"Requirements for the Thomas Jefferson High School Diploma include the completion of an original engineering or experimental research project in an on-campus laboratory or off-site through a Mentorship program at a government, corporate, or university research laboratory"

It's 100% participation there. You have to do research to graduate from TJ. I think the previous poster was trying to say Pomona is not as staunchly a technology and STEM school as Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, though they didn't phrase it quite right. No one could deny Pomona offers a more comprehensive curriculum, but that's because it's a college, not a high school.

It is sad that LACs aren't recognized for STEM excellence. According to http://www.swarthmore.edu/institutional-research/doctorates-awarded, LACs do exceptionally well for their size in producing STEM academics. That only a handful of the 480 seniors applied to outstanding places like Amherst and Williams is regrettable.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know why Pomona is so hard to get into? 0% admitted from TJ? 3% admitted from top Bethesda high schools? (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2016/The-College-Chart/index.php?cparticle=4&siarticle=3#artanc) HYPS are all easier to get into. Does Pomona favor in-state students?

Pomona is part of the CMC and is very small. About 400 kids a class. So there just aren't that many slots. My understanding is it's the most selective college in the country because if the size plus reputation as founding the CMCs. I don't think it favors in state. It's more of a try to get a kid from every state and every country type Place. But it does not favor kids with a TJ preparation. It only offers majors in humanities, social sciences and "natural sciences". Without much emphasis hard sciences. For example, if you want to take CS above intro (which all TJ kids take), you need to go to Harvey Mudd for the class. Because TJ offers much more advanced STEM classes than Pomona does. It's an amazing school for the right kid. But the right kid is unlikely to come from TJ.

Among the CMCs, TJ students are most interested in Harvey Mudd. Which is also super selective (14%), and only has 200 kids a class. TJ had 11 apply, 4 accepted, 2 attend this year.

What are you talking about?

What I bolded is completely wrong. Pomona has its own CS department (and an excellent one), and the depth of its STEM offerings are far more advanced than what TJ has to offer. There are like, 30 courses here? https://www.tjhsst.edu/research-academics/sci-tech/science.html I looked at the number of offerings at Pomona and there are far, far more, in the 250 or so range. The liberal arts include science and math, and the LACs have robust departments and a high level of research opportunities. 10 research labs total at TJHS compared to 15 in biology alone at Pomona. According to Pomona's website: 53% of of students worked with faculty on research, and 237 students conducted summer research projects in 2016-17. At Pomona alone. Yes, TJ is slightly bigger than Pomona in enrollment, but Pomona is an elite, ultra-rich LAC with a 7:1 student to faculty ratio compared to TJ's 18:1. You really can't compare the two, of course, but it is just wrong to state TJ has more advanced STEM courses or more research opportunities. Because if it did, Pomona would not have its 8% admit rate with a 70K sticker cost.

Pomona's great, as is Williams, but most TJ students don't want to be in the middle of nowhere. (from the perspective of a TJ parent who wishes their DC wanted to be at Williams or Pomona ...)

Sorry, just a quick amendment to the above: "if the pool *applying to Pomona* was unexceptional". I have no doubt that TJ is filled with bright students who could stand a better chance at Pomona than 0%, but they might not have applied.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know why Pomona is so hard to get into? 0% admitted from TJ? 3% admitted from top Bethesda high schools? (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2016/The-College-Chart/index.php?cparticle=4&siarticle=3#artanc) HYPS are all easier to get into. Does Pomona favor in-state students?

Pomona is part of the CMC and is very small. About 400 kids a class. So there just aren't that many slots. My understanding is it's the most selective college in the country because if the size plus reputation as founding the CMCs. I don't think it favors in state. It's more of a try to get a kid from every state and every country type Place. But it does not favor kids with a TJ preparation. It only offers majors in humanities, social sciences and "natural sciences". Without much emphasis hard sciences. For example, if you want to take CS above intro (which all TJ kids take), you need to go to Harvey Mudd for the class. Because TJ offers much more advanced STEM classes than Pomona does. It's an amazing school for the right kid. But the right kid is unlikely to come from TJ.

Among the CMCs, TJ students are most interested in Harvey Mudd. Which is also super selective (14%), and only has 200 kids a class. TJ had 11 apply, 4 accepted, 2 attend this year.

Interesting theory but it doesn't quite hold true. Pomona has a higher percent of STEM majors than any other LAC after Harvey Mudd. CS is their 2nd most popular major, math third, neuroscience fourth, two different biology majors fifth and seventh, chemistry 9th, and physics 10th. 48% of their recent grads had a STEM degree, which is higher than that at all the Ivies and most universities. It's also ranked 12th for PhD production among all colleges. Though it could be the case that students at TJ aren't aware of this and associate it as a liberal arts college well-removed from science. I don't think Pomona explicitly markets for STEM majors like HYPSM and others do.

