Anonymous
Post 08/19/2019 08:18     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
TJ kids have Avery high admission rate to VT, especially considering most apply to the engineering school. If Pitts so third rate, what’s your opinion on why they want to go there and not VT? Because VT is 4th rate?


Pitt and VT are very similar for so many things. On paper, they are are almost siblings of each other: demographics (70% white, 10% Asian), rankings are a couple places of each other in many STEM majors. For example, both are solid 3rd-tier CS programs (and 3rd tier is very respectable and in demand; the import of which lessens significantly after the first/second job). Both are a 4 hour drive away from the geo center of FCPS

Given this, Pitt gets the nod because:
1) Pittsburgh v. Blacksburg. Major sports franchises, 2 other major universities, great urban city that's coming back
2) CMU gravity pulls in IT investment. Uber AI is there. Google (Waymo) is there. They are not there in Blacksburg.
3) Several TJ students (i know at least 1) are there for the direct medicine admit 8 year program. The med school is fantastic.
4) CS is a separate school, not part of engineering. They started this 2 or 3 years ago
5) Beautiful campus (VT is also nice)
6) And perhaps the biggest intangible: Pitt is appreciative of TJ and they *show* it. Great merit. Honors admission. They send stuff regularly - letters, data brochures, tchotkes (we even got a Google Cardboard to VR the Pitt campus!). Just like CMU next door (who asked the audience at Tartan Day "who's from TJ? We love you guys! We admit more from y'all than anywhere else"), it feels very good to be wanted. Conversely, we got squat from VT. Not a peep. As far as I know, unlike UVA who did a nice admitted-student briefing in FFX, there was no Hokie reception at all in the area. At least we did not get an invitation.

And unlike the drive south, no confederate flags were seen on the road trip to Pitt.


I think this may explain part of the decline in the number of TJ kids applying/attending VT -- nonwhite/non-Christian kids feel more comfortable in places other than Blacksburg.
Anonymous
Post 08/19/2019 00:12     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
TJ kids have Avery high admission rate to VT, especially considering most apply to the engineering school. If Pitts so third rate, what’s your opinion on why they want to go there and not VT? Because VT is 4th rate?


Pitt and VT are very similar for so many things. On paper, they are are almost siblings of each other: demographics (70% white, 10% Asian), rankings are a couple places of each other in many STEM majors. For example, both are solid 3rd-tier CS programs (and 3rd tier is very respectable and in demand; the import of which lessens significantly after the first/second job). Both are a 4 hour drive away from the geo center of FCPS

Given this, Pitt gets the nod because:
1) Pittsburgh v. Blacksburg. Major sports franchises, 2 other major universities, great urban city that's coming back
2) CMU gravity pulls in IT investment. Uber AI is there. Google (Waymo) is there. They are not there in Blacksburg.
3) Several TJ students (i know at least 1) are there for the direct medicine admit 8 year program. The med school is fantastic.
4) CS is a separate school, not part of engineering. They started this 2 or 3 years ago
5) Beautiful campus (VT is also nice)
6) And perhaps the biggest intangible: Pitt is appreciative of TJ and they *show* it. Great merit. Honors admission. They send stuff regularly - letters, data brochures, tchotkes (we even got a Google Cardboard to VR the Pitt campus!). Just like CMU next door (who asked the audience at Tartan Day "who's from TJ? We love you guys! We admit more from y'all than anywhere else"), it feels very good to be wanted. Conversely, we got squat from VT. Not a peep. As far as I know, unlike UVA who did a nice admitted-student briefing in FFX, there was no Hokie reception at all in the area. At least we did not get an invitation.

And unlike the drive south, no confederate flags were seen on the road trip to Pitt.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 23:38     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.


I think it would be silly for VT to be fine with this. VT emphasizes its strength in STEM (and this helped land Amazon), particularly Engineering, and TJ is perhaps the premier STEM high school in the country, and less than 3 per 1,000 kids in the entering class are coming from TJ. VT should be working hard to get more kids from TJ.


You would think. Once you get out of the “elite” category, there is a phenomenon where colleges want to be able to say they regularly enroll TJ kids because that makes the college look good. SLACs and schools like Wake Forest get virtually no applications or acceptances, have been recruiting and can’t seem to get traction. They aren’t traditionally thought of as STEM powerhouses, and want to build that up. And getting TJ and Stuy kids does that. Pitt learned it. CWRU has thrown a lot of money at TJ and is getting traction.

Name matters. Harvard matters. MIT matters. And if you want to impress people in STEM, TJ matters.

