Wilson College Acceptances

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

College admissions in 2018 are NOTHING like they were 20 years ago. Are you living under a rock? None of us who got into the Ivies then would get in now. The acceptance rates are a small fraction of what they were.
It's gotten even more insane in the past 5 or even 2 years.

i thought that was mostly a myth, in part because the number of high school kids has been shrinking, but i must admit i have not paid much attention to college acceptance rates since i was 18 years old. my only point was that i would have thought a much-desired school like wilson, in a wealthy neighborhood of a big city filled with type-a personalities, would have a more impressive list of college acceptances than what's been listed here so far.

The changing factors are MANY international students coming to the US to study, and a big push to get first-generation college scholars. Those of us who have grandparents with college/post-grad degrees who have been in the US for more than two generations are not as desirable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

College admissions in 2018 are NOTHING like they were 20 years ago. Are you living under a rock? None of us who got into the Ivies then would get in now. The acceptance rates are a small fraction of what they were.
It's gotten even more insane in the past 5 or even 2 years.

i thought that was mostly a myth, in part because the number of high school kids has been shrinking, but i must admit i have not paid much attention to college acceptance rates since i was 18 years old. my only point was that i would have thought a much-desired school like wilson, in a wealthy neighborhood of a big city filled with type-a personalities, would have a more impressive list of college acceptances than what's been listed here so far.

The changing factors are MANY international students coming to the US to study, and a big push to get first-generation college scholars. Those of us who have grandparents with college/post-grad degrees who have been in the US for more than two generations are not as desirable.

Unless our kids are stand-out athletes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps some were legacies.

Why does it matter unless you are suggesting that they weren’t otherwise qualified?

I'm not suggesting this at all--the one I knew was first or second in the class. Just wondering (as someone with white, upper NW kids who will go to Wilson in 1-2 years) who actually gets into the Ivys. The chatter among my upper NW neighborhood is always, "oh Wilson sends kids to Harvard and Yale every year". Just wondering who these kids are. If they're all minorities I actually think that's GREAT (I know you won't believe me but I honestly do). Neither my husband and I attended one and are under no delusion that our kids will either.

Outstanding students with something else Yale (and Harvard, and Princeton) wants/needs to construct its ideal class.

That tends to be 1) Legacies 2) Legacies who are also recruited athletes 3) recruited athletes 4) first-generation college students 5) kids who have done something truly extraordinary -- such as Jackie Corin and David Hogg from Parkland, Florida or 6) stand-outs in academics (nationally recognized) in academics, music, etc.

Each year some who are not any of the above get in. But it is almost undiscernable to those of us on the outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps some were legacies.

Why does it matter unless you are suggesting that they weren’t otherwise qualified?

I'm not suggesting this at all--the one I knew was first or second in the class. Just wondering (as someone with white, upper NW kids who will go to Wilson in 1-2 years) who actually gets into the Ivys. The chatter among my upper NW neighborhood is always, "oh Wilson sends kids to Harvard and Yale every year". Just wondering who these kids are. If they're all minorities I actually think that's GREAT (I know you won't believe me but I honestly do). Neither my husband and I attended one and are under no delusion that our kids will either.

Outstanding students with something else Yale (and Harvard, and Princeton) wants/needs to construct its ideal class.

That tends to be 1) Legacies 2) Legacies who are also recruited athletes 3) recruited athletes 4) first-generation college students 5) kids who have done something truly extraordinary -- such as Jackie Corin and David Hogg from Parkland, Florida or 6) stand-outs in academics (nationally recognized) in academics, music, etc.

Each year some who are not any of the above get in. But it is almost undiscernable to those of us on the outside.

This is key. I think of these schools as akin to highly curated museums. The three DCPS kids I know that are going to Yale are great students AND have something extremely unique that they bring to the school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:i thought wilson was supposed to be this amazing school. i went to a public high school in a small town in a farm state and, every single year, the valedictorian, and sometimes also the no. 2, went to harvard. the next ten kids all went to other ivies or other highly regarded schools. i would have thought wilson would blow that out of the water.

