Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is not right for every competitive intellectually gifted student.

+1

Some competitive intellectually gifted students view life as beyond TJ and prefer to stay at their neighborhood high school. Through their neighborhood high school (and with strong AP/IB coursework, academy courses, etc.) they can have an equal (if not better) chance to be accepted to highly competitive colleges.

For many competitive intellectually gifted students, life is not all about TJ.

Nobody said it was.

Anonymous wrote:And let's say the premise is true - base schools offer more now. Guess why? Those TJ kids just dragged all of Fairfax County schools up a notch on their backs.

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all the hostilities toward TJ. Just because your kids can't dream about applying or were rejected, that doesn't mean you should try to drag it down, That is immature. Just be proud we have such a great school in our area as an option. You should encourage kids trying to get a great education and become scientists and engineers. We need more brilliant scientists and engineers for our future. Unless you think we need more Investment Bankers and Lawyers.

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all the hostilities toward TJ. Just because your kids can't dream about applying or were rejected, that doesn't mean you should try to drag it down, That is immature. Just be proud we have such a great school in our area as an option. You should encourage kids trying to get a great education and become scientists and engineers. We need more brilliant scientists and engineers for our future. Unless you think we need more Investment Bankers and Lawyers.

Anonymous wrote:Stop with all the hostilities toward TJ. Just because your kids can't dream about applying or were rejected, that doesn't mean you should try to drag it down, That is immature. Just be proud we have such a great school in our area as an option. You should encourage kids trying to get a great education and become scientists and engineers. We need more brilliant scientists and engineers for our future. Unless you think we need more Investment Bankers and Lawyers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is not right for every competitive intellectually gifted student.

+1

Some competitive intellectually gifted students view life as beyond TJ and prefer to stay at their neighborhood high school. Through their neighborhood high school (and with strong AP/IB coursework, academy courses, etc.) they can have an equal (if not better) chance to be accepted to highly competitive colleges.

For many competitive intellectually gifted students, life is not all about TJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:or 3) students have found that they do not need to go to TJ in order to be successfully challenged at their neighborhood high school AND to be accepted by nationally recognized elite universities.

Bingo. With 50% going in-Commonwealth from TJ, the competitive advantage is smaller than one might think.

What you do not realize is that most of the TJ kids choosing UVA, W&M or other public universities do so because they were offered full-ride merit based scholarships. These are very competitive and usually won by kids that were good enough to be accepted to Ivy League schools as well. You can't say that about 3 or 4 kids accepted to UVA or W&M from a typical base school. They certainly will have a long shot at full ride merit based scholarships at UVA or W&M. So, you ought to re-think the statement about the competitive advantage being smaller than one might think and try to think about the big picture.

I don't believe this to be remotely true. Most TJ kids heading off to U.Va and W&M could not, and did not, get into Ivy League schools. The Ivies are looking for kids who bring something more to the table than your typical TJ kid.

Why isn't it possible? The consensus is about 32% of the graduating class are offered admissions to Ivy (25%) plus MIT and Stanford (7%). That is about 140 kids (w/ typical 435 graduating). Not all of these kids attend Ivy/MIT/Stanford. About half or 70 kids do. The rest, about 70 kids of about 145 kids that typically enroll at UVA and W&M (roughly 48%) would have been accepted by Ivy League schools or MIT/Stanford but chose to attend different school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PP you don't even know what TJ kids bring to the table so don't pretend to. That's insulting and ignorant. Why don't you start by comparing graduation requirements from TJ with any other HS in the county. Yep, they are really different - and it's not that theTJ kids are taking less classes. Then look at club participation and awards, not just in math or science, but things like Model UN and community service. And then figure out percentage of school that participates on an athletic team. They may not beat Langley every year but they play as hard as they study. Let's add to that the Senior projects, performed in labs that have equipment no other HS in the country has. And all the internships available.

You are a sputtering bore, and nothing you've said changes the fact that the Ivies aren't particularly interested in most TJ students.

Anonymous wrote:PP you don't even know what TJ kids bring to the table so don't pretend to. That's insulting and ignorant. Why don't you start by comparing graduation requirements from TJ with any other HS in the county. Yep, they are really different - and it's not that theTJ kids are taking less classes. Then look at club participation and awards, not just in math or science, but things like Model UN and community service. And then figure out percentage of school that participates on an athletic team. They may not beat Langley every year but they play as hard as they study. Let's add to that the Senior projects, performed in labs that have equipment no other HS in the country has. And all the internships available.