solve in 90 min because not enough information was given. Or there are IT issues and they'd rather your kid fail than call the IT department to fix the issue.

Summary: I didn't encourage my kid to go. Kid wanted to go anyway. Kid did ok freshman year and wants to stay but would flourish at base school and be less stressed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Before this thread turned into ugly discussion as usual… I just want to remind you that alot of fear mongering here.
Some people really really desperate to make TJ looks so so bad.
As a TJ parent I am saying that TJ sure have a different students body now, but I can guarantee you it is still an excellent school. My kid is happy there, no regret!
If your kid want to try let them try!

99.9999% of concern is whether student can handle TJ curriculum without Cs, Ds, and Fs. Everything else doesn't matter much.

This is so kid subjective. Also I think a lot of posters here are FCPS and LCPS since they make up the bulk of the AAP programs. I am not even sure if / how APS handles advanced math which is a good benchmark for how prepared most kids coming in are for TJ.

For FCPS for instance, they have to take a national level test to get into Alg 1 Honors in 7th and score extremely high in that and then also get the top SOL level. I had two kids do both. One still complained math was so easy in 7th and 8th and has thrived at TJ, yes it’s hard but it’s been a great fit. The other has gotten good grades (A- and B+) in those same 7th and 8th grade math classes but had to really work for them. They would not have done well at TJ and I had no intention of sending them. Does your kid sound more like the former or latter one?

I met a kid at WandL admitted students who was going into 10th. They returned to APS for work life balance.

My APS kid got into TJ, went to accepted students night and decided not to go when no one would give him a straight answer on how much homework they have. My student never really wanted to go to TJ though, he just wanted to say he got in. Hopefully whoever took his spot off the waitlist has a great 4 years there!!!

APS parent of a TJ kid. If your kid is interested in STEM, is a strong student, and is interested in applying, then they should apply. If they get in, they should go to the admitted students preview night and talk to actual TJ kids and parents, not take advice from anonymous boards like this one. Let them decide without pressuring them one way or another—they have to be happy with their own decision.

FWIW, my kid likes TJ quite a bit and is glad the is going there.

Anonymous wrote:Before this thread turned into ugly discussion as usual… I just want to remind you that alot of fear mongering here.
Some people really really desperate to make TJ looks so so bad.
As a TJ parent I am saying that TJ sure have a different students body now, but I can guarantee you it is still an excellent school. My kid is happy there, no regret!
If your kid want to try let them try!

99.9999% of concern is whether student can handle TJ curriculum without Cs, Ds, and Fs. Everything else doesn't matter much.

Before this thread turned into ugly discussion as usual… I just want to remind you that alot of fear mongering here.
Some people really really desperate to make TJ looks so so bad.
As a TJ parent I am saying that TJ sure have a different students body now, but I can guarantee you it is still an excellent school. My kid is happy there, no regret!
If your kid want to try let them try!

Are there any APS students who were admitted to TJHSST this year and who declined? If so, what was your reasoning, what changed between the time you applied and when you made that decision, and are there factors that you discovered in the process that you wish you had known earlier? Trying to decide whether it makes sense for DC to apply in the fall. Thanks!