Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents really need to get out of their head the idea that there is (or should be) anything objective about the admissions process at any college.

Colleges, because they have the freedom to do so, evaluate the entire admissions profile and make decisions about how to put together a class that fits and achieves the goals of the university, whatever they might be. Businesses do the same thing when they hire people.

UVA admits and gives full scholarships to kids with low-3 GPAs and 11-1200 SAT scores because they need help on the football, baseball, or lacrosse team. They have the right to do that and it's in their best interest to do so. They have the capacity to admit more students than they might otherwise because of money that flows in either directly from their extremely successful athletic program or because of donations that are inspired by their extremely successful athletic program. That's how many colleges work.

Stop obsessing over all of the metrics - they matter a lot less than you think they do - and start developing kids that universities believe will either give donations or inspire them.

To follow up on this - parents and students who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the "magic formula" are wasting their time. There isn't one.

Schools are looking for what they are looking for and they don't publish that information for very understandable reasons. And what they are looking for changes constantly in response to how each admitted class looks and how each admitted class performs.

I don't blame parents for wanting to understand exactly what the rules of the game are so that they can follow them to the letter - but expecting that schools are going to tell you exactly what to do, or even have an explicit set of rules that they follow relentlessly, is just silly nonsense.

That's a presumptuous thing to say.

Uhhh, how so? NP but seems pretty spot on to me, and franky empathetic, but certainly nothing there that seems particularly bold or out-of-bounds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is significantly and by a large margin much harder than base HS.

Experience of same kid at base HS and TJ. Kid moved to TJ in 10th grade.

At base HS, all homework is finished at school itself and child home by 3 PM. Absolutely no additional effort needed at home - child took 2 AP classes in 9th, even then school is pretty easy. Tests took maybe 15 minutes more of effort at home. Grade book frequently had 100+ scores out of 100 in many subjects because they give bonus points for some things.

At TJ, the amount of effort is lot more. 2-3 hours per day. Highly kid dependent but heard lot of classmates were spending a lot more time. Some courses are at the same level of rigor as college.

At base HS if you understand the content you are good for an A. At TJ, you need in depth understanding of the subject. So you need to be able to apply the concept in a different situation, so you need to understand it very thoroughly. About 20% of test questions are in this category.

At TJ you get a fantastic education. But when applying to colleges, it might be a slight disadvantage for the top colleges.

At base child's recommendations would have been off the chart. Child was able to get into a very selective program from base HS because one teacher wrote something like "never saw anyone like this in my 18 years of teaching...".

At TJ, same child would get a good recommendation but nothing like at base HS. In one activity child is in top 100 in nation but there is at least one child every two years who is in the top 10. So the recommendation letters would likewise be much less strong coming from TJ than at base HS.

For our second child we decided not to go to TJ.

TJ is the right place for child 1 but not for child 2.

+1

You have to take a step beyond this, though.

Child 1 learns to self-study at TJ, gets into mediocre state school, excels with 4.0 GPA and amazes all her professors who usually don't see this type of student. Gets great recommendation to get into Ivy+ grad school (free since they would be grad TAs). Child 2 is at the top of their class at Base HS and is shocked at when Ivy+ Econ 101 is using grad-level differential equations (based on a true story, BTW). Child 2 has a mediocre (and expensive) Ivy+ undergrad and goes to Mediocre Grad school.

What's the better outcome?

Anonymous wrote:How are this year's freshmen doing so far?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents really need to get out of their head the idea that there is (or should be) anything objective about the admissions process at any college.

Colleges, because they have the freedom to do so, evaluate the entire admissions profile and make decisions about how to put together a class that fits and achieves the goals of the university, whatever they might be. Businesses do the same thing when they hire people.

