Washington Latin's High School Program

[Anonymous]

How about fantastic financial aid for low and moderate income students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to put a dampener on what sounds like a booster oriented thread, but in interviewing one or two Latin students a year for my Ivy in the past several years, I haven't been blown away by the academics or extra-curriculars they've brought to the table. The top Latin HS students seem to take 3 or 4 AP classes/exams, earning mostly 3-4s. Hardly anybody seems to take 6+ exams, earning mostly 5s (the minimum that would pass muster at my Ivy).

It's obviously a nice school community, and the kids clearly get a decent education, but they're not shooting for the stars in college admissions yet (although the odd kid still aims high). They like to see graduates land at East Coast public universities and small liberal arts colleges around the country. If that's yours scene, terrific. If not, Wilson, Walls and BASIS pretty clearly offer more rigor/college options for high fliers.

I don't think you really interview for an Ivy League school. I do and my school would take into consideration how many APs the school actually offers. A small school like a Latin probably doesn't offer that many AP classes so taking 6+ would be impossible for any student.

Yes, they look at the school's offering but in this area there are many other high schools including Wilson that offers 6+ APs and Ivies look at geographical areas even more than individual schools.

So if you attend the only high school in the area over flyover country that has very limited AP offerings, not having APs won't count against you but this area has plenty of high schools that offer a VERY rigorous curriculum for their top students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How about fantastic financial aid for low and moderate income students.

That's a good reason. Do you qualify?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to put a dampener on what sounds like a booster oriented thread, but in interviewing one or two Latin students a year for my Ivy in the past several years, I haven't been blown away by the academics or extra-curriculars they've brought to the table. The top Latin HS students seem to take 3 or 4 AP classes/exams, earning mostly 3-4s. Hardly anybody seems to take 6+ exams, earning mostly 5s (the minimum that would pass muster at my Ivy).

It's obviously a nice school community, and the kids clearly get a decent education, but they're not shooting for the stars in college admissions yet (although the odd kid still aims high). They like to see graduates land at East Coast public universities and small liberal arts colleges around the country. If that's yours scene, terrific. If not, Wilson, Walls and BASIS pretty clearly offer more rigor/college options for high fliers.

Wow. Just based on the above, Latin gets my vote. 6plus APs for what- so your child can burn our before college? There is so much kool aid being drunk in the tri state area ita not even funny. Kids destined for ivies, whether at Latin or anywhere else, will find their way to them for everyone else, There've been a lot of good, well balanced kids at Latin getting into personal 'reach' schools. Thats what happened with our child. Had she gone to Walls or Wilson it still would have been other kids going to the Ivies, but I'm not sure our child would have had as much interest in HS, placed as well or been so happy today.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for all the typos - glasses on the way

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to put a dampener on what sounds like a booster oriented thread, but in interviewing one or two Latin students a year for my Ivy in the past several years, I haven't been blown away by the academics or extra-curriculars they've brought to the table. The top Latin HS students seem to take 3 or 4 AP classes/exams, earning mostly 3-4s. Hardly anybody seems to take 6+ exams, earning mostly 5s (the minimum that would pass muster at my Ivy).

It's obviously a nice school community, and the kids clearly get a decent education, but they're not shooting for the stars in college admissions yet (although the odd kid still aims high). They like to see graduates land at East Coast public universities and small liberal arts colleges around the country. If that's yours scene, terrific. If not, Wilson, Walls and BASIS pretty clearly offer more rigor/college options for high fliers.

I don't think you really interview for an Ivy League school. I do and my school would take into consideration how many APs the school actually offers. A small school like a Latin probably doesn't offer that many AP classes so taking 6+ would be impossible for any student.

Selective colleges look for academic rigor in a student's curriculum. More sophisticated admissions officers distinguish between rigor and "APs" which are often test-driven, regimented memorization courses. Fact: schools like Sidwell Friends have far fewer "AP" denominated courses than local public schools.

[Anonymous]

Amen to that. AP is a business and what its doing to HS is ridiculous. Remember when HS was somewhat fun? Remember when being a teen was somewhat fun?

[Anonymous]

Which APs are offered at Latin? My son is in middle school at WLPCS and we love it. Among the families we know with a child at WLPCS, several of the parents are Ivy alumni and talking about keeping theirs kids at Latin for high school.

[Anonymous]

You can check the AP offerings easily by contacting the curriculum director or I imagine looking online. You can also make arrangements to take AP tests at other schools (not the class, by the test). Dont forget about all those weird SAT subtests. There are ample testing opps for any kid, anywhere. It really is an industry. Ivies.... They come up on this site so often. Are they really all that? The ticket to long term satisfaction and happiness?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to put a dampener on what sounds like a booster oriented thread, but in interviewing one or two Latin students a year for my Ivy in the past several years, I haven't been blown away by the academics or extra-curriculars they've brought to the table. The top Latin HS students seem to take 3 or 4 AP classes/exams, earning mostly 3-4s. Hardly anybody seems to take 6+ exams, earning mostly 5s (the minimum that would pass muster at my Ivy).

It's obviously a nice school community, and the kids clearly get a decent education, but they're not shooting for the stars in college admissions yet (although the odd kid still aims high). They like to see graduates land at East Coast public universities and small liberal arts colleges around the country. If that's yours scene, terrific. If not, Wilson, Walls and BASIS pretty clearly offer more rigor/college options for high fliers.

Wow. Just based on the above, Latin gets my vote. 6plus APs for what- so your child can burn our before college? There is so much kool aid being drunk in the tri state area ita not even funny. Kids destined for ivies, whether at Latin or anywhere else, will find their way to them for everyone else, There've been a lot of good, well balanced kids at Latin getting into personal 'reach' schools. Thats what happened with our child. Had she gone to Walls or Wilson it still would have been other

Som kids going to the Ivies, but I'm not sure our child would have had as much interest in HS, placed as well or been so happy today.

