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Anonymous wrote:My DC graduated in the bottom 25% of the class (about 3.8 WGPA), went to WM, double majored in STEM subjects, graduated summa cum laude (found college easier than TJ), and is now at a top 10 university working on their PhD. So, yeah, even the kids at the bottom of the class do OK.

Except MIT, Mudd and Chicago, every TJ kid says college is much, much easier than high school.

This is actually what most kids who did a rigorous HS prep (IB, AP, TJ, good private) often say. Because the pressure of getting top grades to get into college is intense, the experience of college is often easier.

Totally agree. I have no doubt these elite schools are more difficult, but not in a good way. They have turned HS into an endurance contest and conflate acceleration with merit. In college you have TIME to dig deeper into topics you are interested in, discuss with peers and faculty relationships with other areas and applications without the extreme time and volume constraints of HS. The extreme acceleration in HS leads to acceptance of cheating, cramming for tests without really having the time to actually learn, and wasting free time self-studying for the easy AP exams they are not really interested in.

TJ kids certainly dig deeper into topics, discuss with extraordinary peers and teachers, conduct research and enjoy bully free environment where academics is encouraged for a change as it should be for schools instead of sports, drinking, dramas, bullying, class discrimination, cheating, working on side doors to colleges etc.

DC's friend who is at TJ was chatting with DC this summer and said that their history class basically spent their class time filling out worksheets and had no homework. We were...floored (and kind of incredulous, but why would the friend make that up?)

Yep— you must be talking about summer school upperclass history? The “4th non-AP history” class everyone has to shoehorn in their schedule somewhere and many kids do over summer school? Yep. They usually have base school FCPS teachers teach the history summer school classes and they are kinf od a joke. Okay really a joke. In fact, the 4th non-AP histories during the school year— anthropology, law and society, etc. are also the easiest classes most kids take. Okay really a joke. World History, APUSH and AP Gov during the year on the other hand as teams HUM classes OTOH are the real deal.

No, it wasn't a summer school class. DC's friend took another class over the summer. Maybe it's all very teacher dependent?