UVA admits and gives full scholarships to kids with low-3 GPAs and 11-1200 SAT scores because they need help on the football, baseball, or lacrosse team. They have the right to do that and it's in their best interest to do so. They have the capacity to admit more students than they might otherwise because of money that flows in either directly from their extremely successful athletic program or because of donations that are inspired by their extremely successful athletic program. That's how many colleges work.

Stop obsessing over all of the metrics - they matter a lot less than you think they do - and start developing kids that universities believe will either give donations or inspire them.

To follow up on this - parents and students who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the "magic formula" are wasting their time. There isn't one.

Schools are looking for what they are looking for and they don't publish that information for very understandable reasons. And what they are looking for changes constantly in response to how each admitted class looks and how each admitted class performs.

I don't blame parents for wanting to understand exactly what the rules of the game are so that they can follow them to the letter - but expecting that schools are going to tell you exactly what to do, or even have an explicit set of rules that they follow relentlessly, is just silly nonsense.

That's a presumptuous thing to say.

Uhhh, how so? NP but seems pretty spot on to me, and franky empathetic, but certainly nothing there that seems particularly bold or out-of-bounds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents really need to get out of their head the idea that there is (or should be) anything objective about the admissions process at any college.

Colleges, because they have the freedom to do so, evaluate the entire admissions profile and make decisions about how to put together a class that fits and achieves the goals of the university, whatever they might be. Businesses do the same thing when they hire people.

UVA admits and gives full scholarships to kids with low-3 GPAs and 11-1200 SAT scores because they need help on the football, baseball, or lacrosse team. They have the right to do that and it's in their best interest to do so. They have the capacity to admit more students than they might otherwise because of money that flows in either directly from their extremely successful athletic program or because of donations that are inspired by their extremely successful athletic program. That's how many colleges work.

Stop obsessing over all of the metrics - they matter a lot less than you think they do - and start developing kids that universities believe will either give donations or inspire them.

To follow up on this - parents and students who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the "magic formula" are wasting their time. There isn't one.

Schools are looking for what they are looking for and they don't publish that information for very understandable reasons. And what they are looking for changes constantly in response to how each admitted class looks and how each admitted class performs.

I don't blame parents for wanting to understand exactly what the rules of the game are so that they can follow them to the letter - but expecting that schools are going to tell you exactly what to do, or even have an explicit set of rules that they follow relentlessly, is just silly nonsense.

That's a presumptuous thing to say.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents really need to get out of their head the idea that there is (or should be) anything objective about the admissions process at any college.

Colleges, because they have the freedom to do so, evaluate the entire admissions profile and make decisions about how to put together a class that fits and achieves the goals of the university, whatever they might be. Businesses do the same thing when they hire people.

UVA admits and gives full scholarships to kids with low-3 GPAs and 11-1200 SAT scores because they need help on the football, baseball, or lacrosse team. They have the right to do that and it's in their best interest to do so. They have the capacity to admit more students than they might otherwise because of money that flows in either directly from their extremely successful athletic program or because of donations that are inspired by their extremely successful athletic program. That's how many colleges work.

Stop obsessing over all of the metrics - they matter a lot less than you think they do - and start developing kids that universities believe will either give donations or inspire them.

To follow up on this - parents and students who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the "magic formula" are wasting their time. There isn't one.

Schools are looking for what they are looking for and they don't publish that information for very understandable reasons. And what they are looking for changes constantly in response to how each admitted class looks and how each admitted class performs.

I don't blame parents for wanting to understand exactly what the rules of the game are so that they can follow them to the letter - but expecting that schools are going to tell you exactly what to do, or even have an explicit set of rules that they follow relentlessly, is just silly nonsense.

That's a presumptuous thing to say.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parents really need to get out of their head the idea that there is (or should be) anything objective about the admissions process at any college.

Colleges, because they have the freedom to do so, evaluate the entire admissions profile and make decisions about how to put together a class that fits and achieves the goals of the university, whatever they might be. Businesses do the same thing when they hire people.