APs are good so you can avoid the enormous survey classes Freshman year, of your university accepts them for credit. This also allows some student to get into their subject field faster OR graduate in less than 4-5 years, which saves money. Does anyone on DCUM care about saving money?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to put a dampener on what sounds like a booster oriented thread, but in interviewing one or two Latin students a year for my Ivy in the past several years, I haven't been blown away by the academics or extra-curriculars they've brought to the table. The top Latin HS students seem to take 3 or 4 AP classes/exams, earning mostly 3-4s. Hardly anybody seems to take 6+ exams, earning mostly 5s (the minimum that would pass muster at my Ivy).

It's obviously a nice school community, and the kids clearly get a decent education, but they're not shooting for the stars in college admissions yet (although the odd kid still aims high). They like to see graduates land at East Coast public universities and small liberal arts colleges around the country. If that's yours scene, terrific. If not, Wilson, Walls and BASIS pretty clearly offer more rigor/college options for high fliers.

Wow. Just based on the above, Latin gets my vote. 6plus APs for what- so your child can burn our before college? There is so much kool aid being drunk in the tri state area ita not even funny. Kids destined for ivies, whether at Latin or anywhere else, will find their way to them for everyone else, There've been a lot of good, well balanced kids at Latin getting into personal 'reach' schools. Thats what happened with our child. Had she gone to Walls or Wilson it still would have been other

Som kids going to the Ivies, but I'm not sure our child would have had as much interest in HS, placed as well or been so happy today.

APs are good so you can avoid the enormous survey classes Freshman year, of your university accepts them for credit. This also allows some student to get into their subject field faster OR graduate in less than 4-5 years, which saves money. Does anyone on DCUM care about saving money?

+1. And even in cases where it doesn't save money because students still have to do x many courses on campus, it allows your tuition money to be spent on the relatively smaller, upper level courses that may actually be taught by a professor rather than a gradudate assistant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to put a dampener on what sounds like a booster oriented thread, but in interviewing one or two Latin students a year for my Ivy in the past several years, I haven't been blown away by the academics or extra-curriculars they've brought to the table. The top Latin HS students seem to take 3 or 4 AP classes/exams, earning mostly 3-4s. Hardly anybody seems to take 6+ exams, earning mostly 5s (the minimum that would pass muster at my Ivy).

It's obviously a nice school community, and the kids clearly get a decent education, but they're not shooting for the stars in college admissions yet (although the odd kid still aims high). They like to see graduates land at East Coast public universities and small liberal arts colleges around the country. If that's yours scene, terrific. If not, Wilson, Walls and BASIS pretty clearly offer more rigor/college options for high fliers.

Wow. Just based on the above, Latin gets my vote. 6plus APs for what- so your child can burn our before college? There is so much kool aid being drunk in the tri state area ita not even funny. Kids destined for ivies, whether at Latin or anywhere else, will find their way to them for everyone else, There've been a lot of good, well balanced kids at Latin getting into personal 'reach' schools. Thats what happened with our child. Had she gone to Walls or Wilson it still would have been other

Som kids going to the Ivies, but I'm not sure our child would have had as much interest in HS, placed as well or been so happy today.

APs are good so you can avoid the enormous survey classes Freshman year, of your university accepts them for credit. This also allows some student to get into their subject field faster OR graduate in less than 4-5 years, which saves money. Does anyone on DCUM care about saving money?

Absolutely yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to put a dampener on what sounds like a booster oriented thread, but in interviewing one or two Latin students a year for my Ivy in the past several years, I haven't been blown away by the academics or extra-curriculars they've brought to the table. The top Latin HS students seem to take 3 or 4 AP classes/exams, earning mostly 3-4s. Hardly anybody seems to take 6+ exams, earning mostly 5s (the minimum that would pass muster at my Ivy).

It's obviously a nice school community, and the kids clearly get a decent education, but they're not shooting for the stars in college admissions yet (although the odd kid still aims high). They like to see graduates land at East Coast public universities and small liberal arts colleges around the country. If that's yours scene, terrific. If not, Wilson, Walls and BASIS pretty clearly offer more rigor/college options for high fliers.

I don't think you really interview for an Ivy League school. I do and my school would take into consideration how many APs the school actually offers. A small school like a Latin probably doesn't offer that many AP classes so taking 6+ would be impossible for any student.

Selective colleges look for academic rigor in a student's curriculum. More sophisticated admissions officers distinguish between rigor and "APs" which are often test-driven, regimented memorization courses. Fact: schools like Sidwell Friends have far fewer "AP" denominated courses than local public schools.

I'm an NP who also interviews for an Ivy League school. Although Sidwell et al. don't call their courses "AP", the kids still take the tests and get 5s on them. If they didn't, they wouldn't be considered by the Ivy League schools. Even the exalted Sidwell name doesn't buy you a pass on proving your students are well prepared in a way that can be evaluated by an objective metric. This is especially true given how far behind the STEM kids at the privates are compared to the kids at Blair, TJ, or even western MoCo. Magnet kids have taken differential equations and have Siemens prizes. Most kids at the Big 3 aren't in that league.

[Anonymous]

+1000. It's easy to pretend that what Latin does will launch many an Ivy league offer eventually. A small school, public or private, suburban or urban, can only do so much on that score, particularly without selective admissions in the mix. Not that most Latin parents necessarily mind.

[Anonymous]

Why doesn't DC have a public STEM high school on par with TJ and Blair? There's certainly a need for one.