Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the PP who thinks all TJ kids are driventoTKj in luxury cars from McLean, I watched the summer school K&R lane this morning for you. Toyota, Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Honda and BMW just ahead and just behind me. I'm not sure what K&R line you're watching. But the one I'm in everyday is not majority luxury cars.

Sorry, I never was trying to indicate that all TJ kids live in Mclean, simply using it as an example of a place that is very different from a place like Burke. Just choosing two places as examples of different types of choices families can make about how they spend their money. We live in a more Burke/Springfield sort of place but my child who went to TJ had lots of TJ friends who lived in very nice houses in places like Mclean, Vienna, north Arlington.

I was in the car pool line at TJ almost every school day for four years. I didn't make a list every day, but there were a lot of BMWs, Lexuses, Mercedes-Benzes, and other expensive cars. Many of the Toyotas and Hondas I saw were the more expensive models, not the lower level models. My little inexpensive car did seem to be the odd one out most days.

My point is just that, while most of the families with kids at TJ are not super rich, they are far from poor and most have above average household incomes, if their homes and vehicles give any indication of how they're doing financially. Many are donut hole families in that they make way too much for financial aid, but they don't make so much that paying $60,000 a year for college would be painless. Especially when you can pay half that for UVa and use what you've saved to pay for grad school.

PP you are quoting, and this is fair. TJ has a very, very low FARMs rate. Sad fact is, it's just hard to get in unless you come from an AAP Center feeding out of a school district, and your parents have put a lot of time and money into things like tutors, music lessons, and summer camps. Plus, lots of time focused on the education, and driving kids to and from, and sitting at the music lessons, recitals, academic teams etc. The stuff that makes SIS statements compelling aren't found at poor performing school. And can't be accessed by kids whose parents don't have at least some disposable income. No one would say that TJ kids are poor. They just are't rich enough to pay full freight when costs are inching towards 70k a year. We live in a Franklin Farms house the Carson feeder and drive 5 year old cars that were about $30,000 at the time. We have no intention of replacing them in the next 5 years. We will have no problem covering in state tuition for our TJ kid in full, no loans, through a prepaid 529 plus additional 529 savings. But, we have two kids, and there is no way we can do 70k a year x 4 years x 2 kids. And I am very opposed to undergrad loans. Especially where grad school is likely. To go OOS or private, our kids will need to get merit aid for costs above 40K a year. Our situation is very, very common at TJ.

This is indeed true. When my kid graduated TJ recently, many of his classmates ultimately decided to go with the school that offered the most amount of merit based scholarship. There were Stamp Scholar headed to Michigan, Robertson Scholar headed to UNC as well as Regents Scholar headed to Berkeley etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For the PP who thinks all TJ kids are driventoTKj in luxury cars from McLean, I watched the summer school K&R lane this morning for you. Toyota, Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Honda and BMW just ahead and just behind me. I'm not sure what K&R line you're watching. But the one I'm in everyday is not majority luxury cars.

Sorry, I never was trying to indicate that all TJ kids live in Mclean, simply using it as an example of a place that is very different from a place like Burke. Just choosing two places as examples of different types of choices families can make about how they spend their money. We live in a more Burke/Springfield sort of place but my child who went to TJ had lots of TJ friends who lived in very nice houses in places like Mclean, Vienna, north Arlington.

I was in the car pool line at TJ almost every school day for four years. I didn't make a list every day, but there were a lot of BMWs, Lexuses, Mercedes-Benzes, and other expensive cars. Many of the Toyotas and Hondas I saw were the more expensive models, not the lower level models. My little inexpensive car did seem to be the odd one out most days.

My point is just that, while most of the families with kids at TJ are not super rich, they are far from poor and most have above average household incomes, if their homes and vehicles give any indication of how they're doing financially. Many are donut hole families in that they make way too much for financial aid, but they don't make so much that paying $60,000 a year for college would be painless. Especially when you can pay half that for UVa and use what you've saved to pay for grad school.

PP you are quoting, and this is fair. TJ has a very, very low FARMs rate. Sad fact is, it's just hard to get in unless you come from an AAP Center feeding out of a school district, and your parents have put a lot of time and money into things like tutors, music lessons, and summer camps. Plus, lots of time focused on the education, and driving kids to and from, and sitting at the music lessons, recitals, academic teams etc. The stuff that makes SIS statements compelling aren't found at poor performing school. And can't be accessed by kids whose parents don't have at least some disposable income. No one would say that TJ kids are poor. They just are't rich enough to pay full freight when costs are inching towards 70k a year. We live in a Franklin Farms house the Carson feeder and drive 5 year old cars that were about $30,000 at the time. We have no intention of replacing them in the next 5 years. We will have no problem covering in state tuition for our TJ kid in full, no loans, through a prepaid 529 plus additional 529 savings. But, we have two kids, and there is no way we can do 70k a year x 4 years x 2 kids. And I am very opposed to undergrad loans. Especially where grad school is likely. To go OOS or private, our kids will need to get merit aid for costs above 40K a year. Our situation is very, very common at TJ.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP - for most of the TJ students not at a "top" school (however you'd define it) ... whether or not you'd pick say, Arizona State or Tennessee for your DS, a TJ kid going there likely is getting a full scholarship to work at essentially the graduate school level with professors studying exactly what they are interested in ....

