Joe Weedon wants permission to send his daughter to Walls

[Anonymous]

I don't know why they are talking about lottery. DC was also accepted at Walls. She had to work hard and did very well in the test and interview (plus great grades during 7th grade). The test + interview count, not the "lottery."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

I would imagine being a top performer at a low performing school would increase her chance of graduating top in class. It may not get you automatic access to Yale, but perhaps a strong school and perhaps some merit scholarships.

No it would not. Unless Malia really, really challenged herself (learning languages on the side, taking college classes, teaching herself and scoring well on IB exams or SAT2s, she does not get any leg up with eastern. In fact it may hurt her because will compete against top African American classmates in eastern, and THEY will get any merit scholarships to college, etc.

No, check this out: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/here-are-the-secrets-inside-your-college-admissions-file

This girl is white and came from a "big inner-city public high school, where the majority of the student body is nonwhite and many students are low-income." She was accepted to Yale and saw after all that they said "it would look good to have a student from that high school." It didn't matter she was white and not low-income.

I will make your life easier:


Yale practices what's called "need-blind" admissions, so there was no mention of my parents' income anywhere on the form. But the worksheets do their best to allow anybody reading to approximate a guess at what that income might be. A separate text box noted my parents' jobs and where they'd gone to college; a series of drop-down menus allowed admissions officers to note the percentage of students at my high school that were minorities and those that went on to a four-year college. There was a checkbox to note whether or not I lived in a low-income census tract. In addition to pursuing racial diversity, Yale says it makes a concerted effort to accept students from a variety of different geographical areas and from public schools, especially inner-city and rural ones, as well as low-income and first-generation college students. It would have been easy to tell if I fit into any of those categories.

As it happened, I did: I was a student at a large inner-city public school in Minneapolis. My high school was under-resourced, with high percentages of poor, minority, and immigrant students. It had a robust program for Native American students and a program to support teenage mothers.

But I am none of those things. I'm white and grew up middle class. Both of my parents graduated from college — from Princeton, to be exact. I attended a selective magnet program, a mostly white bubble within my school.

And yet, there in my files, I found a note from my an admissions officer: "She'd be a good admit for us from the Minneapolis Public Schools." The other officer's essay about me was even more explicit: "I'm in her corner," she wrote, "and would like to take one from the Minneapolis Public Schools."

Yale, apparently, wanted — even needed — a student to represent not just my high school but my entire 35,000-student school district, which is just 33% white, where 65% of students fall under federal poverty measures, and where almost a third of students are English-language learners. The admissions officers knew, I think, that it would look unfortunate to overlook a public school system as large as Minneapolis.

So they picked me, the white daughter of two Ivy League graduates. I was one of just two students from the entire system to be accepted to Yale and Harvard; the other, a friend of mine, was also the white, middle-class daughter of two college grads. (Two years later, the next student to attend Yale from my inner-city high school was also a white, middle-class friend of mine. Both his parents have master's degrees.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

I would imagine being a top performer at a low performing school would increase her chance of graduating top in class. It may not get you automatic access to Yale, but perhaps a strong school and perhaps some merit scholarships.

No it would not. Unless Malia really, really challenged herself (learning languages on the side, taking college classes, teaching herself and scoring well on IB exams or SAT2s, she does not get any leg up with eastern. In fact it may hurt her because will compete against top African American classmates in eastern, and THEY will get any merit scholarships to college, etc.

No, check this out: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/here-are-the-secrets-inside-your-college-admissions-file

This girl is white and came from a "big inner-city public high school, where the majority of the student body is nonwhite and many students are low-income." She was accepted to Yale and saw after all that they said "it would look good to have a student from that high school." It didn't matter she was white and not low-income.

I will make your life easier:


Yale practices what's called "need-blind" admissions, so there was no mention of my parents' income anywhere on the form. But the worksheets do their best to allow anybody reading to approximate a guess at what that income might be. A separate text box noted my parents' jobs and where they'd gone to college; a series of drop-down menus allowed admissions officers to note the percentage of students at my high school that were minorities and those that went on to a four-year college. There was a checkbox to note whether or not I lived in a low-income census tract. In addition to pursuing racial diversity, Yale says it makes a concerted effort to accept students from a variety of different geographical areas and from public schools, especially inner-city and rural ones, as well as low-income and first-generation college students. It would have been easy to tell if I fit into any of those categories.

