“And I still think these are kids to watch when it comes to succeeding later in life. Many are exceptional and their lights will not dim with exposure to flagship or even lower universities.”
Oh please. I bet these kids are going to do exactly what most elite grad kids do. Go to work, do a good job, come home and be with family and loved ones. Not change the world.
^exactly.
And most of these are not applying to 8 ivies, plus MIT/Stanford. Many TJ kids do not apply to any of those schools.
As pointed out upthread, a large number of TJ grads attend state schools (although being Virginia, those are darn good schools 
This entire situation is completely typical for the toxic, high pressure environment in high schools in the DC areas. There are no morals. Anything goes. Cheating is okay. Stanford and Harvard justify the means. It’s despicable. This is the case in the rich ones at least - the poor ones have totally different terrible problems, and sadly there is no middle ground.
If someone told me I had to go through 4 more years at my high school that was pretty similar to TJ but across the river, I would probably jump into Great Falls. The sad thing is that I hear the situation is similar in certain Chicago suburbs, the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York and Boston.
^^ Oh please. If a kid doesn’t like TJ (or can’t make it there) he/she will have lots of great area schools to choose from. Same in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York or Boston. These schools aren’t sentences - they’re a choice. With terrific alternatives should they not work out.
And let’s not forget that some kids – many of them! – thrive at TJ and others like it. They go on to fulfilling educations (and not just at the Ivies) and careers. I for one am pleased the US has a system of academically challenging schools (like the rest of the first world) for its high achieving high schoolers.
Another article:
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/21/pf/college/harvard-stanford-college-admissions-hoax-oped/
On the bright side, at least academics are now being pursued with the devotion, training, lying, doping and cheating normally reserved for the more important activities, sports.
Just read the link to the cnn/money article by the TJ grad in post #84
The school votes on superlatives like “least likely to graduate from college” - wow.
^^It’s a joke! Funny that the schools most famous student is a dropout - Dave Grohl.
Dave Grohl went to TJ? What a country!
But was TJ, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology back then? It was established in 1985. When did Grohl enter high school?
From the Washington Post:
“Thomas Jefferson High School, Annandale: Before it became an exclusive school for smart kids, Jefferson was a neighborhood high school in Fairfax County. Grohl spent his freshman year there and his mother, Virginia Grohl, taught there.”
Dave Grohl went before the school was transformed into TJHSST. And he didn’t drop out of TJ, he transferred after freshman year (though he may have dropped out of high school eventually).
Also, that superlative was a joke, and it hasn’t been a category for many many years.
And I don’t understand why school newspapers shouldn’t note academic achievements. They tout athletic achievements all the time, why not academic?
^^ Oh please. If a kid doesn't like TJ (or can't make it there) he/she will have lots of great area schools to choose from. Same in the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York or Boston. These schools aren't sentences - they're a choice. With terrific alternatives should they not work out.<<<
[/QUOTE]
True, but there is a caveat. And a huge one in that the decision is rarely made by the kids. There is an incredibly powerful and vicarious element on the parents’ part. The cradle to HYPS has never been more toxic and prevalent in the communities that turn to the purported greatness of schools like this one or other Stuyvesant.
It goes well beyond a drive to excel or … learning. It is all about the final objective and the journey’s Golgotha is not important. Nor is the happiness or self-esteem of those kids who are simply projected trophy kids. One only has to look at the student body at such schools and project the often reported insanity on CC to understand why kids like the OP subject do crazy things. They live in toxic environments.
Dave Grohl didn’t transfer out of TJ really and attended the school right before they created TJHSST. He originally transferred to Bishop Ireton and then decided a couple years later to go back to public school. To turn TJ into TJHSST, they opened up Annandale High School real close by and all the former TJ students went there. So when Dave Grohl transferred back into FCPS, he was redistricted. (Lol its sad how much I know about this).
That superlative is also not a category anymore. I don’t even really remember what our class superlatives were tbh. I only remember the band superlatives lol.
Thanks for clearing that up! At least I have one up on my son. I can at least claim Bobby Darin as a famous musician alumna.
xiggi-are you a parent of a TJ student or grad? I am. And the decision to attend TJ (and to stay there) was made by my child.
@xiggi I’d say the majority of TJ students make the decision to attend themselves because they want to (while I’m sure most parents also want their kids there). Most of the students whose parents force them to go don’t make it past freshman year and even more are weeded out junior year (even students who want to be there are weeded out junior year). There is an orientation thing (I think its called Freshman Preview) that happens before you accept their offer and the administration and faculty makes it pretty clear at that meeting that if the student doesn’t want to be there, you shouldn’t force them; things will end badly otherwise.
Like I said earlier, it was the opposite for me; my parents actually didn’t want me to attend, but I insisted.
“Thomas Jefferson High School, Annandale: Before it became an exclusive school for smart kids, Jefferson was a neighborhood high school in Fairfax County. Grohl spent his freshman year there and his mother, Virginia Grohl, taught there.”
See? Continuing on the Dave Grohl music theme, you said Annandale and I got all excited that we were talking about the Annandale referenced in “My Old School” by Steely Dan, but noooo, that’s apparently Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Carry on.
With all due respect, I will stick to my theory that decisions to attend a high school are usually made by … parents. Of course, I do not doubt that in some case, the brainwashing is already completed.
Take it as you wish!
@katliamom: Did you go to school here?
This is a problem with all the schools in the area. Every school has the same set of cheating, lying, prestige obsessed students. It’s a problem with the environment, not specific schools.
They are a choice for the parent. Even if there was a choice, there is no alternative beyond leaving the area (which is impossible for most students). Every school has more or less the same set of problems.
So what? That doesn’t mean the schools don’t have atmosphere problems. They thrive in spite of the environment, I know I certainly did. And the cheaters certainly “like” the morally lax environment.
Give me a break. TJ is not a toxic environment and the students are not unhappy “trophy kids.” Believe it or not, many of the students, not their parents, actually choose to be there. They draw energy and inspiration from fellow students. There are thousands of students who attended TJHSST who did not lie or cheat or snap under pressure and went on to lead healthy normal lives at non-Ivy schools. You are projecting the actions of an individual onto an entire population.