This is the standard troll line...everyone at TJ is a wunderkind! Everyone gets a full ride that does not go to an Ivy! They go to Average State College because that's the best in subject X!

The fact is 1/3 of the TJ grads were rejected by UVA. The fact is only the very top TJ grads are full ride candidates at any respectable college. The fact is they changed admission policy and these students are now graduating:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/one-third-of-tj-freshmen-need-math-science-remediation/article/623696

TJ is a great school for the upper half! Fantastic opportunities. But selling the idea all students are wunderkind if they attend TJ is just wrong.

The article came out in 2011 so the relevant classes would be 2015 and possibly 2016. Class of 2015 had very good college admission results and 2016 had even better results.

Anonymous wrote:For the PP who thinks all TJ kids are driventoTKj in luxury cars from McLean, I watched the summer school K&R lane this morning for you. Toyota, Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Honda and BMW just ahead and just behind me. I'm not sure what K&R line you're watching. But the one I'm in everyday is not majority luxury cars.

Sorry, I never was trying to indicate that all TJ kids live in Mclean, simply using it as an example of a place that is very different from a place like Burke. Just choosing two places as examples of different types of choices families can make about how they spend their money. We live in a more Burke/Springfield sort of place but my child who went to TJ had lots of TJ friends who lived in very nice houses in places like Mclean, Vienna, north Arlington.

I was in the car pool line at TJ almost every school day for four years. I didn't make a list every day, but there were a lot of BMWs, Lexuses, Mercedes-Benzes, and other expensive cars. Many of the Toyotas and Hondas I saw were the more expensive models, not the lower level models. My little inexpensive car did seem to be the odd one out most days.

My point is just that, while most of the families with kids at TJ are not super rich, they are far from poor and most have above average household incomes, if their homes and vehicles give any indication of how they're doing financially. Many are donut hole families in that they make way too much for financial aid, but they don't make so much that paying $60,000 a year for college would be painless. Especially when you can pay half that for UVa and use what you've saved to pay for grad school.

The number of acceptances to top universities/colleges (without legacies/URM/athletic hooks) and the large scholarship amounts is one of the best college acceptance list I have seen.

There have been full-ride scholarships to UC Berkeley (Regents Scholarship) from TJ in the last few years and those are extremely competitive to receive for OOS (around 10-15 awarded to OOS/International applicants per year out of tens of thousands of OOS/International applicants). I have seen TJ students choose this scholarship to attend UC Berkeley over Ivy League schools or other top schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP - for most of the TJ students not at a "top" school (however you'd define it) ... whether or not you'd pick say, Arizona State or Tennessee for your DS, a TJ kid going there likely is getting a full scholarship to work at essentially the graduate school level with professors studying exactly what they are interested in ....

This is the standard troll line...everyone at TJ is a wunderkind! Everyone gets a full ride that does not go to an Ivy! They go to Average State College because that's the best in subject X!

The fact is 1/3 of the TJ grads were rejected by UVA. The fact is only the very top TJ grads are full ride candidates at any respectable college. The fact is they changed admission policy and these students are now graduating:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/one-third-of-tj-freshmen-need-math-science-remediation/article/623696

TJ is a great school for the upper half! Fantastic opportunities. But selling the idea all students are wunderkind if they attend TJ is just wrong.

TJ grads receive significant amount of merit aid/scholarship money. For example, class of 2015 received approximately 39 million dollars in merit aid so that tells you the merit aid is an important consideration for many TJ grads considering many top schools do not award merit aid and VA schools also have very limited merit aid as well.

For the PP who thinks all TJ kids are driventoTKj in luxury cars from McLean, I watched the summer school K&R lane this morning for you. Toyota, Toyota, Lexus, Subaru, Honda and BMW just ahead and just behind me. I'm not sure what K&R line you're watching. But the one I'm in everyday is not majority luxury cars.

Anonymous wrote:Agree with PP - for most of the TJ students not at a "top" school (however you'd define it) ... whether or not you'd pick say, Arizona State or Tennessee for your DS, a TJ kid going there likely is getting a full scholarship to work at essentially the graduate school level with professors studying exactly what they are interested in ....

This is the standard troll line...everyone at TJ is a wunderkind! Everyone gets a full ride that does not go to an Ivy! They go to Average State College because that's the best in subject X!

The fact is 1/3 of the TJ grads were rejected by UVA. The fact is only the very top TJ grads are full ride candidates at any respectable college. The fact is they changed admission policy and these students are now graduating:

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/one-third-of-tj-freshmen-need-math-science-remediation/article/623696

TJ is a great school for the upper half! Fantastic opportunities. But selling the idea all students are wunderkind if they attend TJ is just wrong.