As it happened, I did: I was a student at a large inner-city public school in Minneapolis. My high school was under-resourced, with high percentages of poor, minority, and immigrant students. It had a robust program for Native American students and a program to support teenage mothers.

But I am none of those things. I'm white and grew up middle class. Both of my parents graduated from college — from Princeton, to be exact. I attended a selective magnet program, a mostly white bubble within my school.

And yet, there in my files, I found a note from my an admissions officer: "She'd be a good admit for us from the Minneapolis Public Schools." The other officer's essay about me was even more explicit: "I'm in her corner," she wrote, "and would like to take one from the Minneapolis Public Schools."

Yale, apparently, wanted — even needed — a student to represent not just my high school but my entire 35,000-student school district, which is just 33% white, where 65% of students fall under federal poverty measures, and where almost a third of students are English-language learners. The admissions officers knew, I think, that it would look unfortunate to overlook a public school system as large as Minneapolis.

So they picked me, the white daughter of two Ivy League graduates. I was one of just two students from the entire system to be accepted to Yale and Harvard; the other, a friend of mine, was also the white, middle-class daughter of two college grads. (Two years later, the next student to attend Yale from my inner-city high school was also a white, middle-class friend of mine. Both his parents have master's degrees.)

From this article, it sounds like it might help your odds to be from DCPS rather than, I guess, MCPS, but I don't imagine you'd get a bump coming from Eastern or Dunbar rather than Wilson or Walls, eh?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

Yes, yes it does, more so now that so few schools require SATs.

[Anonymous]

Virtually all colleges still want an SAT, including all the more elite ones where people are presuming Ms Weedon will have an admissions advantage.

The test optional movement has not spread that far.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Every couple of years there is a Weedon. They all fold. Every single time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/schools-dilemma-for-urban-gentrifiers-keep-their-kids-urban-or-move-to-suburbia/2012/10/14/02083b6c-131b-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html?utm_term=.4b423caf1ee0

Not all of them. The Weedon article mentions Heather Schoell, whose kids attended Eliot-Hine and are now the only white students at Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Every couple of years there is a Weedon. They all fold. Every single time.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/schools-dilemma-for-urban-gentrifiers-keep-their-kids-urban-or-move-to-suburbia/2012/10/14/02083b6c-131b-11e2-a16b-2c110031514a_story.html?utm_term=.4b423caf1ee0

Not all of them. The Weedon article mentions Heather Schoell, whose kids attended Eliot-Hine and are now the only white students at Eastern.

And just from my experience, Heather was enthusiastic about her kids' schools and peers and didn't come down hard on those of us who made different choices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

Yes, yes it does, more so now that so few schools require SATs.

I think there's definitely a non-awful way to write that essay. Probably a few. Just needs to be thoughtful and humble. Sounds like a ticket to Harvard to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

I would imagine being a top performer at a low performing school would increase her chance of graduating top in class. It may not get you automatic access to Yale, but perhaps a strong school and perhaps some merit scholarships.

No it would not. Unless Malia really, really challenged herself (learning languages on the side, taking college classes, teaching herself and scoring well on IB exams or SAT2s, she does not get any leg up with eastern. In fact it may hurt her because will compete against top African American classmates in eastern, and THEY will get any merit scholarships to college, etc.

No, check this out: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/here-are-the-secrets-inside-your-college-admissions-file

This girl is white and came from a "big inner-city public high school, where the majority of the student body is nonwhite and many students are low-income." She was accepted to Yale and saw after all that they said "it would look good to have a student from that high school." It didn't matter she was white and not low-income.

I will make your life easier:


Yale practices what's called "need-blind" admissions, so there was no mention of my parents' income anywhere on the form. But the worksheets do their best to allow anybody reading to approximate a guess at what that income might be. A separate text box noted my parents' jobs and where they'd gone to college; a series of drop-down menus allowed admissions officers to note the percentage of students at my high school that were minorities and those that went on to a four-year college. There was a checkbox to note whether or not I lived in a low-income census tract. In addition to pursuing racial diversity, Yale says it makes a concerted effort to accept students from a variety of different geographical areas and from public schools, especially inner-city and rural ones, as well as low-income and first-generation college students. It would have been easy to tell if I fit into any of those categories.

