Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Madison's SBG verses TJ. Is there much of a difference?

TJ is still part of FCPS, meaning they have the same grading policies as every other FCPS high school.

If same grading policy, why does TJ class have lowest unweighted GPA of 2.75? Aren't these all super smart kids?

I will tell you why. Using Math as an example, there is no retake to get 80%. You can do test corrections for each unit test and if you score 80 or above on that unit for the final, then you will have 80 for that unit test. There is no automatic curve on each test. If the class average is around 70s, usually there is no curve. Homework's percentage is low for the overall grade so the course grade pretty much depends on your unit tests, quizzes and cumulative final (20%). Knowing how to do homework questions really well will get you around 80, and the other 20 will require you to truly understand the course material while not making silly mistakes when a normal test is 5 or 6 pages long. It's not that hard to land in the B- and C+ zone. Note that Math is only one subject. Not everyone is strong in every subject. When the time comes for college admission, you are competing against other TJ students, with a standard test score of 1520 or 34.5 as the school average.

I am not sure I understand all of this, but it appears you are suggesting that a B- or C+ is a realistic outcome, and unweighted GPA could be as low as 2.75? But are there TJ kids who have unweighted 4.0 GPA, and if they also apply to the same VA college, wouldn't it be seen as one student doing well verses another getting Cs, give the same rigorous TJ curriculum?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD was admitted to TJ three years ago and struggled significantly with grades. If we had the chance to choose again, we would choose the base school.

It's such a shame that is the case. It's so hard to predict with the AAP centers being so easy and the base school grading being all over the place.

Anonymous wrote:DD was admitted to TJ three years ago and struggled significantly with grades. If we had the chance to choose again, we would choose the base school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Madison's SBG verses TJ. Is there much of a difference?

TJ is still part of FCPS, meaning they have the same grading policies as every other FCPS high school.

If same grading policy, why does TJ class have lowest unweighted GPA of 2.75? Aren't these all super smart kids?

I will tell you why. Using Math as an example, there is no retake to get 80%. You can do test corrections for each unit test and if you score 80 or above on that unit for the final, then you will have 80 for that unit test. There is no automatic curve on each test. If the class average is around 70s, usually there is no curve. Homework's percentage is low for the overall grade so the course grade pretty much depends on your unit tests, quizzes and cumulative final (20%). Knowing how to do homework questions really well will get you around 80, and the other 20 will require you to truly understand the course material while not making silly mistakes when a normal test is 5 or 6 pages long. It's not that hard to land in the B- and C+ zone. Note that Math is only one subject. Not everyone is strong in every subject. When the time comes for college admission, you are competing against other TJ students, with a standard test score of 1520 or 34.5 as the school average.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Madison's SBG verses TJ. Is there much of a difference?

TJ is still part of FCPS, meaning they have the same grading policies as every other FCPS high school.

If same grading policy, why does TJ class have lowest unweighted GPA of 2.75? Aren't these all super smart kids?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If every other NOVA school is an “easy A,” then the college admissions offices will know that, and will place almost no weight on a GPA they recognize as meaningless. This is especially true for the VA schools, since they track our HS’s closely.

Accordingly, they will also know and appreciate TJ’s rigor / accelerated student body, and take that into account, even if there are a few Bs on a transcript.

If your child plans to attend some school on the west coast who has never heard of TJ and couldn’t even find FFX county on a map, then they might assume GPA’s from all schools should be weighted the exact same way.

Problem is not TJ rigor. Problem is colleges in VA and nearby do compare one TJ applicant to another TJ applicant. Out of 550 TJ class, the top 150 students have mostly As, and the bottom 150 students have atleast a half a dozen Cs and another dozen Bs. Most of these questions are coming out of concern what if their student is not in that top 150.

Yes this is the concern, especially since even the top student from our middle school would be compared to a student from Franklin or Kilmer or Carson or others.

If this is truly a concern,

- wouldn’t a better college admissions strategy for your 8th grader be to transfer them to a Title I school in a district with high FARMS-rate, to ensure your kid has all A’s with the least amount of homework time?

(joking, of course. This is an idiotic idea).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If every other NOVA school is an “easy A,” then the college admissions offices will know that, and will place almost no weight on a GPA they recognize as meaningless. This is especially true for the VA schools, since they track our HS’s closely.

Accordingly, they will also know and appreciate TJ’s rigor / accelerated student body, and take that into account, even if there are a few Bs on a transcript.

If your child plans to attend some school on the west coast who has never heard of TJ and couldn’t even find FFX county on a map, then they might assume GPA’s from all schools should be weighted the exact same way.

Problem is not TJ rigor. Problem is colleges in VA and nearby do compare one TJ applicant to another TJ applicant. Out of 550 TJ class, the top 150 students have mostly As, and the bottom 150 students have atleast a half a dozen Cs and another dozen Bs. Most of these questions are coming out of concern what if their student is not in that top 150.

Yes this is the concern, especially since even the top student from our middle school would be compared to a student from Franklin or Kilmer or Carson or others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If every other NOVA school is an “easy A,” then the college admissions offices will know that, and will place almost no weight on a GPA they recognize as meaningless. This is especially true for the VA schools, since they track our HS’s closely.

Accordingly, they will also know and appreciate TJ’s rigor / accelerated student body, and take that into account, even if there are a few Bs on a transcript.

If your child plans to attend some school on the west coast who has never heard of TJ and couldn’t even find FFX county on a map, then they might assume GPA’s from all schools should be weighted the exact same way.

Problem is not TJ rigor. Problem is colleges in VA and nearby do compare one TJ applicant to another TJ applicant. Out of 550 TJ class, the top 150 students have mostly As, and the bottom 150 students have atleast a half a dozen Cs and another dozen Bs. Most of these questions are coming out of concern what if their student is not in that top 150.

Yes this is the concern, especially since even the top student from our middle school would be compared to a student from Franklin or Kilmer or Carson or others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If every other NOVA school is an “easy A,” then the college admissions offices will know that, and will place almost no weight on a GPA they recognize as meaningless. This is especially true for the VA schools, since they track our HS’s closely.

Accordingly, they will also know and appreciate TJ’s rigor / accelerated student body, and take that into account, even if there are a few Bs on a transcript.

If your child plans to attend some school on the west coast who has never heard of TJ and couldn’t even find FFX county on a map, then they might assume GPA’s from all schools should be weighted the exact same way.

Problem is not TJ rigor. Problem is colleges in VA and nearby do compare one TJ applicant to another TJ applicant. Out of 550 TJ class, the top 150 students have mostly As, and the bottom 150 students have atleast a half a dozen Cs and another dozen Bs. Most of these questions are coming out of concern what if their student is not in that top 150.

Anonymous wrote:If every other NOVA school is an “easy A,” then the college admissions offices will know that, and will place almost no weight on a GPA they recognize as meaningless. This is especially true for the VA schools, since they track our HS’s closely.

Accordingly, they will also know and appreciate TJ’s rigor / accelerated student body, and take that into account, even if there are a few Bs on a transcript.

If your child plans to attend some school on the west coast who has never heard of TJ and couldn’t even find FFX county on a map, then they might assume GPA’s from all schools should be weighted the exact same way.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Madison's SBG verses TJ. Is there much of a difference?

Night and day. Experience at both.

But it is not the grading you need to be worried about. It would not be among the top 20 things to think about for choosing between Madison vs TJ.

For a strong academic child, at Madison it takes 30 minutes of home work a week to get A's. At TJ same kid needs to put in 15 hours a week and be prepared for a few A- and possible one or two B's.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD was accepted and we decided not to go. TJ grade is bad and not good for college applicatoin

What is your base HS?