Agree with PP - for most of the TJ students not at a "top" school (however you'd define it) ... whether or not you'd pick say, Arizona State or Tennessee for your DS, a TJ kid going there likely is getting a full scholarship to work at essentially the graduate school level with professors studying exactly what they are interested in ....

Anonymous wrote:What I also heard from a senior and parents is that a lot of these kids already know exactly what they want to study (like down to the exact area of CS merged with some specific kind of research for example), and are choosing colleges that aren't necessarily well-regarded overall, but are perfect fits for what they want to do (and probably already have started doing at TJ). Some of these kids already have a mentor relationship with a professor at that college. They mentioned Tulane and a couple other similar schools.

+1. DP, and this is true. All TJ kids do a senior research lab or mentorship. Many also intern the summer before their senior year. By the time they choose a college, many are on a super specialized track, and are choosing a college the way most people chose a graduate program. They not only know they want to do CS, have taken CS, AP CS, and a year of AI classes, then done a year of research mentorship in AI and are published. They then look for the best AI program they can find. Not every kid is that laser focused, of course. But it is certainly not uncommon. When you look at the college list and wonder why a kid is going to a school that might not seem obvious at first glance, the answer is often a certain department, special program, etc.

My TJ kid is planning to do the the AP Chemistry to Organic chemistry sequence, plus a year of Astronomy, and then do the Astronomy senior lab. She wants to intern at Goddard before he senior year. She is researching colleges based on her specific interest in astrobiology (although it's really astrochemistry???, IDK, not my area). I find it a bit puzzling that she is this focused at her age. But I went to a SLAC with no idea what I wanted to do with my life, whereas this has been a passion for her since early ES. If it turns out that the best program in Astro-whatever is someplace that DCUM would sneer at, I have no doubt that's where she'll end up.

What I also heard from a senior and parents is that a lot of these kids already know exactly what they want to study (like down to the exact area of CS merged with some specific kind of research for example), and are choosing colleges that aren't necessarily well-regarded overall, but are perfect fits for what they want to do (and probably already have started doing at TJ). Some of these kids already have a mentor relationship with a professor at that college. They mentioned Tulane and a couple other similar schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

. TJ is not a wealthy student body

They are pretty well off, though. Very low percentage of FARMS kids. Also, the car pool line and the student parking areas are filled with a lot of luxury type cars.

TJ is a doughnut hole school. Lots and lots of parents, probably the majority, can afford to send their kid in state, and do not qualify for merit aid. But are also not in a position to pay full freight at a private. It's student body is solidly DCUM UMC, more than 100K, less than 300K HHI. For most students at TJ, they need to go in state unless than can get a significant merit award. But this should shock no one, since this is the case for many, many kids and families in a high COL, high income location like NOVA.

Okay, I'm half kidding, but maybe if they bought less expensive cars and lived in less expensive areas, say, Burke instead of Mclean, they'd have more money to pay for college.

You do realize that 2 of the top 3 feeder MSs to TJ are Rocky Run and Carson, right? 120- 150 kids a year are admitted to TJ from these two schools alone. That would be Herndon and Chantilly addresses. Longfellow is the other big feeder (with 45-65 kids/year). After that, it was Kilmer, Frost, Jackson, and LBSS last year. Do you maybe want to rethink the all TJ kids are from McLean comment. The majority come from the UMC MS AAP Centers (Carson, RR, Frost, Jackson and LBSS).

Also, I know you realize this, but the people who K&R their kids are largely from McLean. The Western County kids live 45 minutes or more away and are much more likely to bus. Any more stereotypes?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

. TJ is not a wealthy student body

They are pretty well off, though. Very low percentage of FARMS kids. Also, the car pool line and the student parking areas are filled with a lot of luxury type cars.

TJ is a doughnut hole school. Lots and lots of parents, probably the majority, can afford to send their kid in state, and do not qualify for merit aid. But are also not in a position to pay full freight at a private. It's student body is solidly DCUM UMC, more than 100K, less than 300K HHI. For most students at TJ, they need to go in state unless than can get a significant merit award. But this should shock no one, since this is the case for many, many kids and families in a high COL, high income location like NOVA.

Okay, I'm half kidding, but maybe if they bought less expensive cars and lived in less expensive areas, say, Burke instead of Mclean, they'd have more money to pay for college.

TJ is the literally the best and the brightest. This list is great. But perhaps it proves if you aren't going to be in the top 20% in this highly elite group, you are better off in regular high school.

Anonymous wrote:

. TJ is not a wealthy student body

They are pretty well off, though. Very low percentage of FARMS kids. Also, the car pool line and the student parking areas are filled with a lot of luxury type cars.

TJ is a doughnut hole school. Lots and lots of parents, probably the majority, can afford to send their kid in state, and do not qualify for merit aid. But are also not in a position to pay full freight at a private. It's student body is solidly DCUM UMC, more than 100K, less than 300K HHI. For most students at TJ, they need to go in state unless than can get a significant merit award. But this should shock no one, since this is the case for many, many kids and families in a high COL, high income location like NOVA.