As it happened, I did: I was a student at a large inner-city public school in Minneapolis. My high school was under-resourced, with high percentages of poor, minority, and immigrant students. It had a robust program for Native American students and a program to support teenage mothers.

But I am none of those things. I'm white and grew up middle class. Both of my parents graduated from college — from Princeton, to be exact. I attended a selective magnet program, a mostly white bubble within my school.

And yet, there in my files, I found a note from my an admissions officer: "She'd be a good admit for us from the Minneapolis Public Schools." The other officer's essay about me was even more explicit: "I'm in her corner," she wrote, "and would like to take one from the Minneapolis Public Schools."

Yale, apparently, wanted — even needed — a student to represent not just my high school but my entire 35,000-student school district, which is just 33% white, where 65% of students fall under federal poverty measures, and where almost a third of students are English-language learners. The admissions officers knew, I think, that it would look unfortunate to overlook a public school system as large as Minneapolis.

So they picked me, the white daughter of two Ivy League graduates. I was one of just two students from the entire system to be accepted to Yale and Harvard; the other, a friend of mine, was also the white, middle-class daughter of two college grads. (Two years later, the next student to attend Yale from my inner-city high school was also a white, middle-class friend of mine. Both his parents have master's degrees.)

From this article, it sounds like it might help your odds to be from DCPS rather than, I guess, MCPS, but I don't imagine you'd get a bump coming from Eastern or Dunbar rather than Wilson or Walls, eh?

This is exactly correct. If anything Malia will be dinged for not taking the most challenging courses available. And any essay saying something about how she believes in her local school and that’s why she is at Eastern will rightly be tossed in the trash in favor of an essay by someone who either (1) had no choice but Eastern and gave back to his community (2) some super driven Walls or Wilson or Banneker grad.

Finally- remember that malias parents are not ivy grads so... no advantage there either. Staying at Eastern is just all around dumb unless she wants to improve her card skills

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

I would imagine being a top performer at a low performing school would increase her chance of graduating top in class. It may not get you automatic access to Yale, but perhaps a strong school and perhaps some merit scholarships.

No it would not. Unless Malia really, really challenged herself (learning languages on the side, taking college classes, teaching herself and scoring well on IB exams or SAT2s, she does not get any leg up with eastern. In fact it may hurt her because will compete against top African American classmates in eastern, and THEY will get any merit scholarships to college, etc.

No, check this out: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/here-are-the-secrets-inside-your-college-admissions-file

This girl is white and came from a "big inner-city public high school, where the majority of the student body is nonwhite and many students are low-income." She was accepted to Yale and saw after all that they said "it would look good to have a student from that high school." It didn't matter she was white and not low-income.

I will make your life easier:


Yale practices what's called "need-blind" admissions, so there was no mention of my parents' income anywhere on the form. But the worksheets do their best to allow anybody reading to approximate a guess at what that income might be. A separate text box noted my parents' jobs and where they'd gone to college; a series of drop-down menus allowed admissions officers to note the percentage of students at my high school that were minorities and those that went on to a four-year college. There was a checkbox to note whether or not I lived in a low-income census tract. In addition to pursuing racial diversity, Yale says it makes a concerted effort to accept students from a variety of different geographical areas and from public schools, especially inner-city and rural ones, as well as low-income and first-generation college students. It would have been easy to tell if I fit into any of those categories.

As it happened, I did: I was a student at a large inner-city public school in Minneapolis. My high school was under-resourced, with high percentages of poor, minority, and immigrant students. It had a robust program for Native American students and a program to support teenage mothers.

But I am none of those things. I'm white and grew up middle class. Both of my parents graduated from college — from Princeton, to be exact. I attended a selective magnet program, a mostly white bubble within my school.

And yet, there in my files, I found a note from my an admissions officer: "She'd be a good admit for us from the Minneapolis Public Schools." The other officer's essay about me was even more explicit: "I'm in her corner," she wrote, "and would like to take one from the Minneapolis Public Schools."