UVA admits and gives full scholarships to kids with low-3 GPAs and 11-1200 SAT scores because they need help on the football, baseball, or lacrosse team. They have the right to do that and it's in their best interest to do so. They have the capacity to admit more students than they might otherwise because of money that flows in either directly from their extremely successful athletic program or because of donations that are inspired by their extremely successful athletic program. That's how many colleges work.

Stop obsessing over all of the metrics - they matter a lot less than you think they do - and start developing kids that universities believe will either give donations or inspire them.

To follow up on this - parents and students who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out the "magic formula" are wasting their time. There isn't one.

Schools are looking for what they are looking for and they don't publish that information for very understandable reasons. And what they are looking for changes constantly in response to how each admitted class looks and how each admitted class performs.

I don't blame parents for wanting to understand exactly what the rules of the game are so that they can follow them to the letter - but expecting that schools are going to tell you exactly what to do, or even have an explicit set of rules that they follow relentlessly, is just silly nonsense.

Anonymous wrote:Parents really need to get out of their head the idea that there is (or should be) anything objective about the admissions process at any college.

Colleges, because they have the freedom to do so, evaluate the entire admissions profile and make decisions about how to put together a class that fits and achieves the goals of the university, whatever they might be. Businesses do the same thing when they hire people.

UVA admits and gives full scholarships to kids with low-3 GPAs and 11-1200 SAT scores because they need help on the football, baseball, or lacrosse team. They have the right to do that and it's in their best interest to do so. They have the capacity to admit more students than they might otherwise because of money that flows in either directly from their extremely successful athletic program or because of donations that are inspired by their extremely successful athletic program. That's how many colleges work.

Stop obsessing over all of the metrics - they matter a lot less than you think they do - and start developing kids that universities believe will either give donations or inspire them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do they allow retakes at TJ?

Yes in some classes at least (maybe all?) but I think only up to a certain score. Also I would think it is hard to stay caught up if you need to rely on that net too much.

Anonymous wrote:Do they allow retakes at TJ?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ is significantly and by a large margin much harder than base HS.

Experience of same kid at base HS and TJ. Kid moved to TJ in 10th grade.

At base HS, all homework is finished at school itself and child home by 3 PM. Absolutely no additional effort needed at home - child took 2 AP classes in 9th, even then school is pretty easy. Tests took maybe 15 minutes more of effort at home. Grade book frequently had 100+ scores out of 100 in many subjects because they give bonus points for some things.

At TJ, the amount of effort is lot more. 2-3 hours per day. Highly kid dependent but heard lot of classmates were spending a lot more time. Some courses are at the same level of rigor as college.

At base HS if you understand the content you are good for an A. At TJ, you need in depth understanding of the subject. So you need to be able to apply the concept in a different situation, so you need to understand it very thoroughly. About 20% of test questions are in this category.

At TJ you get a fantastic education. But when applying to colleges, it might be a slight disadvantage for the top colleges.

At base child's recommendations would have been off the chart. Child was able to get into a very selective program from base HS because one teacher wrote something like "never saw anyone like this in my 18 years of teaching...".

At TJ, same child would get a good recommendation but nothing like at base HS. In one activity child is in top 100 in nation but there is at least one child every two years who is in the top 10. So the recommendation letters would likewise be much less strong coming from TJ than at base HS.

For our second child we decided not to go to TJ.

TJ is the right place for child 1 but not for child 2.

+1

You have to take a step beyond this, though.

Child 1 learns to self-study at TJ, gets into mediocre state school, excels with 4.0 GPA and amazes all her professors who usually don't see this type of student. Gets great recommendation to get into Ivy+ grad school (free since they would be grad TAs). Child 2 is at the top of their class at Base HS and is shocked at when Ivy+ Econ 101 is using grad-level differential equations (based on a true story, BTW). Child 2 has a mediocre (and expensive) Ivy+ undergrad and goes to Mediocre Grad school.

What's the better outcome?