It's much easier to get into Harvard for an equally qualified student from a rural school in a farm state versus a Mid-Atlantic/New England student. Also, I call BS that your school was just run-of-the-mill public school. At the high school attended by my rural family, very few went to college, none out of state, and vanishingly few completed college.

i guess it was not run-of-the-mill in the sense that it was in the wealthy section of town. but this was a town of 30,000 people, where the most expensive house in town costs less than $350K. and i didnt say everyone went to harvard, or even to college at all. once you got out of the top ten percent of students -- which was, like, 15 students -- the pictures changes pretty rapidly. most people in my class didnt go to college at all. and, yeah, there's no question that if you're a good student in a small town in the middle of nowhere, you're probably more attractive to colleges than a similar student in a big city. good students from the dc area are probably a dime a dozen in some schools' eyes.

My nephew was valedictorian in an area just as you describe in the Midwest. No ivy acceptances and he struggled at his well-regarded liberal arts school. Smart kid who is now getting a PhD. The HS curriculum and college acceptance rate has changed dramatically. My in-laws are “surprised” that we send kids to dcps based on stereotypes such as in this thread. But, we would put our kids’ education up to theirs any day. Deal is excellent at teaching current issues like social justice, the environment, human trafficking, etc. They are prepared for the real world.

While not every kid in the Midwest is sheltered, or unprepared, or unworldly, we are confident that our kids will be better prepared than many. Don’t need to go to an ivy either and probably won’t. Pp doesn’t understand how competitive it is, and has been. Kids who get perfect scores on SAT and ACT with excellent grades don’t get in to ivies. We know one (who wasn’t at Wilson).

[Anonymous]

The people who say top performing kids at Wilson struggle in college are just trying to feel better about having spent a lot to send their kids to private or moved out the city... just not true. Lots of kids at Wilson from families with parents who are just many of those at the privates and 'top' MD and VA public schools. So few kids are also really the elite level athletes talked about on DCUM - but another way to self justify why their kid didn't get into the school they thought they paid for through private school. Putting down Wilson seems like a fun sport for those folks...

[Anonymous]

Our neighbor’s son, who is a senior at Wilson, applied to Dartmouth and got in. He is a good student and is active in various clubs at school. But I do feel like if he were the same student at Sidwell, STA etc, there’s no way he would have gotten in.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our neighbor’s son, who is a senior at Wilson, applied to Dartmouth and got in. He is a good student and is active in various clubs at school. But I do feel like if he were the same student at Sidwell, STA etc, there’s no way he would have gotten in.

You can't be sure of this. There are parts of the application you cant judge - the essay and teacher recs. People forget that teachers can make or break an application. I believe that lots of kids that have the "stats" for an Ivy, don't get the ringing endorsement from their teachers.

Wilson students students do get a boost for coming from an urban high school with a majority minority population. This especially works in favor of white students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighbor’s son, who is a senior at Wilson, applied to Dartmouth and got in. He is a good student and is active in various clubs at school. But I do feel like if he were the same student at Sidwell, STA etc, there’s no way he would have gotten in.

You can't be sure of this. There are parts of the application you cant judge - the essay and teacher recs. People forget that teachers can make or break an application. I believe that lots of kids that have the "stats" for an Ivy, don't get the ringing endorsement from their teachers.

Wilson students students do get a boost for coming from an urban high school with a majority minority population. This especially works in favor of white students.

But not for much longer as the demographics shift to whiter and even wealthier. It will take a couple years for admissions reps to catch up but Wilson will soon be seen as a N Arlington school in upper NW.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighbor’s son, who is a senior at Wilson, applied to Dartmouth and got in. He is a good student and is active in various clubs at school. But I do feel like if he were the same student at Sidwell, STA etc, there’s no way he would have gotten in.

You can't be sure of this. There are parts of the application you cant judge - the essay and teacher recs. People forget that teachers can make or break an application. I believe that lots of kids that have the "stats" for an Ivy, don't get the ringing endorsement from their teachers.

