Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology is a
public high school in
Alexandria, Virginia. Also known as
TJHSST, it is one of the several
Virginia Governor's Schools. One of the best high schools in
America, it turns out high numbers of
National Merit Scholars and
Intel Talent Search award recipients each year.
The
student population of TJHSST is approximatley 1700. The school is largely
caucasian and
asian, being ony 2%
hispanic and 1%
black. Students
apply to get in; decision criteria are
middle school GPA, several application
essays, and a special
test. Up until 2004,
class size was around 420, but now the local
school board has decided to add 50 students to the accepted class size each year and are aiming to eventually reach 600. This is a major problem, since the school is way
over capacity as is and doesn't receive enough funding. A large joke at the school is that we have specialized scientific equipment, but our
water fountains don't work, and well, that's no shit.
Anyways, speaking of specialized scientific equipment, TJ's claim to fame is that it has a
tech lab program;
seniors are required to do a year long
project or do a
mentorship, which is basically an
internship at a local scientific company. Labs are in
electronics,
marine biology,
computer systems (the
syslab, home to millions of
geeks),
biotech,
chemical analysis,
prototyping,
CAD, and
robotics (I think I got them all.)
TJ also boasts a formidible
sports program. Competing as a Virginia
AAA school, we are naturally strong in
athletics/
cross country, girls
field hockey, boys and girls
tennis, and
swim and dive. Also, every year we are
nationally competitive in
crew.