Anonymous
04/27/2026 20:24
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
Have you considered that some kids might be happy to work hard for their Bs at a school with a lot of motivated peers? There is nothing wrong with a well earned B. There will be plenty of colleges that those kids can apply to and receive an excellent eduation at.
Which world are you living in????
UVA requires near perfect grades. Bs will tank your chances at most target schools.
No one likes to suffer TJ math and land with a B.
The bottom 25% at TJ ( weighted gpa below 4.0) surely would be better off at base school and yes they would be much happier there as their efforts would have resulted in better grades also.
I don’t know of a single TJ kid who happily accepts a B
Which world are you living in ???
Straight A students at TJ is minimal.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 20:01
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
Have you considered that some kids might be happy to work hard for their Bs at a school with a lot of motivated peers? There is nothing wrong with a well earned B. There will be plenty of colleges that those kids can apply to and receive an excellent eduation at.
Which world are you living in????
UVA requires near perfect grades. Bs will tank your chances at most target schools.
No one likes to suffer TJ math and land with a B.
The bottom 25% at TJ ( weighted gpa below 4.0) surely would be better off at base school and yes they would be much happier there as their efforts would have resulted in better grades also.
I don’t know of a single TJ kid who happily accepts a B
Anonymous
04/27/2026 17:41
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Welcome to TJ! I am a parent of a freshman and appreciated some of the advice I found on this site last year. Hoping to pay it forward.
1. Consider taking PE over the summer- it will allow your child to take either an elective or a history class.
2. History is not a required freshman course, but 4 years are needed. So, you can double up in future years or do PE over the summer.
3. Spanish and French are quite difficult at TJ. If your child was planning to take Spanish 3 at their base school, Spanish 2 is likely where he/she will land and even that may be a struggle. Consider switching to Russian, German, or Mandarin if there is an interest.
My kid is waitlisted but hopeful lol
I thought band could be taken as 8th period? My kid wants to do marching band . Are you saying they can't fit it in their schedule unless they do summer classes?
As for Spanish, he is currently in immersion so hopefully spanish would be okay...at their home school they would go in at spanish immersion 9 and then Spanish V. I thought I heard he goes directly to AP spanish at TJ, but maybe I misremembered
Anonymous
04/27/2026 17:28
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
Have you considered that some kids might be happy to work hard for their Bs at a school with a lot of motivated peers? There is nothing wrong with a well earned B. There will be plenty of colleges that those kids can apply to and receive an excellent eduation at.
DP
There are AP math classes where a student can get a 5 on the AP exam and still end up with a C in the class.
Your kid doesn't have to love math, they just have to be good at it.
Very few kids are going to graduate with straight As.
But if your kid can't handle the rigor, stay away.
A lot of kids return to their base school after freshman year with torpedoed GPAs.
Give it a shot but stay on top of their grades early in the fall semester and be ready to pull the ejection cord back to their base school so their grades can recover in time for their first report card.
Why does it feel like this is a parent trying to get the waitlist to move?
Anonymous
04/27/2026 17:08
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
Have you considered that some kids might be happy to work hard for their Bs at a school with a lot of motivated peers? There is nothing wrong with a well earned B. There will be plenty of colleges that those kids can apply to and receive an excellent eduation at.
DP
There are AP math classes where a student can get a 5 on the AP exam and still end up with a C in the class.
Your kid doesn't have to love math, they just have to be good at it.
Very few kids are going to graduate with straight As.
But if your kid can't handle the rigor, stay away.
A lot of kids return to their base school after freshman year with torpedoed GPAs.
Give it a shot but stay on top of their grades early in the fall semester and be ready to pull the ejection cord back to their base school so their grades can recover in time for their first report card.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 17:01
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Happy to add on. My kid’s a senior at TJ.
- I second all of the above. A few elaborations…
- Summer School: If your kid wants to maybe do music or art each year then you especially want to start with summer PE this summer as it frees up a slot. PE9 before TJ, PE10 after 9th and the extra history course after 10th was how DC handled it.
- Languages: Anyone I’ve ever heard of that is doing Spanish at TJ is floored at how ridiculously hard it is. German sadly has gone downhill a lot this year. They lost a wonderful German teacher last year and the current one is nowhere near the same level. It’s likely an easy A but just not a very good course. If you’re already 2 years into it some kids have done the 3rd year as a summer course to be done with it (UVA is reported to prefer 4 years though of language).
- Fall: Joining a time intensive call activity is a great way to make friends off the bat. A sport (many are easy to make the team), marching band, or some of the various time-intensive clubs would all help with that.
Is Spanish 3 hard as a 9th grader or hard even in 10th? DS is coming in after 1 year of Spanish at Kilmer.