I think the greater reason is simply because Pomona (and most LACs) don't attract the likes of TJ students. You have Williams with a dismal 9 applicants total and Amherst with 6. TJ is substantially Asian/middle and upper-middle class; that's not a demographic which frequently applies to LACs. Not because they aren't a good fit, but because all the talk/school atmosphere is about Ivies and whatnot. LACs not on the east coast are even more unheard of given the region. Taking a look at the Bethesda link, you have MIT with 144 apps and Pomona with 36 (a 4x difference), even though MIT received only 2.2x as many applicants. Pomona has its pick of the best of the best in the whole world, and that changes depending on the year. If the TJ pool is unexceptional (which it probably was this year), students won't be admitted- Pomona has the luxury of making that call. If the TJ pool is as good as the time 40% were admitted, then yes, you'll see skewed results. With small sample sizes, it is impossible to make a judgment about admissions as a whole as the quality of the pool makes a difference. The year before, Bethesda reported an admit rate of 8.5% for Pomona applicants (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2015/College-Admissions-Chart/index.php?cparticle=4&siarticle=3#artanc).

People forget that the LACs get a LOT of applicants for the number of seats they have in the class. Pomona got 9000 for 415 seats. Swarthmore 9300 for 425. Compare to Stanford's 44000 for 1750, Yale's 31000 for 1400, U'Chicago's 31000 for 1600. The yields may not be nearly as high, but the interest is there such that a LAC could easily not admit a single student from a school (or many) and still be able to build the class it aims for.

Anonymous wrote:going to actually encourage another batch of useless millennials ? save your money, buy a boat. go on vacation. we dont need to be saddled with more. My company does not hire them PERIOD. Regardless of field. They totally waste our resources and are un-trainable.

Da fuq?

going to actually encourage another batch of useless millennials ? save your money, buy a boat. go on vacation. we dont need to be saddled with more. My company does not hire them PERIOD. Regardless of field. They totally waste our resources and are un-trainable.

Interesting, here's what Naviance SATomona with a 12% admit rate. TJ was 0-7 from Pomona this year, but 2 out of 5 the prior year (0 attended). And 1-6 in 2015 (1 attended)l. Not shocked at the low number of applicants. Somewhat shocked at the 40% admit rate last year.

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know why Pomona is so hard to get into? 0% admitted from TJ? 3% admitted from top Bethesda high schools? (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2016/The-College-Chart/index.php?cparticle=4&siarticle=3#artanc) HYPS are all easier to get into. Does Pomona favor in-state students?

Pomona is part of the CMC and is very small. About 400 kids a class. So there just aren't that many slots. My understanding is it's the most selective college in the country because if the size plus reputation as founding the CMCs. I don't think it favors in state. It's more of a try to get a kid from every state and every country type Place. But it does not favor kids with a TJ preparation. It only offers majors in humanities, social sciences and "natural sciences". Without much emphasis hard sciences. For example, if you want to take CS above intro (which all TJ kids take), you need to go to Harvey Mudd for the class. Because TJ offers much more advanced STEM classes than Pomona does. It's an amazing school for the right kid. But the right kid is unlikely to come from TJ.

Among the CMCs, TJ students are most interested in Harvey Mudd. Which is also super selective (14%), and only has 200 kids a class. TJ had 11 apply, 4 accepted, 2 attend this year.

Anyone know why Pomona is so hard to get into? 0% admitted from TJ? 3% admitted from top Bethesda high schools? (http://www.bethesdamagazine.com/Bethesda-Magazine/September-October-2016/The-College-Chart/index.php?cparticle=4&siarticle=3#artanc) HYPS are all easier to get into. Does Pomona favor in-state students?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Assuming about 1/2 of the graduating class (~225) receives some amount of scholarship money (excluding Ivies, other top schools and UVA/WM), 39 million works out to about $173,000.00 in scholarship on average per TJ student. Is this a correct amount?

If the $39 million figure is accurate, it may be for scholarships "offered" and not necessarily accepted. Some kids can get multiple scholarship offers.

$39 million figure appears to be accurate since each TJ graduating senior has to complete a form listing the final college choice and any scholarship amount awarded for attending the final choice college in early June of the senior year.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Actually, the college list is impressive but it is even more impressive since 70% of the TJ graduating seniors have "Anti-hook" as Asian Americans.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Assuming about 1/2 of the graduating class (~225) receives some amount of scholarship money (excluding Ivies, other top schools and UVA/WM), 39 million works out to about $173,000.00 in scholarship on average per TJ student. Is this a correct amount?

If the $39 million figure is accurate, it may be for scholarships "offered" and not necessarily accepted. Some kids can get multiple scholarship offers.

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Assuming about 1/2 of the graduating class (~225) receives some amount of scholarship money (excluding Ivies, other top schools and UVA/WM), 39 million works out to about $173,000.00 in scholarship on average per TJ student. Is this a correct amount?

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.

Many TJ parents are MC to UMC professionals not UC or wealthy (engineers, accountants, lawyers, doctors, government employees etc.) so it would not be easy to pay $60,000-$70,000 per year in college costs for their kids.