Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most mental health issues at TJ are because of parental pressure, not teachers or classmates. I’ve had two there, including a current senior. My kids love it there. They are not in the top 25% of the class but not in the bottom 25% either. If your kid needs to excel to be happy then they should leave. If they are failing all their classes or even getting Ds, they should leave. But if they are getting Bs and maybe the occasional C, and they value the education that TJ has to offer, let them stay. There’s more to life (much more) than maximizing college admissions.

Agree, if student is receiving Cs and Ds, during their freshman year especially in Math, English, and Biology, they would be better off at their base school, where they have a better chance of earning As and Bs. It's ironic that students are having to find out for themselves if TJ is a good academic fit after getting admitted and are halfway through their freshman year.

There are always going to be some fit issues but things have gone a bit off the rails.

That's odd, since the data shows it's about the same as ever.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nice try, but Asian Americans aren’t blaming Whites or any other race, but the current non-merit-based admission process that considers student's race. The last four years have clearly shown that the admissions process is now race-aware, as achieving the same diversity composition is impossible without factoring in student's race. Except for this past four years, there hasn’t been a four-year period in TJ's history where the racial composition has been so deliberately constrained and exact same percent split.

It's basically a cross section of the applicant pool. It's not contrived, it's random. Eliminating merit will reduce asians and increase whites because that is what the applicant pool looks like.

Is that the case? It was my understanding that fewer White's were applying and that one reason for the change was the overall lack of interest in the wider population, especially among URMs and also whites. IOW, both before the change and after, the classes reflect the applicant pool.

Anonymous wrote:The current batch with the new admissions process is actually quite chill. 1/3 get goood grades, 1/3 is working hard towards decent grades and reaming 1/3 are just chill.

its way less toxic now - no crazy pressure to win some science medal etc

I don't know about all that, it's definitely less stress but also less excellence.
I am not sure that is what you want in your flagship governor's school.
Steel sharpens steel.

Anonymous wrote:Nice try, but Asian Americans aren’t blaming Whites or any other race, but the current non-merit-based admission process that considers student's race. The last four years have clearly shown that the admissions process is now race-aware, as achieving the same diversity composition is impossible without factoring in student's race. Except for this past four years, there hasn’t been a four-year period in TJ's history where the racial composition has been so deliberately constrained and exact same percent split.

It's basically a cross section of the applicant pool. It's not contrived, it's random. Eliminating merit will reduce asians and increase whites because that is what the applicant pool looks like.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any stats on the % of TJ kids suffering from anxiety, depression, mental illness? I asked my niece in 11th grade, and she said, majority of the class. Doesn't sound right, at least I hope it isn't the case.

Take anxiety off that list and the number gets a lot smaller.

TJ can be stressful and while the stress at the top has relaxed a bit because of somewhat more generous curves the stress at the bottom has increased exponentially as we see more and more kids just calling it quits and going back to their base school. That's not an easy decision to make for any kid, especially not for a kid that came from a small pond thinking they were a big fish.

Going to TJ doesn't guarantee anything other than rigor, but people have bought into this idea that if you can get through TJ, you are set for life or something.
People place too much value on the brand.
I think places like TJ are important for our civilization but i can see the argument some people are making that what FCPS is doing to destroy TJs brand is the best thing that can happen

Anonymous wrote:Students at Woodson over-prepare for schools such as Christopher Newport, Mary Washington. For UVA rejects, they over-prepared for JMU and VT. By over-prepare, I mean, it's fine if the student is living a balanced life without more stress than they should handle. Many are taking on too much stress.

For TJ, it's a step higher. Over-preparing to end up at VT.

My TJ classmates who are also VT alumi are thrilled with their lives more than 20 years on. And at my company VT alumni work alongside MIT alumni. If kids are doing activities they enjoy and won't regret doing regardless of where they go to college, who cares if they are busy?

Students at Woodson over-prepare for schools such as Christopher Newport, Mary Washington. For UVA rejects, they over-prepared for JMU and VT. By over-prepare, I mean, it's fine if the student is living a balanced life without more stress than they should handle. Many are taking on too much stress.

For TJ, it's a step higher. Over-preparing to end up at VT.

Anonymous wrote:Most mental health issues at TJ are because of parental pressure, not teachers or classmates. I’ve had two there, including a current senior. My kids love it there. They are not in the top 25% of the class but not in the bottom 25% either. If your kid needs to excel to be happy then they should leave. If they are failing all their classes or even getting Ds, they should leave. But if they are getting Bs and maybe the occasional C, and they value the education that TJ has to offer, let them stay. There’s more to life (much more) than maximizing college admissions.

great to hear op. what is the range of gpa for middle 50%? 4.0 to 4.2?

The current batch with the new admissions process is actually quite chill. 1/3 get goood grades, 1/3 is working hard towards decent grades and reaming 1/3 are just chill.

its way less toxic now - no crazy pressure to win some science medal etc

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any stats on the % of TJ kids suffering from anxiety, depression, mental illness? I asked my niece in 11th grade, and she said, majority of the class. Doesn't sound right, at least I hope it isn't the case.

It seems a lot less toxic now since they reformed admissions. Overall it's a much healthier environment than it was.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any stats on the % of TJ kids suffering from anxiety, depression, mental illness? I asked my niece in 11th grade, and she said, majority of the class. Doesn't sound right, at least I hope it isn't the case.

Isn't that the case at many/most good high schools?

Woodson had a handful of suicides close together several years ago. That led to a community reckoning over the high stress environment.

And also look at our culture broadly. We haven't trained our teens and young adults how to be depression and anxiety proof at all. If anything we've made learned helplessness and other triggers for depression and anxiety common.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have any stats on the % of TJ kids suffering from anxiety, depression, mental illness? I asked my niece in 11th grade, and she said, majority of the class. Doesn't sound right, at least I hope it isn't the case.

Isn't that the case at many/most good high schools?

Does anyone have any stats on the % of TJ kids suffering from anxiety, depression, mental illness? I asked my niece in 11th grade, and she said, majority of the class. Doesn't sound right, at least I hope it isn't the case.

Nice try, but Asian Americans aren’t blaming Whites or any other race, but the current non-merit-based admission process that considers student's race. The last four years have clearly shown that the admissions process is now race-aware, as achieving the same diversity composition is impossible without factoring in student's race. Except for this past four years, there hasn’t been a four-year period in TJ's history where the racial composition has been so deliberately constrained and exact same percent split.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most mental health issues at TJ are because of parental pressure, not teachers or classmates. I’ve had two there, including a current senior. My kids love it there. They are not in the top 25% of the class but not in the bottom 25% either. If your kid needs to excel to be happy then they should leave. If they are failing all their classes or even getting Ds, they should leave. But if they are getting Bs and maybe the occasional C, and they value the education that TJ has to offer, let them stay. There’s more to life (much more) than maximizing college admissions.

Agree, if student is receiving Cs and Ds, during their freshman year especially in Math, English, and Biology, they would be better off at their base school, where they have a better chance of earning As and Bs. It's ironic that students are having to find out for themselves if TJ is a good academic fit after getting admitted and are halfway through their freshman year.

There are always going to be some fit issues but things have gone a bit off the rails.