And yeah, the whole NOVA pipeline of STEM grads landed Amazon. The state has committed a billion dollars from K though college to building the “STEM pipeline”. They aren’t going to let VT keep losing ground for long.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 23:26     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.


Except the interesting thing is Pitt isn’t losing them. More than 1/4 of TJ kids who applied to Pitt went last year. That’s not bad for an OOS higher sticker price school that is literally on the list of TJ safeties they hand out (also GMU and VCU and JUM). Meanwhile in 2018, less than 10% of kids who applied to VT attended. Maybe VT wants to ask why UVA and WM and Pitt have a decent TJ yield and they don’t without putting up a huge barrier to admission. Or maybe they don’t care. But long term, they don’t stay on top if STEM talent is avoiding them.


It's amusing that TJ parents found it so important to go to a prestigious high school where "everyone is smart" then suddenly change their tune when their snowflake doesn't get admitted to a tier 1 school. Suddenly they are singing the virtues of third-rate Pitt.


TJ kids have Avery high admission rate to VT, especially considering most apply to the engineering school. If Pitts so third rate, what’s your opinion on why they want to go there and not VT? Because VT is 4th rate?
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 23:21     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.


Except the interesting thing is Pitt isn’t losing them. More than 1/4 of TJ kids who applied to Pitt went last year. That’s not bad for an OOS higher sticker price school that is literally on the list of TJ safeties they hand out (also GMU and VCU and JUM). Meanwhile in 2018, less than 10% of kids who applied to VT attended. Maybe VT wants to ask why UVA and WM and Pitt have a decent TJ yield and they don’t without putting up a huge barrier to admission. Or maybe they don’t care. But long term, they don’t stay on top if STEM talent is avoiding them.


It's amusing that TJ parents found it so important to go to a prestigious high school where "everyone is smart" then suddenly change their tune when their snowflake doesn't get admitted to a tier 1 school. Suddenly they are singing the virtues of third-rate Pitt.


Not sure if you’ve noticed what Pitt is doing in STEM, guaranteed admissions meds school, etc. Likely not.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 18:56     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.


I think it would be silly for VT to be fine with this. VT emphasizes its strength in STEM (and this helped land Amazon), particularly Engineering, and TJ is perhaps the premier STEM high school in the country, and less than 3 per 1,000 kids in the entering class are coming from TJ. VT should be working hard to get more kids from TJ.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 15:24     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.


Except the interesting thing is Pitt isn’t losing them. More than 1/4 of TJ kids who applied to Pitt went last year. That’s not bad for an OOS higher sticker price school that is literally on the list of TJ safeties they hand out (also GMU and VCU and JUM). Meanwhile in 2018, less than 10% of kids who applied to VT attended. Maybe VT wants to ask why UVA and WM and Pitt have a decent TJ yield and they don’t without putting up a huge barrier to admission. Or maybe they don’t care. But long term, they don’t stay on top if STEM talent is avoiding them.


I think one problem is that for CS at VT, you can only do it through the engineering school. You have to spend a year doing physics and chemistry (unless you've done the APs), then hope you get into the CS stream. Maybe some TJ CS kids are going for colleges that let them do CS from the get go.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 15:20     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.


Except the interesting thing is Pitt isn’t losing them. More than 1/4 of TJ kids who applied to Pitt went last year. That’s not bad for an OOS higher sticker price school that is literally on the list of TJ safeties they hand out (also GMU and VCU and JUM). Meanwhile in 2018, less than 10% of kids who applied to VT attended. Maybe VT wants to ask why UVA and WM and Pitt have a decent TJ yield and they don’t without putting up a huge barrier to admission. Or maybe they don’t care. But long term, they don’t stay on top if STEM talent is avoiding them.


It's amusing that TJ parents found it so important to go to a prestigious high school where "everyone is smart" then suddenly change their tune when their snowflake doesn't get admitted to a tier 1 school. Suddenly they are singing the virtues of third-rate Pitt.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 14:26     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.


Except the interesting thing is Pitt isn’t losing them. More than 1/4 of TJ kids who applied to Pitt went last year. That’s not bad for an OOS higher sticker price school that is literally on the list of TJ safeties they hand out (also GMU and VCU and JUM). Meanwhile in 2018, less than 10% of kids who applied to VT attended. Maybe VT wants to ask why UVA and WM and Pitt have a decent TJ yield and they don’t without putting up a huge barrier to admission. Or maybe they don’t care. But long term, they don’t stay on top if STEM talent is avoiding them.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 14:21     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.
.

