Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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%

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.

Ok. But, in order to get into TJ, you have to claim/demonstrate interest in STEM. So what you are saying is your kid lied to get in to TJ. This is why I hate TJ. People will lie and cheat to get in. For what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an unhooked kid who wants to go to HYPSM, Caltech or top 5 SLAC and they do very well at TJ (almost 4.0 UW GPA, interesting extracurriculars/internship), then they will have a good chance at being able to get into one of those schools. If they perform the same at their base school, they will have a much smaller chance of getting into any of those schools. Those are the kids TJ makes a positive difference for as far as college admissions.

Conversely, there are kids who don't do well academically at TJ and their college admissions chances are probably hurt by going there - ie:they'd get into UVA at base school, but they won't at TJ unless they're in the top 50%

Either way, it's a tremendous school - college admissions shouldn't be the reason someone does or doesn't go there.

This is absolutely not true.

Yes, it is. It's what happened to my TJ kid who graduated with a 4.0 and got into a few of those colleges, while no one at the base HS (other than one URM & one recruited athlete) has been admitted to those schools in at least the last 3 years.

My unhookecd kid got into a HYPS school from a base school. From your logic my kid is much more impressive.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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%

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.

Ok. But, in order to get into TJ, you have to claim/demonstrate interest in STEM. So what you are saying is your kid lied to get in to TJ. This is why I hate TJ. People will lie and cheat to get in. For what?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an unhooked kid who wants to go to HYPSM, Caltech or top 5 SLAC and they do very well at TJ (almost 4.0 UW GPA, interesting extracurriculars/internship), then they will have a good chance at being able to get into one of those schools. If they perform the same at their base school, they will have a much smaller chance of getting into any of those schools. Those are the kids TJ makes a positive difference for as far as college admissions.

Conversely, there are kids who don't do well academically at TJ and their college admissions chances are probably hurt by going there - ie:they'd get into UVA at base school, but they won't at TJ unless they're in the top 50%

Either way, it's a tremendous school - college admissions shouldn't be the reason someone does or doesn't go there.

This is absolutely not true.

Yes, it is. It's what happened to my TJ kid who graduated with a 4.0 and got into a few of those colleges, while no one at the base HS (other than one URM & one recruited athlete) has been admitted to those schools in at least the last 3 years.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you have an unhooked kid who wants to go to HYPSM, Caltech or top 5 SLAC and they do very well at TJ (almost 4.0 UW GPA, interesting extracurriculars/internship), then they will have a good chance at being able to get into one of those schools. If they perform the same at their base school, they will have a much smaller chance of getting into any of those schools. Those are the kids TJ makes a positive difference for as far as college admissions.

Conversely, there are kids who don't do well academically at TJ and their college admissions chances are probably hurt by going there - ie:they'd get into UVA at base school, but they won't at TJ unless they're in the top 50%

Either way, it's a tremendous school - college admissions shouldn't be the reason someone does or doesn't go there.

This is absolutely not true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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%

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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%

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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

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%

Anonymous wrote: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.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If you aim at UVA, TJ is a way to go. If your child is an average or below average at TJ (your class rank could be a lot better at a regular home base high school, then you may not get into your first choice.

We have 4 kids in our street who went to UVA. They did not go to tj.

In your street? Do you mean on your street?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If you aim at UVA, TJ is a way to go. If your child is an average or below average at TJ (your class rank could be a lot better at a regular home base high school, then you may not get into your first choice.

We have 4 kids in our street who went to UVA. They did not go to tj.

In your street? Do you mean on your street?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Depends. If you aim at UVA, TJ is a way to go. If your child is an average or below average at TJ (your class rank could be a lot better at a regular home base high school, then you may not get into your first choice.

We have 4 kids in our street who went to UVA. They did not go to tj.

Anonymous wrote:pp here. I would like to clarify. I was trying to say that if they are HYPSM material, they would be shoo-in for TJ and therefore, admissions officers would wonder why they didn't go to TJ if they had the opportunity.