The View From TJ
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Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in the Alexandria section of Fairfax County is one of the most selective and most demanding public schools in the country. Junior year can be tough at almost any school, but at Thomas Jefferson, students say the academic pressure reaches levels that few can imagine. Many Thomas Jefferson juniors find themselves taking quantum mechanics, Advanced Placement Calculus BC and AP Physics C as well as the English and social studies courses that Virginia requires for a balanced educational diet. Here is what some current and former students say about their junior years:
"There is nothing comparable to going to bed at 3 in the morning and still not having your homework done. Even worse was the time I woke up at 2 in the morning and realized I had a paper due the next day that I'd done about half of. It's made worse by the fact that I am an extracurricular magnet. I do marching band, drama and indoor color guard. I've had to really learn how to manage my time. You know how they say something's gotta give? It's usually sleep."
-- Michael Gold, Class of '07
"It is definitely the most stressful year of my life, hands down. One day in October, I had four classes to go to that day, and five tests. I had to make up a test I had missed when I was absent before because of the flu. . . . Just this past Monday, I came home, ate dinner and went to my SAT prep class. I didn't start my homework until 8, and I didn't go to bed until 3:30 a.m., since I had to do a really complex physics lab that was due the next day. I wasn't the only one feeling the heat. According to my friend, who has physics first thing in the morning, only seven people were in class; the rest called in sick but spent the day finishing their labs."
-- Betty Luo, Class of '07
"For most of 11th grade, I was grounded because my grades in physics and math were atrocious. . . . I had cabin fever, was angry at my [non-Jefferson] friends because I thought they had it so much easier than me, wanted to leave TJ because I was convinced that I'd have a higher GPA at [a non-magnet] school. I was working so hard and I still couldn't pull my GPA up higher than a 3.0, which, you know, should be worth something at TJ considering how hard I have to work, but all my friends here have 4.1's. . . . Junior year is like being five feet tall and having your feet nailed to the bottom of a six-foot-deep pool.