Wilson students students do get a boost for coming from an urban high school with a majority minority population. This especially works in favor of white students.

But not for much longer as the demographics shift to whiter and even wealthier. It will take a couple years for admissions reps to catch up but Wilson will soon be seen as a N Arlington school in upper NW.

This is actually a very interesting point. I have a Deal 6th grader and have been surprised how white and similar it is to our JKLM feeder. Parents I know with kids in 8th and 6th at Deal have commented how noticeable the shift has been in even 2 years.
Wilson white kids have always received an "urban bump". The Dartmouth kid above is a good example: sounds like he has good grades and test scores and recs but is otherwise unremarkable. A kid like this from Fairfax or Bethesda would never get into an Ivy in this day and age.
It's going to be interesting when college reps catch on to how wealthy and white Wilson is becoming. I imagine we're probably 5-10 years away from this.

[Anonymous]

^^this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our neighbor’s son, who is a senior at Wilson, applied to Dartmouth and got in. He is a good student and is active in various clubs at school. But I do feel like if he were the same student at Sidwell, STA etc, there’s no way he would have gotten in.

You can't be sure of this. There are parts of the application you cant judge - the essay and teacher recs. People forget that teachers can make or break an application. I believe that lots of kids that have the "stats" for an Ivy, don't get the ringing endorsement from their teachers.

Wilson students students do get a boost for coming from an urban high school with a majority minority population. This especially works in favor of white students.

But not for much longer as the demographics shift to whiter and even wealthier. It will take a couple years for admissions reps to catch up but Wilson will soon be seen as a N Arlington school in upper NW.

This is actually a very interesting point. I have a Deal 6th grader and have been surprised how white and similar it is to our JKLM feeder. Parents I know with kids in 8th and 6th at Deal have commented how noticeable the shift has been in even 2 years.
Wilson white kids have always received an "urban bump". The Dartmouth kid above is a good example: sounds like he has good grades and test scores and recs but is otherwise unremarkable. A kid like this from Fairfax or Bethesda would never get into an Ivy in this day and age.
It's going to be interesting when college reps catch on to how wealthy and white Wilson is becoming. I imagine we're probably 5-10 years away from this.

I work in college admissions, and worked as an admissions officer for an Ivy 15 years back. I'm not sold on the "urban bump" theory.

What happens at many elite colleges is that all applications coming in from the DC Metro area are thrown into the same "basket" (e-basket these days of course, literally a basket in the old days). If you want the kid get out of the basket, s/he needs to graduate from a high school outside the Metro area (colleges are more likely to sort applicants by high school location than by parents' address).

Any given Wilson student is likely to come across as more interesting, thoughtful and resourceful to admissions officers than your garden-variety Fairfax or Bethesda student who aspires to attend the same college, which certainly doesn't hurt. But Wilson students aren't getting the sort of breaks in admissions for attending Wilson (regardless of SES) vs. a private or suburban program in the way DCPS parents tend to assume. They're not in fact being cut slack on comparative scores, grades or extra-curriculars for attending Wilson, not from what I've seen.

[Anonymous]

^^ And don't forget the bump that can come from being a full-pay student. It's real, and not that unusual for a student who lives IB for Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Maybe Wilson students received some kind of “urban bump” in the Marion Barry era, when the outside worldview was that they were overcoming adversity in a dysfunctional dystopia. No longer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The people who say top performing kids at Wilson struggle in college are just trying to feel better about having spent a lot to send their kids to private or moved out the city... just not true. Lots of kids at Wilson from families with parents who are just many of those at the privates and 'top' MD and VA public schools. So few kids are also really the elite level athletes talked about on DCUM - but another way to self justify why their kid didn't get into the school they thought they paid for through private school. Putting down Wilson seems like a fun sport for those folks...

“Struggle” may be an exaggeration, but Wilson kids anecdotally at least aren’t as well prepared for college as students from some other area schools. Wilson just is not that great a school. It’s just very good for DC.