Honestly, think about whether your kid really wants spanish or if german works just as well.
DS likes Spanish well enough and has invested a year into it. So he eould be wasting his year if he switched to another language in 9th. I thought it was 3 years of one language or 2 years or 2 languages.
2+2 doesn't work anymore
Anonymous
04/27/2026 17:00
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Any feedback on Latin?
It's just spanish (and maybe french is getting there). These are non-honors courses with more rigor than some of the AP classes.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 16:59
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:is the new principal not doing anything about how hard spanish is at TJ? My kid ended up deciding not to go to TJ and hearing how hard Spanish was really turned him off.
He's got so many fires to put out after Bonitatibus that he can't focus on avoidable problems. You can avoid spanish.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 16:57
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Happy to add on. My kid’s a senior at TJ.
- I second all of the above. A few elaborations…
- Summer School: If your kid wants to maybe do music or art each year then you especially want to start with summer PE this summer as it frees up a slot. PE9 before TJ, PE10 after 9th and the extra history course after 10th was how DC handled it.
- Languages: Anyone I’ve ever heard of that is doing Spanish at TJ is floored at how ridiculously hard it is. German sadly has gone downhill a lot this year. They lost a wonderful German teacher last year and the current one is nowhere near the same level. It’s likely an easy A but just not a very good course. If you’re already 2 years into it some kids have done the 3rd year as a summer course to be done with it (UVA is reported to prefer 4 years though of language).
- Fall: Joining a time intensive call activity is a great way to make friends off the bat. A sport (many are easy to make the team), marching band, or some of the various time-intensive clubs would all help with that.
Is Spanish 3 hard as a 9th grader or hard even in 10th? DS is coming in after 1 year of Spanish at Kilmer.
Honestly, think about whether your kid really wants spanish or if german works just as well.
Is Mandarin particularly difficult? Student has 2 years coming from APS
No, the mandarin teachers are not insane.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 16:57
Subject: Re:Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:My kid has two camps scheduled for the summer during summer school time, he is thinking about the Personal Economy this summer because it can be completed more easily. Summer PE next summer, we know not to plan a summer vacation or camps during that time. He is planning AP Human Geography as his elective.
I have been told many times that APs for the sake of racking up APs is not very productive. AP Human Geography is not going to help a stem applicant very much.
AP Human Geography looks amazingly interesting and is a perfectly good Social Science option. For a id who likes math and patterns, Human Geography is a far better fit then the traditional World History.
OK, just saying...
Anonymous
04/27/2026 15:10
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Hello,
I wanted to ask if you have any experience with the Virtual Virginia Summer PE class.
We are not able to do FCPS Summer PE because my son will be out of state during the last week of class, and FCPS requires an in-person final test. Because of that, we are considering Virtual Virginia instead.
Do you know if the final test for Virtual Virginia Summer PE can be completed while the student is out of state, and whether it can be taken at any available time? Or are the final test dates strict?
Also, my son is currently taking Spanish 1 in middle school. Do you think he should take Spanish 2 over the summer next year?
Thank you again for your help.
Re PE, your kid can be out of state doing VV PE but they do have to logon pretty much every day. It can be a lot of assignments to keep track of, especially at first while the kid is getting used to the format, etc.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 12:58
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
Have you considered that some kids might be happy to work hard for their Bs at a school with a lot of motivated peers? There is nothing wrong with a well earned B. There will be plenty of colleges that those kids can apply to and receive an excellent eduation at.
If the kid is not very good in math, earning Bs can be very challenging, even with hard work... TJ's math is no joke.
And some kids are happy with that. Bs are not bad grades, especially if you had to work hard for them.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 12:42
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
Have you considered that some kids might be happy to work hard for their Bs at a school with a lot of motivated peers? There is nothing wrong with a well earned B. There will be plenty of colleges that those kids can apply to and receive an excellent eduation at.
If the kid is not very good in math, earning Bs can be very challenging, even with hard work... TJ's math is no joke.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 12:32
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Anonymous wrote:Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
Have you considered that some kids might be happy to work hard for their Bs at a school with a lot of motivated peers? There is nothing wrong with a well earned B. There will be plenty of colleges that those kids can apply to and receive an excellent eduation at.
Anonymous
04/27/2026 12:30
Subject: Advice for new TJ Parents
Adding:
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!
New parents - If ur kid is truly not exceptional in math and sciences, reconsider TJ.
TJ math is brutal. So are physics and chemistry.
An underprepared kid will land up with half a dozen Bs at TJ vs all As at base school.
And make sure ur kid wants to go to TJ - don’t force them!
Good luck!