Yale, apparently, wanted — even needed — a student to represent not just my high school but my entire 35,000-student school district, which is just 33% white, where 65% of students fall under federal poverty measures, and where almost a third of students are English-language learners. The admissions officers knew, I think, that it would look unfortunate to overlook a public school system as large as Minneapolis.

So they picked me, the white daughter of two Ivy League graduates. I was one of just two students from the entire system to be accepted to Yale and Harvard; the other, a friend of mine, was also the white, middle-class daughter of two college grads. (Two years later, the next student to attend Yale from my inner-city high school was also a white, middle-class friend of mine. Both his parents have master's degrees.)

From this article, it sounds like it might help your odds to be from DCPS rather than, I guess, MCPS, but I don't imagine you'd get a bump coming from Eastern or Dunbar rather than Wilson or Walls, eh?

This is exactly correct. If anything Malia will be dinged for not taking the most challenging courses available. And any essay saying something about how she believes in her local school and that’s why she is at Eastern will rightly be tossed in the trash in favor of an essay by someone who either (1) had no choice but Eastern and gave back to his community (2) some super driven Walls or Wilson or Banneker grad.

Finally- remember that malias parents are not ivy grads so... no advantage there either. Staying at Eastern is just all around dumb unless she wants to improve her card skills

I'm pretty sure a LOT more kids will be applying from Walls and go in a 'special basket'. Eastern is a DCPS and she will stand out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

I would imagine being a top performer at a low performing school would increase her chance of graduating top in class. It may not get you automatic access to Yale, but perhaps a strong school and perhaps some merit scholarships.

No it would not. Unless Malia really, really challenged herself (learning languages on the side, taking college classes, teaching herself and scoring well on IB exams or SAT2s, she does not get any leg up with eastern. In fact it may hurt her because will compete against top African American classmates in eastern, and THEY will get any merit scholarships to college, etc.

No, check this out: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/here-are-the-secrets-inside-your-college-admissions-file

This girl is white and came from a "big inner-city public high school, where the majority of the student body is nonwhite and many students are low-income." She was accepted to Yale and saw after all that they said "it would look good to have a student from that high school." It didn't matter she was white and not low-income.

I will make your life easier:


Yale practices what's called "need-blind" admissions, so there was no mention of my parents' income anywhere on the form. But the worksheets do their best to allow anybody reading to approximate a guess at what that income might be. A separate text box noted my parents' jobs and where they'd gone to college; a series of drop-down menus allowed admissions officers to note the percentage of students at my high school that were minorities and those that went on to a four-year college. There was a checkbox to note whether or not I lived in a low-income census tract. In addition to pursuing racial diversity, Yale says it makes a concerted effort to accept students from a variety of different geographical areas and from public schools, especially inner-city and rural ones, as well as low-income and first-generation college students. It would have been easy to tell if I fit into any of those categories.

As it happened, I did: I was a student at a large inner-city public school in Minneapolis. My high school was under-resourced, with high percentages of poor, minority, and immigrant students. It had a robust program for Native American students and a program to support teenage mothers.

But I am none of those things. I'm white and grew up middle class. Both of my parents graduated from college — from Princeton, to be exact. I attended a selective magnet program, a mostly white bubble within my school.

And yet, there in my files, I found a note from my an admissions officer: "She'd be a good admit for us from the Minneapolis Public Schools." The other officer's essay about me was even more explicit: "I'm in her corner," she wrote, "and would like to take one from the Minneapolis Public Schools."

Yale, apparently, wanted — even needed — a student to represent not just my high school but my entire 35,000-student school district, which is just 33% white, where 65% of students fall under federal poverty measures, and where almost a third of students are English-language learners. The admissions officers knew, I think, that it would look unfortunate to overlook a public school system as large as Minneapolis.

So they picked me, the white daughter of two Ivy League graduates. I was one of just two students from the entire system to be accepted to Yale and Harvard; the other, a friend of mine, was also the white, middle-class daughter of two college grads. (Two years later, the next student to attend Yale from my inner-city high school was also a white, middle-class friend of mine. Both his parents have master's degrees.)

From this article, it sounds like it might help your odds to be from DCPS rather than, I guess, MCPS, but I don't imagine you'd get a bump coming from Eastern or Dunbar rather than Wilson or Walls, eh?

