Walls application - quiet kid

[Anonymous]

OP, my Walls kid is a classic introvert. I don't know the algorithm that the school looks for in interviews but I know that my kid did not come off as the outgoing gregarious type in the interview. They did, however, talk about their academic interests which I think fit the profile of a Walls kid. They didn't do a lot of interview prep. The school sends out sample questions in advance but none exactly matched the questions in the interview. It may sound cheesy to say they should be themselves but that's all you can really do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.

Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.

Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.

Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.

If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.

Where are you getting info/data that college admissions are "clearly slipping"? Could you provide more on this?

I know kids at both and I still think Jackson-Reed for all it's faults - has much more rigor and a wider breadth of classes without a workload just to have one.

NP and obviously JR does- it’s like four times the size of Walls. But college admits this year have been fantastic at Walls.

Same tune on winter Walls threads every year but take it with a grain of salt, make that a bag. The inconvenient truth is that the class of 2025 is the first that was admitted without the Walls exam or submission of a standardized test score and it shows. My eldest went through Walls with a much stronger cohort than my youngest, a junior, particularly for advanced STEM work. Who can deny that the admissions system has become something of a joke, favoring DCPS middle school grads with B+ averages who would pretty clearly have struggled at BASIS or top privates. If you have access to BASIS or JR, go.

There is no inconvenient truth here. College admissions have been strong. Lots of kids who are really happy with the college prospects they have after early admissions. You seem really negative on a school that you chose for your children. I also have a long history with the school and college admissions are great this year. I just don’t understand parents who are so down on the school. And I really doubt you know your junior’s cohort so well as you say you do.

[Anonymous]

My kids is a senior; going through the college admissions process and hearing about the plans for the other kids is stunning. Merit scholarships in admission emails, trustee scholarships, full rides; I thought all of this came during the financial aid process.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids is a senior; going through the college admissions process and hearing about the plans for the other kids is stunning. Merit scholarships in admission emails, trustee scholarships, full rides; I thought all of this came during the financial aid process.

That's so exciting! Looking forward to hearing where these kids end up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.

Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.

Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.

Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.

If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.

I agree with all of these critiques except the college admissions statement. This year's seniors have early acceptances (that I know of, so this is a small fraction) at at least three t20s, Wisconsin-Madison with a full ride, and a bunch of impressive small colleges including Oberlin, Wellesley, and Swarthmore. Those are some pretty great schools, and lots more will come out of the woodworks in the coming weeks and once regular decisions come out in the spring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.

Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.

Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.

Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.

If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.

I agree with all of these critiques except the college admissions statement. This year's seniors have early acceptances (that I know of, so this is a small fraction) at at least three t20s, Wisconsin-Madison with a full ride, and a bunch of impressive small colleges including Oberlin, Wellesley, and Swarthmore. Those are some pretty great schools, and lots more will come out of the woodworks in the coming weeks and once regular decisions come out in the spring.

I'll give you Swarthmore, but Wisconsin, Oberlin, Wellesley? Come on, if you can pay full fare to the tune of more than 80K+, they're just not terribly difficult to crack these days. If you were talking about Ivies, Stanford, Amherst, Pomona, Univ of Chicago etc. for non-legacies and non-athletes, I'd be cheering for Walls this admissions season.

The facts are undeniable: Bowser shamelessly dumbed down Walls admissions during the pandemic for political reasons, and embarrassing development for DC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.

Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.

Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.

Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.

If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.

I agree with all of these critiques except the college admissions statement. This year's seniors have early acceptances (that I know of, so this is a small fraction) at at least three t20s, Wisconsin-Madison with a full ride, and a bunch of impressive small colleges including Oberlin, Wellesley, and Swarthmore. Those are some pretty great schools, and lots more will come out of the woodworks in the coming weeks and once regular decisions come out in the spring.

I'll give you Swarthmore, but Wisconsin, Oberlin, Wellesley? Come on, if you can pay full fare to the tune of more than 80K+, they're just not terribly difficult to crack these days. If you were talking about Ivies, Stanford, Amherst, Pomona, Univ of Chicago etc. for non-legacies and non-athletes, I'd be cheering for Walls this admissions season.

The facts are undeniable: Bowser shamelessly dumbed down Walls admissions during the pandemic for political reasons, and embarrassing development for DC.

Especially given one of these is a free ride it's entirely possible that the student wanted to go there. Not every kid wants to go to Harvard. I know lots of kids who could have been Ivy League who wanted to go to places like Michigan and Wisconsin for the experience, and others who did turn down Ivies because of full rides in state. College is a deeply individual choice.

Anyways, Harvard Law admitted it's fewest number of black students since 1965 this past class. Legacy acceptances are through the roof. Scoffing at very good schools is a bizarre flex.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.

Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.

Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.

Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.

If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.

I agree with all of these critiques except the college admissions statement. This year's seniors have early acceptances (that I know of, so this is a small fraction) at at least three t20s, Wisconsin-Madison with a full ride, and a bunch of impressive small colleges including Oberlin, Wellesley, and Swarthmore. Those are some pretty great schools, and lots more will come out of the woodworks in the coming weeks and once regular decisions come out in the spring.

I'll give you Swarthmore, but Wisconsin, Oberlin, Wellesley? Come on, if you can pay full fare to the tune of more than 80K+, they're just not terribly difficult to crack these days. If you were talking about Ivies, Stanford, Amherst, Pomona, Univ of Chicago etc. for non-legacies and non-athletes, I'd be cheering for Walls this admissions season.

The facts are undeniable: Bowser shamelessly dumbed down Walls admissions during the pandemic for political reasons, and embarrassing development for DC.

Um, I also mentioned "at least three t20s." Maybe you didn't see that?

[Anonymous]

Why should we believe you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.

Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.

Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.

Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.

If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.

I agree with all of these critiques except the college admissions statement. This year's seniors have early acceptances (that I know of, so this is a small fraction) at at least three t20s, Wisconsin-Madison with a full ride, and a bunch of impressive small colleges including Oberlin, Wellesley, and Swarthmore. Those are some pretty great schools, and lots more will come out of the woodworks in the coming weeks and once regular decisions come out in the spring.

I'll give you Swarthmore, but Wisconsin, Oberlin, Wellesley? Come on, if you can pay full fare to the tune of more than 80K+, they're just not terribly difficult to crack these days. If you were talking about Ivies, Stanford, Amherst, Pomona, Univ of Chicago etc. for non-legacies and non-athletes, I'd be cheering for Walls this admissions season.

The facts are undeniable: Bowser shamelessly dumbed down Walls admissions during the pandemic for political reasons, and embarrassing development for DC.

Okay how about these- early admissions to Yale, UPenn, Brown, Dartmouth and Northwestern. No athletes, not legacies. Full rides to several other schools. A bunch of POSSE scholars.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why should we believe you?

Why would they lie? Weirdo.

[Anonymous]

POSSE scholars, good for them but UMC applicants are in a different category.

[Anonymous]

Please stop arguing about individual college admissions. They’re totally unverifiable without violating the privacy of the students involved. And the kids are under enough pressure without adults gossiping about them on DCUM.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:POSSE scholars, good for them but UMC applicants are in a different category.

What are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

This is not helpful but given everything that is known about implicit bias I'm surprised SWWs still uses interviews and LORs vs essay tests like TJ