Really? The TJ kids I know are whipping of the Pitt short answer essays in 30 minutes, since they also don’t take the common app essay. But say it takes take just as long to craft a new Coalition essay and the Coalition app is harder to fill out. And no one is whipping out either essay in 30 minutes. It’s the number one senior complaint by far. I know kids prioritizing Coalition app and applying to other schools that take it. Most kids are prioritizing Common App. I don’t know any kid, base or TJ who is doing both with much effort. Most STEM kids are making a deliberate decision to take one bath or the other. I thought the point of the common app was to eliminate this crap.

But I actually agree. TJ is a deep pool of STEM kids. And I bet top STEM kids at other FCPS HSs like Langley, Oakton, Chantilly, Woodson are having the same experience, without the benefit of the TJ bump by Pitt. If Pitt actively wants TJ kids and VT is setting up barriers, better for everyone— VT, Pitt and the kids, that they go to Pitt, and often spend less on college.

But I’m not sure this benefits VT. And VT is huge and massively overenrolled. It’s not like TJ kids take up NoVA spots the same way they do at WM and UVA.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 13:59     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"


I'm sure VT is fine with this. Historically, huge numbers of TJ students applied and only a few enrolled. Let Pitt get accept them and lose them instead. If a kid is actually interested in VT they can suffer the extreme agony of having to fill out the application. The TJ kids I know could whip off the essays in half an hour.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 13:43     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
TJ parent whiners here out in force here. "My kid can't possibly find the time to fill out the application to this school!"
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 11:26     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps, but the 59% reduction in applicants to one of the state's largest universities with the largest and most comprehensive engineering school that tries to position itself as the STEM option and instrumental in landing Amazon (I apologize here for the run on sentence) is really surprising.


VTech was puzzling for us (2019)
Accepted but did not get an invite into honors college. Applied early action. GPA/ACT was near top of cohort.
I hope we were an anomaly but perhaps VTech values a different type of kid.

Similarly, my kid was a nmsf finalist / high gpa student, but did not get invited to the honors college. She was invited to be a Monroe scholar at W&M.


I think everyone can agree VT admissions this year was a massive clusters—k. Overenrolled by 1000 kids. TJ admissions down by well over 50%. TJ accepted below Pitt, now honors college admissions.

I am placing 90% of the blame on Coalition App. Kids aren’t bothering to apply unless VT is a top choice, so Vat miscalculated yield. Ditto TJ kids not applying because of it. As to Honors College, Coalition allegedly promotes overlooked or underrepresented kids. I have not seen it in action, but someone I trust who did remarked that it really shafted high performing non-minorities.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 06:49     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I went to a very selective college that takes a lot of kids from TJ.

The kids from TJ (And from Stuy and Bronx Science) were very well prepared because they already knew what it was like to be challenged and to be a small fish in a big pond.

One funny thing all my friends from TJ (and Stuy, etc.) told me was that they felt they had SO much more time in college, actually, because they didn't have to have a really long commute to and from school.


This is funny because guidance counselors actually collect commute time from the kids to put in the schools college recommendations to give context to the time pressures. Lots of freshmen like the bus ride because it’s downtime (mine has about 45 minutes each way from the depot, but an hour when you factor the depot in). Most juniors hate it, because they can no longer afford downtime.



I think commute is an even bigger pressure for the Stuy kids because they have to ride public transit/subway all 4 years in most cases (no school bus and no cars/parking) during rush hour to/from and you can't study while standing on a packed train.


Yep, also learning how to keep yourself safe when taking the train home at night at age 14 back to a poor neighborhood (the school actually has a very high FARMS rate).


It’s a different kind of a poor neighborhood. The 50% FARMS kids at Stuy are overwhelmingly Asians, including Pakistani, Bangladeshi and so on. They are not coming to and from projects.
Anonymous
Post 08/18/2019 05:35     Subject: Anyone have the list of colleges TJ's class of 2019 is headed to?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Perhaps, but the 59% reduction in applicants to one of the state's largest universities with the largest and most comprehensive engineering school that tries to position itself as the STEM option and instrumental in landing Amazon (I apologize here for the run on sentence) is really surprising.


VTech was puzzling for us (2019)
Accepted but did not get an invite into honors college. Applied early action. GPA/ACT was near top of cohort.
I hope we were an anomaly but perhaps VTech values a different type of kid.

Similarly, my kid was a nmsf finalist / high gpa student, but did not get invited to the honors college. She was invited to be a Monroe scholar at W&M.