School Without Walls interview

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a very strange interview. The fact that it counts so much towards acceptance is problematic.

What happened?

It really is very short. It would be hard to notice anything but general demeanor and appearance. My kid said they were asked three questions total. Everyone was very nice though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a very strange interview. The fact that it counts so much towards acceptance is problematic.

yeah, my kids' was 2 minutes long 2 years ago.
it was ridiculous.

Two years ago is not relevant.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:That was a very strange interview. The fact that it counts so much towards acceptance is problematic.

yeah, my kids' was 2 minutes long 2 years ago.
it was ridiculous.

Two years ago is not relevant.

Np

To me past experience is helpful to better understand if this is the norm or a new thing.

Of a school wants to reduce bias and avoid having an interview be mainly about appearances, they should give more time.

[Anonymous]

It is kind of hard to believe that admittance at this point all comes down to one ten minute interview!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It is kind of hard to believe that admittance at this point all comes down to one ten minute interview!

And yet it does. But don't DARE to ask on DCUM about the interview. They are very prickly about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It is kind of hard to believe that admittance at this point all comes down to one ten minute interview!

And yet it does. But don't DARE to ask on DCUM about the interview. They are very prickly about this.

Ask away. Happy to oblige.

[Anonymous]

How many kids are interviewed, for how many spots? And are decisions released at the end of March along with the general lottery results?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many kids are interviewed, for how many spots? And are decisions released at the end of March along with the general lottery results?

They interview the top 500 applicants (determined by GPA; this year the cut off was 3.87). Last year they offered 170 seats in the lottery (the remaining kids of the 500 interviewed go on the wait list). They will offer those 170 spots based purely on the kid's score (31 points possible for interview score) obtained in a ten minute interview. How they make sure all the many ifferent interviewing panels "grade" applicants with the same level of rigor (or lack thereof)- who knows?

Being there today and seeing all the applicants and parents milling around was a reminder - there are a lot of kids that want to go to Walls next year (500 of them at this point!) and no easy way to fairly divide a scarce resource (spots at a highly coveted school).

DCPS probably ought to take the arbitrary factor out and just run a lottery for the top 500 applicants (but then, of course, they couldn't engineer any desired class balance - whether that be gender, race, ward, or whatever).

[Anonymous]

Why is a public school interviewing students? Too subjective

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many kids are interviewed, for how many spots? And are decisions released at the end of March along with the general lottery results?

They interview the top 500 applicants (determined by GPA; this year the cut off was 3.87). Last year they offered 170 seats in the lottery (the remaining kids of the 500 interviewed go on the wait list). They will offer those 170 spots based purely on the kid's score (31 points possible for interview score) obtained in a ten minute interview. How they make sure all the many ifferent interviewing panels "grade" applicants with the same level of rigor (or lack thereof)- who knows?

Being there today and seeing all the applicants and parents milling around was a reminder - there are a lot of kids that want to go to Walls next year (500 of them at this point!) and no easy way to fairly divide a scarce resource (spots at a highly coveted school).

DCPS probably ought to take the arbitrary factor out and just run a lottery for the top 500 applicants (but then, of course, they couldn't engineer any desired class balance - whether that be gender, race, ward, or whatever).

Is Walls increasing its enrollment or is it admitting 170 assuming some will decline and aiming for a traditional freshman class of about 156?

[Anonymous]

While I’ve expressed my disdain for the lack of an entrance exam on various Walls threads, I will say that today’s interview process was quite organized and well-run. I loved how there were students in the waiting area to answer questions. And whereas I was convinced that our late afternoon interview time would start late, everything started on time.

I suspect my child did a better job interviewing than me!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I’ve expressed my disdain for the lack of an entrance exam on various Walls threads, I will say that today’s interview process was quite organized and well-run. I loved how there were students in the waiting area to answer questions. And whereas I was convinced that our late afternoon interview time would start late, everything started on time.

I suspect my child did a better job interviewing than me!

I suspect that they should dispense with the interview and just run a lottery for the 500 who made the grad cutoff.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:While I’ve expressed my disdain for the lack of an entrance exam on various Walls threads, I will say that today’s interview process was quite organized and well-run. I loved how there were students in the waiting area to answer questions. And whereas I was convinced that our late afternoon interview time would start late, everything started on time.

I suspect my child did a better job interviewing than me!

That probably means you did a great job and came across as sincere! Good Luck....

[Anonymous]

I can’t give details now about our interview because perhaps we are part of a small group who experienced the process but there were some very awkward moments today which makes us feel like there should just be a lottery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t give details now about our interview because perhaps we are part of a small group who experienced the process but there were some very awkward moments today which makes us feel like there should just be a lottery.

Meh, this year’s interviews are over. Air the laundry. I’m sure my kid did fine in the interview, but I am team lottery at this point. Everyone was on their A game, so I have no idea how they can rank the students without some kind of bias.