Timing of Interview/Essay High Schools?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the application high schools wait until after the MSDC deadline to do interview/essay invites? Any insight on timing welcomed.

No, they don't. Last year the Walls interviews were on two Saturdays, Feb 24 and March 2 (can't remember which). My recollection is that they posted the general interview dates on their public website, but waited until very shortly before the first one to actually inform people that they had an interview. So people had to keep the dates available without knowing if they would have an interview or not, which was a hassle.

Can someone explain to me why applications and interviews happen in Feb. but the kid still has to get a spot at walls via lottery. The whole process is lacking transparency or common sense.walls clearly has the power to override the lottery to get geographic diversity.

The lottery only matters if you get into more than one application school. There is no way to override the lottery. Honestly what are you talking about?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

We had our Mckinley Tech interview before any teacher recommendations were in.

Good to know, thanks! Were the parents interviewed as well? What was your child’s overall impression of the interview? Do they feel McKinley Tech is a strong contender?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

We had our Mckinley Tech interview before any teacher recommendations were in.

Good to know, thanks! Were the parents interviewed as well? What was your child’s overall impression of the interview? Do they feel McKinley Tech is a strong contender?

Parents are not allowed in the school during the interview & essay writing assesment. It's a 2-hr window (4-6pm) and you drop them of and pick them up. First was the writing assessment - kids were giving an article and had to answer a question about it citing source material and personal experineces. Then there was a group interview (handful of kids) who were asked about 5 questions. My child really enjoyed the experience and it's #2 on their list (behind Walls). Had a great experience at the open house and is a very math/stem kid so feels like it would be a good fit.

[Anonymous]

We just got notification that Ellington auditions are Feb 10 - 13. Not all recs are in yet, so I'm glad that they still included my kid in the audition schedule.

[Anonymous]

Confirming we also received this notice from Duke Ellington. Did every applicant get invited to audition?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Confirming we also received this notice from Duke Ellington. Did every applicant get invited to audition?

Depends on the department is what I think they said in the online audition prep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Confirming we also received this notice from Duke Ellington. Did every applicant get invited to audition?

Depends on the department is what I think they said in the online audition prep.

I was wondering this also. My DD did an application for 2 departments and received an invitation for both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do the application high schools wait until after the MSDC deadline to do interview/essay invites? Any insight on timing welcomed.

No, they don't. Last year the Walls interviews were on two Saturdays, Feb 24 and March 2 (can't remember which). My recollection is that they posted the general interview dates on their public website, but waited until very shortly before the first one to actually inform people that they had an interview. So people had to keep the dates available without knowing if they would have an interview or not, which was a hassle.

Can someone explain to me why applications and interviews happen in Feb. but the kid still has to get a spot at walls via lottery. The whole process is lacking transparency or common sense.walls clearly has the power to override the lottery to get geographic diversity.

The lottery only matters if you get into more than one application school. There is no way to override the lottery. Honestly what are you talking about?

This is incorrect. If your kid gets into more than one application school, they are simply given a seat in the school they ranked higher. The *lottery* itself only works in conjunction with application schools if they end up with a bunch of kids they graded the same (in their mysterious system of choosing students) and there isn't room enough for all of them.

As to the PP's question, they time Walls, Banneker, etc admissions together with the lottery because some kids may have any combination of selective schools, DCPS schools outside their borders, and charter schools. So they all have to release their results at once.

[Anonymous]

For the selective schools (Banneker, Walls, & McKinley Tech) should I expect a phone call, email or text? I never answer calls I don’t recognize since they are just spam. Wondering if I might miss it!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For the selective schools (Banneker, Walls, & McKinley Tech) should I expect a phone call, email or text? I never answer calls I don’t recognize since they are just spam. Wondering if I might miss it!

Email

[Anonymous]

A wave of banneker interview invites have gone out

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A wave of banneker interview invites have gone out

Did not receive one! But we are still waiting for one more teacher recommendation... Maybe that's the holdup?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A wave of banneker interview invites have gone out

Did not receive one! But we are still waiting for one more teacher recommendation... Maybe that's the holdup?

They’ll do at least two waves.

[Anonymous]

Hopefully, they'll wait until after the teacher rec deadline to do a second wave.

Have SWW started scheduling interviews?

[Anonymous]

Coolidge Early College sent out a batch last night as well.