Hello. I’m currently attending a private middle school and am in the 8th grade. I have a solid all A report card which I have maintained from the 5th grade. I do many sports and am on a national sports team (junior/youth) for track. I play soccer, volleyball, track, basketball, and lacrosse. I recently got my SSAT scores back, which I got a 2196 on (91st Percentile) I do many extra curriculars, such as Drama involvement, taking Spanish and doing a study abroad program, achieving high scores on the National Spanish Exam, ranking nationally on the Wordmasters Challenges, participate in Model UN, do Math Counts, have experience with public speaking and have taken some classes, and was a Daughters of American Revolution Writing Contest division chapter winner. I want to know my chances for getting into the schools I listed in the title, which are all the schools i’m applying to. What are some things to focus on in my application process? Any things to highlight that would make me stand out? What do you think helped you get into those schools?
Also, Im confident in my recommendations and have never been suspended or anything of that sort.
For TJ, I’ve been taking prep classes, and have been reaching the 60/100 minimum with the 30/50 minimum for math as well. Im taking the test in about a week, but wanted to ask, what current students or TJ grads have to say about their TJ experience. If I were to get into TJ, I’m not sure if I would attend, only because of things I’ve heard, so Id like to know what people who have experienced it would say. Is the workload potentially “too” much? Does that workload and the focus on maths and sciences hinder students from developing new interests and extracurriculars, which would make the college admissions process harder in terms of standing out? If one wanted to study literature per say, would they have adequate resources to do so (meaning are the classes related to english and history as rigorous as the math and science ones? Also just wanted to know more about your experience and recommendations.
thank you
please excuse any punctuation or grammatical errors
What is TJ?
I feel like I’m qualified here: I attended TJ last year for 9th grade, but I now go to one of the schools you’re applying to. Your stats seem solid to me.
I know this has been said, but talk about your passions; really show that in your interviews and essays. For BS, grades don’t matter that much, you either have 'em or you don’t. Instead focus on what motivates you. What drives you? What peaks your curiosity? What do you want to do; how would a BS education help you in achieving your goals? If you eloquently communicate this to an AO, your chances would increase exponentially. And if you don’t get in, don’t be discouraged b/c it’s not the end of the world. Plus, you can just apply again (like what I did!).
Regarding the TJ point- I’m sure you’ll get in, they mainly look at test scores and your SSAT scores seem solid.
Unless you really love math and science and want to be a scientist/engineer, go ahead and submit your app to TJ. Otherwise don’t even consider it because, well I’ll be honest with you, I hated TJ. Not only did I not like math and science that much, but I also had a really long commute (2 hours roundtrip). Add on the loads of hw ( a better word is busy work), and you got yourself a lot of stress. Frankly, I don’t see any value in going through that. (side note/rant: super competitive, cutthroat, teachers frequently violate student advocacy guidelines, administration has disregard of mental health, etc.)
Also, this is often overlooked, but TJ has little diversity (65%+ Asian, I believe the freshman class is 75%). Diversity is imperative to developing a global perspective and TJ won’t be able to offer that. Now I could go on and on about TJ, but I think you get the point.
tl;dr BS>current school>TJ
Hope this helps!
As I am applying to Deerfield PEA and PA, would it be possible for you to tell me if you got accepted and which school you ended up going to? Thanks so much!