This is exactly correct. If anything Malia will be dinged for not taking the most challenging courses available. And any essay saying something about how she believes in her local school and that’s why she is at Eastern will rightly be tossed in the trash in favor of an essay by someone who either (1) had no choice but Eastern and gave back to his community (2) some super driven Walls or Wilson or Banneker grad.

Finally- remember that malias parents are not ivy grads so... no advantage there either. Staying at Eastern is just all around dumb unless she wants to improve her card skills

I'm pretty sure a LOT more kids will be applying from Walls and go in a 'special basket'. Eastern is a DCPS and she will stand out.

Walls and Wilson are both DCPS schools. So.... no she will just be another white kid who took some IB courses, but didn’t do that well on their IB exam.

Any college will look at Eastern’s college readiness index, which btw is 12.2%, their mathematics proficiency score (1%) and realize that any grad from eastern will probably fail out of college. They’ll look at kids who went to walls and Banneker and see someone who took the hardest courses you could take as a student, not someone who didn’t want to deal with a commute. Sorry there is no bonus for attending Eastern.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

I would imagine being a top performer at a low performing school would increase her chance of graduating top in class. It may not get you automatic access to Yale, but perhaps a strong school and perhaps some merit scholarships.

No it would not. Unless Malia really, really challenged herself (learning languages on the side, taking college classes, teaching herself and scoring well on IB exams or SAT2s, she does not get any leg up with eastern. In fact it may hurt her because will compete against top African American classmates in eastern, and THEY will get any merit scholarships to college, etc.

No, check this out: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/here-are-the-secrets-inside-your-college-admissions-file

This girl is white and came from a "big inner-city public high school, where the majority of the student body is nonwhite and many students are low-income." She was accepted to Yale and saw after all that they said "it would look good to have a student from that high school." It didn't matter she was white and not low-income.

I will make your life easier:


Yale practices what's called "need-blind" admissions, so there was no mention of my parents' income anywhere on the form. But the worksheets do their best to allow anybody reading to approximate a guess at what that income might be. A separate text box noted my parents' jobs and where they'd gone to college; a series of drop-down menus allowed admissions officers to note the percentage of students at my high school that were minorities and those that went on to a four-year college. There was a checkbox to note whether or not I lived in a low-income census tract. In addition to pursuing racial diversity, Yale says it makes a concerted effort to accept students from a variety of different geographical areas and from public schools, especially inner-city and rural ones, as well as low-income and first-generation college students. It would have been easy to tell if I fit into any of those categories.

As it happened, I did: I was a student at a large inner-city public school in Minneapolis. My high school was under-resourced, with high percentages of poor, minority, and immigrant students. It had a robust program for Native American students and a program to support teenage mothers.

But I am none of those things. I'm white and grew up middle class. Both of my parents graduated from college — from Princeton, to be exact. I attended a selective magnet program, a mostly white bubble within my school.

And yet, there in my files, I found a note from my an admissions officer: "She'd be a good admit for us from the Minneapolis Public Schools." The other officer's essay about me was even more explicit: "I'm in her corner," she wrote, "and would like to take one from the Minneapolis Public Schools."

Yale, apparently, wanted — even needed — a student to represent not just my high school but my entire 35,000-student school district, which is just 33% white, where 65% of students fall under federal poverty measures, and where almost a third of students are English-language learners. The admissions officers knew, I think, that it would look unfortunate to overlook a public school system as large as Minneapolis.

So they picked me, the white daughter of two Ivy League graduates. I was one of just two students from the entire system to be accepted to Yale and Harvard; the other, a friend of mine, was also the white, middle-class daughter of two college grads. (Two years later, the next student to attend Yale from my inner-city high school was also a white, middle-class friend of mine. Both his parents have master's degrees.)

From this article, it sounds like it might help your odds to be from DCPS rather than, I guess, MCPS, but I don't imagine you'd get a bump coming from Eastern or Dunbar rather than Wilson or Walls, eh?

This is exactly correct. If anything Malia will be dinged for not taking the most challenging courses available. And any essay saying something about how she believes in her local school and that’s why she is at Eastern will rightly be tossed in the trash in favor of an essay by someone who either (1) had no choice but Eastern and gave back to his community (2) some super driven Walls or Wilson or Banneker grad.

