Harvard-Westlake High School
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Anonymous
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Tell me what you know. Just the high school.
Thanks |
Anonymous
| Only thing I know is that it's elite. Reminds me of Sidwell. |
Anonymous
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ask a more specific question.
For starters, there's an upper school (10-12), and a middle school (7-9). No high school. Entry points at 7 and 9. |
Anonymous
pedant |
Anonymous
| Setting aside the stuff you can find on the admissions website, it's the most elite high school in the city (not counting Pasadena, which has Poly and Flintridge Prep, and other areas like Palos Verdes, the Valley and OC). It's elite for everything: academics and sports. As pp says, entry points are 7 and 9. Only small numbers of kids are admitted in non-entry years. The most recent admissions director left this year, and they have an interim person there now. They are wonderfully transparent about their college placement stats: It's not like HW has materially better placement outcomes than the local public schools like Pali and Santa Monica HS, and may even do worse with the UCs. But the rigor is there, and it's filled with driven, talented kids, and it's an exciting place because of that. |
Anonymous
One might stress the size of the school, relative to other privates in the area (for ex Poly or Flintridge Prep): classes are close to 300 in size, rather than ca. 100. It's a big school, it draws kids from all over LA (though kids are probably concentrated in a handful of well-to-do areas), and though individual class sizes are small, the school is not intimate. 7th grade entry seems to favor a handful of feeders, like Curtis, John Thomas Dye, etc. 9th is more open, but they seem to be filling in spots (athletes, strong academic kids, etc.). Admissions is extremely competitive. The only private school everyone in the city knows about, with the perception being both ultra-rich and ultra-competitive academically. Grain of truth there but a bit exagerated. |
Anonymous
| One of my DCs graduated there in 2021, and I have a senior there now. Happy to help, but I need you to be more specific as I could write volumes. What do you want to know? |
Anonymous
| Sends a lot of kids to ivies. Really uber wealthy but flashy culture more like NYC private schools. |
Anonymous
OP here, thank you. This was the kind of poster I was hoping to meet on here. I have looked at the course offerings. As far as I can see, really the only classes where the school appears on paper at least, to exceed the offerings of a public school (here in DC or in LA) is in languages. So students can take AP classes in French, Chinese etc but also they can go "beyond" that, particularly in French, where they can then go on to study French Literature at an advanced level (but not AP as that's been long abolished in the US). I was really impressed with this, but when I looked at the other courses, History, English, Science & Math, there wasn't anything more obviously outstanding about any of these classes. Am I wrong, and am I possibly missing something here? I suspect the differences may well lie in the smaller class setting, greater discussion amongst students and more in depth teaching, but I don't know. |
Anonymous
Top PP here. Regarding the "what's different" question, I'd say the quality of teachers, and the commitment of the students. I think that part of what *I* am paying for is the peer group. My kids are very different from each other, but both see themselves as geeky (even though both are athletic) and study a lot and don't really go to parties (but many kids do). There is a flip side to this; there is a lot of unintentional peer-induced academic pressure. We live close to a large public high school and I am so aware that my kids' high school experiences could have been so different; so much less intense. But then, when I overhear my kids interacting with their public school friends, my kids just know so much more stuff at a deeper level--and they are interested in that stuff because their teachers and peers fuel them on. There have been times (this was back when I had them both in high school) where they were going on about some topic and I felt like Penny in the Big Bang Theory just listening and thinking...WTF how old are these kids? This is really high level stuff. (However; it is my belief that with a few exceptions, LA publics are not as well-run as NoVA's publics or Catholics.) Re your specific French question: My kids took Spanish, but yes, as I recall, you can go far in French. The key, however; for a lot of these type of classes is to know if they are in a sequence or how they correlate with the required courses. I say this because both my kids had experiences where they could not take a coveted class because there was no room in their schedules. Initially, I recall frothing over the course selections ("this is like a college, there are so many courses!" and then hearing my kid say "I wish I could take X, Y, and Z, but I can't fit it in!"). So I hope that helps and also I'll check back here to see if you have any followup. Also, let me back up and ask you; are you looking for entry in 7th or in 9th? |
Anonymous
| ^^oops sorry just re-read your OP, and see you are only interested in the high school. |
Anonymous
Thank you. All very helpful indeed. |
Anonymous
but the question is do highschool kids really need to know more stuff at a deeper level. or they could be just fine learning this stuff in college ? |
Anonymous
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I don't think the school does well in college placement anymore.
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Anonymous
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I'm not sure if anyone is still interested in hearing about this school. My DD took her SAT there yesterday. The campus is very well concealed from the public eye, there's plenty of amenities, sports fields, pool, etc. The classrooms are modern, well kept and there's art work and sculpture in between. Security is excellent and access is difficult if you're not affiliated.
But we met a parent there yesterday, who told us that 3 juniors committed suicide this year alone. So the pressure must be enormous. |