Decision from Duke Ellington?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I really don’t understand how they could not find “qualified” students for those highly competitive programs (dance, instrumental, theatre, and vocal) when all had many, many, many students audition, and NOW think they will find them after April?

I'm really curious as to what qualifies students to make the cut. It seems that they are truly looking for the best of the best, and won't fill spaces with mediocre students.

The pp who mentioned back stage experience brings up a good point. What middle school has a theatre that provides students with backstage experience? My DC is coming from private and does actually have back stage experience, though they did not apply to TDP.

[Anonymous]

MY DD was accepted into one program (her second choice) and heard nothing from Vocal music. The whole admissions process has been extremely messy and haphazard so far. I hope the actual school is a little more organised....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MY DD was accepted into one program (her second choice) and heard nothing from Vocal music. The whole admissions process has been extremely messy and haphazard so far. I hope the actual school is a little more organised....

All final audition results were supposed to be delivered by Friday at midnight (unless notified that your student didn't get called back during audition week). It sounds like only Museum Studies and 1/2 of Visual Arts applicants have heard so far? Such a mess.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they'll get it together and send notifications on Tuesday?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately our DC was not accepted to VA.

But, if helpful, the email did include the following: If you are interested in pursuing another course of artistic expression at Duke Ellington, we still have spaces available in the following departments: Dance, Instrumental Music (oboe, flute, bassoon, tuba, strings), Theatre, and Vocal Music.

Would love to hear if students who got a rejection letter yesterday in any of these disciplines also received this same message about spaces available…

Yes, received the same message with a rejection on Friday (VA rejection)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe they'll get it together and send notifications on Tuesday?

Maybe, but it is February break…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately our DC was not accepted to VA.

But, if helpful, the email did include the following: If you are interested in pursuing another course of artistic expression at Duke Ellington, we still have spaces available in the following departments: Dance, Instrumental Music (oboe, flute, bassoon, tuba, strings), Theatre, and Vocal Music.

I really don’t understand how they could not find “qualified” students for those highly competitive programs (dance, instrumental, theatre, and vocal) when all had many, many, many students audition, and NOW think they will find them after April?

I'm really curious as to what qualifies students to make the cut. It seems that they are truly looking for the best of the best, and won't fill spaces with mediocre students.

This is the question. And there are a lot of students who fill the distance between "mediocre" and "best of the best." And those are the students who made callbacks -- students who have talent + experience in the discipline, went through the application process as written, and truly want to be at the school. But still Duke Ellington kept open spaces instead of taking a chance on these apparently good, even great, but less than exceptional kids. OK, but where are they expecting to find more "best of the best" now? I assume they want to get to full enrollment for budget reasons?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately our DC was not accepted to VA.

But, if helpful, the email did include the following: If you are interested in pursuing another course of artistic expression at Duke Ellington, we still have spaces available in the following departments: Dance, Instrumental Music (oboe, flute, bassoon, tuba, strings), Theatre, and Vocal Music.

I really don’t understand how they could not find “qualified” students for those highly competitive programs (dance, instrumental, theatre, and vocal) when all had many, many, many students audition, and NOW think they will find them after April?

I'm really curious as to what qualifies students to make the cut. It seems that they are truly looking for the best of the best, and won't fill spaces with mediocre students.

This is the question. And there are a lot of students who fill the distance between "mediocre" and "best of the best." And those are the students who made callbacks -- students who have talent + experience in the discipline, went through the application process as written, and truly want to be at the school. But still Duke Ellington kept open spaces instead of taking a chance on these apparently good, even great, but less than exceptional kids. OK, but where are they expecting to find more "best of the best" now? I assume they want to get to full enrollment for budget reasons?

From the email I got, I was under the impression that they keep a couple spots open in each discipline for non-residents. Does that mean they take top non-residents over good, but not great residents? It’s all very opaque.

[Anonymous]

"The whole admissions process has been extremely messy and haphazard so far. I hope the actual school is a little more organised...."

Oh dear. There are a lot of good things to say about DESA, but organization is not one of them. And if this PP is coming from private or a higher functioning NW public, whooo boy. It's gonna be a ride.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"The whole admissions process has been extremely messy and haphazard so far. I hope the actual school is a little more organised...."

Oh dear. There are a lot of good things to say about DESA, but organization is not one of them. And if this PP is coming from private or a higher functioning NW public, whooo boy. It's gonna be a ride.

That's the truth. Individual programs run ok but central school administration is a colossal shit show.

[Anonymous]

Apparently Tuesday is not the day that they will follow up with the people who didn't get emails on Friday/respond to inquiries about what they might be doing. The silver lining is that hopefully they are pissing my daughter off as much as they are pissing me off, so hopefully she will not be too sad if it turns out what we are actually doing is nagging them to follow through on rejecting her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Unfortunately our DC was not accepted to VA.

But, if helpful, the email did include the following: If you are interested in pursuing another course of artistic expression at Duke Ellington, we still have spaces available in the following departments: Dance, Instrumental Music (oboe, flute, bassoon, tuba, strings), Theatre, and Vocal Music.

I really don’t understand how they could not find “qualified” students for those highly competitive programs (dance, instrumental, theatre, and vocal) when all had many, many, many students audition, and NOW think they will find them after April?

I'm really curious as to what qualifies students to make the cut. It seems that they are truly looking for the best of the best, and won't fill spaces with mediocre students.

This is the question. And there are a lot of students who fill the distance between "mediocre" and "best of the best." And those are the students who made callbacks -- students who have talent + experience in the discipline, went through the application process as written, and truly want to be at the school. But still Duke Ellington kept open spaces instead of taking a chance on these apparently good, even great, but less than exceptional kids. OK, but where are they expecting to find more "best of the best" now? I assume they want to get to full enrollment for budget reasons?

From the email I got, I was under the impression that they keep a couple spots open in each discipline for non-residents. Does that mean they take top non-residents over good, but not great residents? It’s all very opaque.

No. It means the opposite actually. Residence is not considered during the auditions, but if you are among those who pass the auditions the DC residents get first dibs.

[Anonymous]

Anyone know how much weight is put into the family interview during the admissions process? What are they looking for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know how much weight is put into the family interview during the admissions process? What are they looking for?

Here is the application rubric: https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY2122%20Duke%20Ellington%20Rubric_Final.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anyone know how much weight is put into the family interview during the admissions process? What are they looking for?

Here is the application rubric: https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY2122%20Duke%20Ellington%20Rubric_Final.pdf

This is helpful, thanks!