Finally- remember that malias parents are not ivy grads so... no advantage there either. Staying at Eastern is just all around dumb unless she wants to improve her card skills

I'm pretty sure a LOT more kids will be applying from Walls and go in a 'special basket'. Eastern is a DCPS and she will stand out.

Walls and Wilson are both DCPS schools. So.... no she will just be another white kid who took some IB courses, but didn’t do that well on their IB exam.

Any college will look at Eastern’s college readiness index, which btw is 12.2%, their mathematics proficiency score (1%) and realize that any grad from eastern will probably fail out of college. They’ll look at kids who went to walls and Banneker and see someone who took the hardest courses you could take as a student, not someone who didn’t want to deal with a commute. Sorry there is no bonus for attending Eastern.

Keep in mind Walls is 62% minority and has a 93.9 college readiness. Banneker is 99% minority and has a 64.3 readiness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know Weedon, but why on earth would anyone talk about this with the WaPo?

Looks like political posturing at the expense of an 8th grader.

It's nobody's damn business? How is she going to feel arty school through the end of the year?

My kid can barely look at me when I step foot on campus. He'd run off to the circus if I let a reporter take pictures of him.

Another poster nailed it: Because he spent years chastising families for my choosing Eastern. Now that he is faced with the same decision, he needs a public airing of the dilemma that is now his. All of this trumps his daughter’s right to privacy.

So he wanted other parents (high SES) to " pave the way" for his kids to the point of castigating them, but when that didnt happen "in time" hes jumping ship, rather than seize the opportunity to "pave the way" for others? You just cant make this stuff up...

Yes, exactly. He knows the teachers there - the commitment. I think their real dilemma was having her tahr the test, not now. Maybe it is the daughter’s decision? The irony is, if she went to Eastern, she’d be a shoo-in for a very top college.

of course she would. And for schools to change in the way it sounds like the Weedons have historically wanted (neighborhood 'investment' across SES) someone from high SES has to be "the first". Hope they choose Eastern. It sounds like their daughter is comfortable with this (did anyone find it odd how he was taking so much ownership of the decision of a young and apparently thoughtful adult?) and they will feel better as a family for not being complete hypocrites.

Why do you think she'd be a shoo in for top colleges coming from Eastern? (This is an honest question, not snark). Because the school hasn't sent a kid to yale yet? The daughter herself wouldn't have much to set her apart from 1000 other white kids with an educated family and (one assumes) good grades. Plus, I'm not sure how you write a "I'm the only white kid at this school" application essay without sounding awful, so she'd have to write something about her extracurricular card game lifestyle or grandpa or whatever like everyone else. Or am I missing something--does being a top performer at a not very high performing high school give you a leg up in college admissions?

I would imagine being a top performer at a low performing school would increase her chance of graduating top in class. It may not get you automatic access to Yale, but perhaps a strong school and perhaps some merit scholarships.

No it would not. Unless Malia really, really challenged herself (learning languages on the side, taking college classes, teaching herself and scoring well on IB exams or SAT2s, she does not get any leg up with eastern. In fact it may hurt her because will compete against top African American classmates in eastern, and THEY will get any merit scholarships to college, etc.

No, check this out: https://www.buzzfeed.com/ryanbergara/here-are-the-secrets-inside-your-college-admissions-file

This girl is white and came from a "big inner-city public high school, where the majority of the student body is nonwhite and many students are low-income." She was accepted to Yale and saw after all that they said "it would look good to have a student from that high school." It didn't matter she was white and not low-income.

I will make your life easier:


Yale practices what's called "need-blind" admissions, so there was no mention of my parents' income anywhere on the form. But the worksheets do their best to allow anybody reading to approximate a guess at what that income might be. A separate text box noted my parents' jobs and where they'd gone to college; a series of drop-down menus allowed admissions officers to note the percentage of students at my high school that were minorities and those that went on to a four-year college. There was a checkbox to note whether or not I lived in a low-income census tract. In addition to pursuing racial diversity, Yale says it makes a concerted effort to accept students from a variety of different geographical areas and from public schools, especially inner-city and rural ones, as well as low-income and first-generation college students. It would have been easy to tell if I fit into any of those categories.

