SWW Interviews

[Anonymous]

Curious if anyone interviewing today has received their link? DD's interview is in the early afternoon and we haven't received anything yet (and I did check my spam folder).

[Anonymous]

Do they want parents to join on a separate computer from the child (in a different room), or just to take turns on the same computer (with parents/child being elsewhere while the other is interviewing)? TIA!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do they want parents to join on a separate computer from the child (in a different room), or just to take turns on the same computer (with parents/child being elsewhere while the other is interviewing)? TIA!

They didn't specify. We used two different computers -- I was on a work call on Webex and bowed out for a few minutes to switch over to Teams for the SWW interview. I think you could swap using a single computer -- might be easier/more seamless for the interviewers

[Anonymous]

FWIW, our child's interview was yesterday...it took all of about 7 minutes (about 4 minutes for our daughter and 3 minutes for us), much less time than the 15 minutes that was suggested in the email. Hard to understand what they can glean from such a short amount of time. Curious about the experience of others.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, our child's interview was yesterday...it took all of about 7 minutes (about 4 minutes for our daughter and 3 minutes for us), much less time than the 15 minutes that was suggested in the email. Hard to understand what they can glean from such a short amount of time. Curious about the experience of others.

I heard the same from a friend. 5 minutes with the kid, 1-2 minutes with the parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We got our time slot too this morning for 3/1. They ask that parents and child be in different rooms for the interview - does anyone know if they are doing them one after the other or at the same time? When it was in-person, I recall the child went first and then the parents.

One after the other. Parents click the invite link and wait for the interviewers to finish with DC and join them.

TBH, our 3 interviewers looked pretty bored and gave little feedback. No, we weren't that boring

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FWIW, our child's interview was yesterday...it took all of about 7 minutes (about 4 minutes for our daughter and 3 minutes for us), much less time than the 15 minutes that was suggested in the email. Hard to understand what they can glean from such a short amount of time. Curious about the experience of others.

I heard the same from a friend. 5 minutes with the kid, 1-2 minutes with the parents.

Helpful...thanks for weighing in. Wonder if they will end up just doing a lottery with all the kids they interview. Might be the most fairest thing to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got our time slot too this morning for 3/1. They ask that parents and child be in different rooms for the interview - does anyone know if they are doing them one after the other or at the same time? When it was in-person, I recall the child went first and then the parents.

One after the other. Parents click the invite link and wait for the interviewers to finish with DC and join them.

TBH, our 3 interviewers looked pretty bored and gave little feedback. No, we weren't that boring

Us too...child asked three questions (took about 5 minutes), parents asked one question. Whole thing done in about 7-8 minutes. I read on another one of these DCUM threads that the interviews count for MUCH more than (like, 5-6 times as much as) GPA...hard to figure out what of value they could have gotten out of such a short amount of time. Have others heard the same?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got our time slot too this morning for 3/1. They ask that parents and child be in different rooms for the interview - does anyone know if they are doing them one after the other or at the same time? When it was in-person, I recall the child went first and then the parents.

One after the other. Parents click the invite link and wait for the interviewers to finish with DC and join them.

TBH, our 3 interviewers looked pretty bored and gave little feedback. No, we weren't that boring

Us too...child asked three questions (took about 5 minutes), parents asked one question. Whole thing done in about 7-8 minutes. I read on another one of these DCUM threads that the interviews count for MUCH more than (like, 5-6 times as much as) GPA...hard to figure out what of value they could have gotten out of such a short amount of time. Have others heard the same?

I haven't heard that. I don't think it's been specified. It's insane to base anything off 5 minutes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got our time slot too this morning for 3/1. They ask that parents and child be in different rooms for the interview - does anyone know if they are doing them one after the other or at the same time? When it was in-person, I recall the child went first and then the parents.

One after the other. Parents click the invite link and wait for the interviewers to finish with DC and join them.

TBH, our 3 interviewers looked pretty bored and gave little feedback. No, we weren't that boring

Us too...child asked three questions (took about 5 minutes), parents asked one question. Whole thing done in about 7-8 minutes. I read on another one of these DCUM threads that the interviews count for MUCH more than (like, 5-6 times as much as) GPA...hard to figure out what of value they could have gotten out of such a short amount of time. Have others heard the same?

I haven't heard that. I don't think it's been specified. It's insane to base anything off 5 minutes.

Here's what was posted on another DCUM thread (poster said they heard this at an info session about the Walls application process):

1. Complete the application through myschooldc by Feb 1
- include seventh grade transcript
- must show 7th grade GPA 3.0 or above
- if from DCPS, it will be sent from MS
- if outside DCPS must be official school transcript (school letterhead)
- no essays, no teacher recs, no test scores

2. Of those who applied, the students with the top 500 GPAs will be invited for an interview

3. Interviews will be conducted after Feb 1 - mid-March
- virtual, not in-person
- student interview first, then parents join (parent interview will not be held against the student ; )
- interview will be scored - 31 possible points

4. Walls will assign each student a score - interview can be scored up to 31, GPA can be scored up to 5 for a total possible score of 36.

5. Students with the top 250 scores (GPA + interview) will be eligible and be placed in a lottery

6. Approx 140 students of the 250 eligible will be matched to Walls through a lottery and the rest will be waitlisted.

6. Students will be notified of a match and have to indicate acceptance

7. Students will be pulled from the WL when a matched student declines the offered spot.

[Anonymous]

Did the interviewers ask the child any questions?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did the interviewers ask the child any questions?

Sorry, I was unclear--when I said "child asked three questions, parents asked one" I meant that the child was asked three questions and we (the parents) were asked one question. That was it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did the interviewers ask the child any questions?

Sorry, I was unclear--when I said "child asked three questions, parents asked one" I meant that the child was asked three questions and we (the parents) were asked one question. That was it.

Got it. Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did the interviewers ask the child any questions?

Sorry, I was unclear--when I said "child asked three questions, parents asked one" I meant that the child was asked three questions and we (the parents) were asked one question. That was it.

This was identical to our experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did the interviewers ask the child any questions?

Sorry, I was unclear--when I said "child asked three questions, parents asked one" I meant that the child was asked three questions and we (the parents) were asked one question. That was it.

This was identical to our experience.

I think it will be identical to everyone’s experience because it has to be normed across all interviews. And what feedback are kids/parents looking for? This is a process that has to be as fair as possible. Which might result in interviewees looking ‘bored’ (by the way, everyone looks bored on Teams!)