SWW - when do notices go out about interviews?

[Anonymous]

The NYT had an excellent article about research on the SAT and college admissions a few weeks ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/07/briefing/the-misguided-war-on-the-sat.html

Guess which applicants are hurt by the move away from using objective testing towards basing admissions decisions on GPA, subjective evaluations, essays and other miscellaneous factors? Minority applicants.

The inanity of the current era is hurting educational equity and educational quality.

[Anonymous]

I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

[Anonymous]

The Emperor's New Clothes, indeed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

Why do you say that? It looks like you still needed a 4.0 to get an interview. It’s just that not every kid with a 4.0 got an interview.

[Anonymous]

I wonder if we can expect any further transparency without going the route of a letter writing campaign, op-Ed's, council hearings, and FOIA requests. Sherwood walls would save us all the aggravation, and just explain themselves. Report all the stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

Why do you say that? It looks like you still needed a 4.0 to get an interview. It’s just that not every kid with a 4.0 got an interview.

Any kid who has a 4.0 should absolutely be given an opportunity to interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if we can expect any further transparency without going the route of a letter writing campaign, op-Ed's, council hearings, and FOIA requests. Sherwood walls would save us all the aggravation, and just explain themselves. Report all the stats.

They never provided transparency previously--and for the past ~4 years, something like 86% of the score came down to the kid's interview, and given that the interviews were less than 10 minutes long, that's hardly a way to choose an incoming class. I thought this year's method seemed fairer, adding in recommendations and a writing sample, but then my 4.0 kid didn't get an interview, so I don't know. It's just a bad way of managing school selection all around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

Why do you say that? It looks like you still needed a 4.0 to get an interview. It’s just that not every kid with a 4.0 got an interview.

Any kid who has a 4.0 should absolutely be given an opportunity to interview.

They probably don’t have the time—it’s not private school. And no one is entitled to an interview, regardless of GPA. And I get that it sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

I just have to laugh at this post. Because a few parents on DCUM post their 4.0 kids didn’t get an interview the school has completely let go of academic records as a factor? Hyperbolic much? My 4.0 kid got an interview. As I’m sure many of 4.0 kids did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

I just have to laugh at this post. Because a few parents on DCUM post their 4.0 kids didn’t get an interview the school has completely let go of academic records as a factor? Hyperbolic much? My 4.0 kid got an interview. As I’m sure many of 4.0 kids did.

Knowing stats would be helpful. How many applicants were there? How many had a 4.0? How many spots are there total? How many interview invites did they extend? Did all the kids being invited to interview rank school without walls as number one? I really think the recommendation letter process was not fair. This was a lot of extra unpaid work for the teachers, some of whom probably were not too happy, and it might've shown in their letters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

I just have to laugh at this post. Because a few parents on DCUM post their 4.0 kids didn’t get an interview the school has completely let go of academic records as a factor? Hyperbolic much? My 4.0 kid got an interview. As I’m sure many of 4.0 kids did.

Knowing stats would be helpful. How many applicants were there? How many had a 4.0? How many spots are there total? How many interview invites did they extend? Did all the kids being invited to interview rank school without walls as number one? I really think the recommendation letter process was not fair. This was a lot of extra unpaid work for the teachers, some of whom probably were not too happy, and it might've shown in their letters.

I am sure it doesn’t matter where anyone ranked SWW, because the way the system works anyone can change their ranking even now.

[Anonymous]

I wonder about the ranking issue too. My student got an interview at Walls but hasn’t heard from Banneker.

Or did anyone rank only Walls?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

I just have to laugh at this post. Because a few parents on DCUM post their 4.0 kids didn’t get an interview the school has completely let go of academic records as a factor? Hyperbolic much? My 4.0 kid got an interview. As I’m sure many of 4.0 kids did.

Knowing stats would be helpful. How many applicants were there? How many had a 4.0? How many spots are there total? How many interview invites did they extend? Did all the kids being invited to interview rank school without walls as number one? I really think the recommendation letter process was not fair. This was a lot of extra unpaid work for the teachers, some of whom probably were not too happy, and it might've shown in their letters.

Correct. There were teachers asked to write one letter and teachers asked to write 50.
There were kids whose parents applied in the 11th hour (for a million reasons) and I can imagine that if they asked the teacher writing 50 recs, that might have not have been viewed favorably.

there were teachers who had to be reminded by parents (a process probably also not viewed favorably by the teacher who is already over burdened).

There were kids who were the first kid to ask a teacher (and probably were also not high scorers as recommenders always tend to leave room at the top for those who come later).

All sorts of room for error and bias, which is why recs don't typically count for everything in an admissions process like this. But in this case they did since 4.0s were turned down.

King of crazy. This was ultimately decided entirely by the recs!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

I just have to laugh at this post. Because a few parents on DCUM post their 4.0 kids didn’t get an interview the school has completely let go of academic records as a factor? Hyperbolic much? My 4.0 kid got an interview. As I’m sure many of 4.0 kids did.

Agree. My 4.0 kid also got an interview..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just have to laugh. This is quite a robust magnet school that DCPS is running. Academic record has completely ceased to be a factor in admissions. 🤔🤪

I just have to laugh at this post. Because a few parents on DCUM post their 4.0 kids didn’t get an interview the school has completely let go of academic records as a factor? Hyperbolic much? My 4.0 kid got an interview. As I’m sure many of 4.0 kids did.

Knowing stats would be helpful. How many applicants were there? How many had a 4.0? How many spots are there total? How many interview invites did they extend? Did all the kids being invited to interview rank school without walls as number one? I really think the recommendation letter process was not fair. This was a lot of extra unpaid work for the teachers, some of whom probably were not too happy, and it might've shown in their letters.

Correct. There were teachers asked to write one letter and teachers asked to write 50.
There were kids whose parents applied in the 11th hour (for a million reasons) and I can imagine that if they asked the teacher writing 50 recs, that might have not have been viewed favorably.

there were teachers who had to be reminded by parents (a process probably also not viewed favorably by the teacher who is already over burdened).

There were kids who were the first kid to ask a teacher (and probably were also not high scorers as recommenders always tend to leave room at the top for those who come later).

All sorts of room for error and bias, which is why recs don't typically count for everything in an admissions process like this. But in this case they did since 4.0s were turned down.

King of crazy. This was ultimately decided entirely by the recs!!

And add to all that the fact that lots of teachers were asked to write letters of recommendation for private school applications. I wish I knew what the teacher recommendation letter looked like. Was it a form with fields or was it just freestyle text?