As it happened, I did: I was a student at a large inner-city public school in Minneapolis. My high school was under-resourced, with high percentages of poor, minority, and immigrant students. It had a robust program for Native American students and a program to support teenage mothers.

But I am none of those things. I'm white and grew up middle class. Both of my parents graduated from college — from Princeton, to be exact. I attended a selective magnet program, a mostly white bubble within my school.

And yet, there in my files, I found a note from my an admissions officer: "She'd be a good admit for us from the Minneapolis Public Schools." The other officer's essay about me was even more explicit: "I'm in her corner," she wrote, "and would like to take one from the Minneapolis Public Schools."

Yale, apparently, wanted — even needed — a student to represent not just my high school but my entire 35,000-student school district, which is just 33% white, where 65% of students fall under federal poverty measures, and where almost a third of students are English-language learners. The admissions officers knew, I think, that it would look unfortunate to overlook a public school system as large as Minneapolis.

So they picked me, the white daughter of two Ivy League graduates. I was one of just two students from the entire system to be accepted to Yale and Harvard; the other, a friend of mine, was also the white, middle-class daughter of two college grads. (Two years later, the next student to attend Yale from my inner-city high school was also a white, middle-class friend of mine. Both his parents have master's degrees.)

From this article, it sounds like it might help your odds to be from DCPS rather than, I guess, MCPS, but I don't imagine you'd get a bump coming from Eastern or Dunbar rather than Wilson or Walls, eh?

This is exactly correct. If anything Malia will be dinged for not taking the most challenging courses available. And any essay saying something about how she believes in her local school and that’s why she is at Eastern will rightly be tossed in the trash in favor of an essay by someone who either (1) had no choice but Eastern and gave back to his community (2) some super driven Walls or Wilson or Banneker grad.

Finally- remember that malias parents are not ivy grads so... no advantage there either. Staying at Eastern is just all around dumb unless she wants to improve her card skills

I'm pretty sure a LOT more kids will be applying from Walls and go in a 'special basket'. Eastern is a DCPS and she will stand out.

Walls and Wilson are both DCPS schools. So.... no she will just be another white kid who took some IB courses, but didn’t do that well on their IB exam.

Any college will look at Eastern’s college readiness index, which btw is 12.2%, their mathematics proficiency score (1%) and realize that any grad from eastern will probably fail out of college. They’ll look at kids who went to walls and Banneker and see someone who took the hardest courses you could take as a student, not someone who didn’t want to deal with a commute. Sorry there is no bonus for attending Eastern.

Interesting how you are able to predict
a) how a child you don't know will score on the next few years of standardized testing
b) how every college in the country weighs different factors when making admission decisions.

You might want to focus your psychic powers on stock-picking if you're that good. I'm sure Malia Weedon will turn out fine wherever she ends up for HS or college. There are clearly pros and cons to either choice she might make for next year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Walls and Wilson are both DCPS schools. So.... no she will just be another white kid who took some IB courses, but didn’t do that well on their IB exam.

Any college will look at Eastern’s college readiness index, which btw is 12.2%, their mathematics proficiency score (1%) and realize that any grad from eastern will probably fail out of college. They’ll look at kids who went to walls and Banneker and see someone who took the hardest courses you could take as a student, not someone who didn’t want to deal with a commute. Sorry there is no bonus for attending Eastern.

I went to a pretty low rated HS and did very well in college admissions. The problem students from low-rated schools have often is that they don't have competitive SAT/ACT scores even if they're near the top of their class. But if you score well, colleges will look positively upon you. I think it's at least a neutral if not a positive factor, since you add a different perspective than the swarms of UMC suburban and private school kids do. If you've got a high SAT/ACT, colleges won't think that "any grad from eastern will probably fail out of college."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will she go to the selective public high school she was accepted to along with hundreds of other high-achieving children? Or will she attend Eastern Senior High, the traditional public high school blocks from her home, a school with an International Baccalaureate (IB) program and robust extracurricular activities — but low scores on standardized tests?

I don’t understand the problem- send your child to Walls and enjoy being a hypocrite. Problem solved!

Exactly!