Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is Latin? Mine’s been doing Latin for two years. Are the teachers nice?

Latin teachers are excellent! Over half of the latin class got gold medals on national latin exams every year.TJ Latin Class is not easy for sure, but most students work hard and love it.

If the kid did Latin 1 and 2, is Latin 3 recommended or better to take Latin 2?

Majority will take latin 2.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is Latin? Mine’s been doing Latin for two years. Are the teachers nice?

Latin teachers are excellent! Over half of the latin class got gold medals on national latin exams every year.TJ Latin Class is not easy for sure, but most students work hard and love it.

If the kid did Latin 1 and 2, is Latin 3 recommended or better to take Latin 2?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Find your liaison ASAP (especially for folks in counties that don’t send as many kids, like Falls Church, Arlington etc) - ours was an amazing resource. Very grateful for good advice and reality checks we got. DC is super happy at TJ (working very hard, but happily engaged, and finally found their tribe).

Please stop saying your TJ kids found their “tribe.” It’s offensive on many levels.

What alternative word would you suggest that captures the same meaning / connotation?

The connotation is part of what makes it offensive. Be better.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How is Latin? Mine’s been doing Latin for two years. Are the teachers nice?

Latin teachers are excellent! Over half of the latin class got gold medals on national latin exams every year.TJ Latin Class is not easy for sure, but most students work hard and love it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Congrats! Now a reality check. Look at the extended hours for TJ. Add on the commute. Add on time after school for any extracurriculars. Sit down as a family and look at when your kid will leave and when they will get home every day. Add in time for a shower and dinner. Then 3-4 hours for homework. And most of the weekends.

Make sure you are going into this with your eyes open. That your kid can live with that kind of schedule, day after day and week after week. Make sure you can live with the carpools and giving your kid the extra support they need and still be there for your other kid(s). TJ is a huge family commitment. Make sure you are okay if if, like half the class, your kid “only” goes to UVA, WM or VT. Assume your kid does not get into a better college because of TJ, but is much better prepared for where they do go. That is the most likely outcome 4 years. Will it be worth it? Or will you and your kid be disappointed and feel like all that effort and lost sleep and stress was a waste.

Your kid will make Bs. They will flunk STEM tests. Their GPA will be lower than base school GPAs. They will take AP level classes, like CS and World History, and not get AP credit. Make peace with that now.

Encourage your kid to get involved in the schools non-STEM programs or keep their non-STEM interest. If that is art, music, or drama, or journalism, have them do summer school to keep the class in their schedule. Many of the happiest, healthiest, most well balanced kids are the ones who play one or more sports, march in the band, take fine arts classes, or do the drama production. That break during the school day where they can do something different, or that they love, is important.

And AP Physics arenwhere junior year GPAs go to die. 90% of kids are better served by taking physics 1 first. And most kids doing well in AP Physics are seniors who have had physics 1.

That’s all I got. Good luck and welcome.

Sounds like you made the wrong choice.

Anonymous wrote:Congrats! Now a reality check. Look at the extended hours for TJ. Add on the commute. Add on time after school for any extracurriculars. Sit down as a family and look at when your kid will leave and when they will get home every day. Add in time for a shower and dinner. Then 3-4 hours for homework. And most of the weekends.

Make sure you are going into this with your eyes open. That your kid can live with that kind of schedule, day after day and week after week. Make sure you can live with the carpools and giving your kid the extra support they need and still be there for your other kid(s). TJ is a huge family commitment. Make sure you are okay if if, like half the class, your kid “only” goes to UVA, WM or VT. Assume your kid does not get into a better college because of TJ, but is much better prepared for where they do go. That is the most likely outcome 4 years. Will it be worth it? Or will you and your kid be disappointed and feel like all that effort and lost sleep and stress was a waste.

Your kid will make Bs. They will flunk STEM tests. Their GPA will be lower than base school GPAs. They will take AP level classes, like CS and World History, and not get AP credit. Make peace with that now.

Encourage your kid to get involved in the schools non-STEM programs or keep their non-STEM interest. If that is art, music, or drama, or journalism, have them do summer school to keep the class in their schedule. Many of the happiest, healthiest, most well balanced kids are the ones who play one or more sports, march in the band, take fine arts classes, or do the drama production. That break during the school day where they can do something different, or that they love, is important.

And AP Physics arenwhere junior year GPAs go to die. 90% of kids are better served by taking physics 1 first. And most kids doing well in AP Physics are seniors who have had physics 1.

That’s all I got. Good luck and welcome.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is to get into Swim,Tennis, Basketball,Crew teams?
Usually getting into sports team in base high school is tough

I think most teams can be accessed. Basketball may be a little more difficult because of the small roster. I think the swim teams are quite good, but because of the nature of the sport most kids can be on the team. The Football team is always looking for players. If you want to play, you're in!

Anonymous wrote:How difficult is to get into Swim,Tennis, Basketball,Crew teams?
Usually getting into sports team in base high school is tough

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:New pp here. Thank you for all your input here and our first DC got in.

Can first PP or others expand on this : "They will take AP level classes, like CS and World History, and not get AP credit. Make peace with that now. " '

Does that mean, they don't get AP Credit at all for many classes?

Please keep your views coming and your opinions are extremely helpful for parents like me and OP.

It means there are several classes at TJ that are taught at an AP level with AP text books but they aren't called AP classes so you don't get the GPA boost. It sucks.

Even freshman bio is taught from the AP textbook so it's basically an AP-level course just with a couple of topics short of tge full curriculum (which one could independently review to write the AP exam if there isnt room later in the students course plan to take the "real" AP bio course. Ditto for CS foundations which covers java during the year - you could with a bit of extra studying write the CS A AP exam. The first-level courses at TJ are taught at the senior-level depth of "normal" high schools. The kids at TJ are all pretty sharp and can handle a robust curriculum and pace of learning. (I'm sure the top kids at other FCPS high schools could learn at this pace as well if they loaded up on AP level courses earlier in their high school careers.)