National Merit Semifinalists

[Anonymous]

Sure, but you need to account for the school's size.

For example, the relevant class at Walls is three times bigger than Basis and at J-R it is ten times bigger.

[Anonymous]

Nobody cares about National Merit Semifinalists.

It gets you literally nothing. Focus on something that matters, like the SAT (does that still matter?).

Signed,

former National Merit Semifinalist.

[Anonymous]

Colleges care.

-Former NMSF who went to HYPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sure, but you need to account for the school's size.

For example, the relevant class at Walls is three times bigger than Basis and at J-R it is ten times bigger.

No, I don't. Because I am not a bitter parent who feels the need to tear people down to make myself feel better and/or spends $70k/yr for Sidwell and needs to justify my expense.

I can just sit back appreciate the success of a public school HS and its kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Colleges care.

-Former NMSF who went to HYPS

I could listen to grown adults relive their glory days all day! Will you tell me about your HS baseball career next?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, but you need to account for the school's size.

For example, the relevant class at Walls is three times bigger than Basis and at J-R it is ten times bigger.

No, I don't. Because I am not a bitter parent who feels the need to tear people down to make myself feel better and/or spends $70k/yr for Sidwell and needs to justify my expense.

I can just sit back appreciate the success of a public school HS and its kids.

I love you!

[Anonymous]

What about SJC and Visi? None?

[Anonymous]

Link?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sure, but you need to account for the school's size.

For example, the relevant class at Walls is three times bigger than Basis and at J-R it is ten times bigger.

No, I don't. Because I am not a bitter parent who feels the need to tear people down to make myself feel better and/or spends $70k/yr for Sidwell and needs to justify my expense.

I can just sit back appreciate the success of a public school HS and its kids.

Yes, we know pal, math is hard.

[Anonymous]

If you Google the Walls kids, they've all been academic outliers for years. At least two of them came from private middle school to Walls.
One got a perfect score on the National Latin exam in 9th grade. I don't know where she learned Latin that well by 9th grade but it wasn't DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Colleges care.

-Former NMSF who went to HYPS

I could listen to grown adults relive their glory days all day! Will you tell me about your HS baseball career next?

No but I can tell that there is a correlation between high test scores and college admissions. How long have you been in AA? Hope it is working out for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Link?

According to the group that announces it, they only make names available to the press, and I haven’t seen a DC story yet…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Link?

Check the DCUM private school forum. Someone posted screenshots of the DC page.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you Google the Walls kids, they've all been academic outliers for years. At least two of them came from private middle school to Walls.
One got a perfect score on the National Latin exam in 9th grade. I don't know where she learned Latin that well by 9th grade but it wasn't DCPS.

Do you enjoy spending your time proving how a DCPS student couldn’t possibly get national merit scholar without an asterisk next to it? How about all the private school kids whose parents spend a bunch of money on tutors and supplement their education? Did you google all of the kids on the list to see the real reason they scored so well? Can’t we just say congratulations? No one is taking credit for these kids’ accomplishments but posts like yours just come across as bitter and petty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you Google the Walls kids, they've all been academic outliers for years. At least two of them came from private middle school to Walls.
One got a perfect score on the National Latin exam in 9th grade. I don't know where she learned Latin that well by 9th grade but it wasn't DCPS.

Do you enjoy spending your time proving how a DCPS student couldn’t possibly get national merit scholar without an asterisk next to it? How about all the private school kids whose parents spend a bunch of money on tutors and supplement their education? Did you google all of the kids on the list to see the real reason they scored so well? Can’t we just say congratulations? No one is taking credit for these kids’ accomplishments but posts like yours just come across as bitter and petty.

As a DCPS parent I was simply curious how one becomes a NMSF from what I've found to be a fairly crappy school system.
My kids don't appear to be learning much in DCPS (JKLM-->Deal-->JR despite being A students in the highest level courses they can take).
Turns out some of these Walls kids did not get the majority of their education in DCPS.
I'm not disparaging the kids AT ALL. They are super impressive. Even more impressive now that I know more about them and their accomplishments.