DCPS Selective HSs: What to know.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I would also like to know about Latin, Basis and DCI. Sorry to piggyback but I’m considering all options as well as DCPS.

The best (and nearly only) way to get into DCI is through a feeder elementary school. There are a handful of true lottery kids, but it’s rare.

It's not that rare right now. It will become more rare.
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/aaron2446/viz/MSDCSeatsandWaitlistOfferData_draft/MSDCPublicDisplay

DCI's lottery seats are mostly going to kids from feeder schools. It is not reflected in the tableau site, but the feeder kids get first dibs at the lottery spots that are over and above the feeder school's allocated spots.

But you can see on each feeder school's data in that database whether there were actually any feeder kids who didn't get a feeder spot.

All feeder kids got spots at DCI for this year’s 6th grade even with the expansion of a few schools.

If feeder schools have open seats, then those seats will go to other feeder schools who don’t have enough seats before any non-feeder kids get considered. So your best shot is thru feeder schools.

If not coming from feeder, you still have a chance but much less, and your best shot is french or mandarin. It doesn’t mean you should not list spanish track if that is your 1st choice but also list the other tracks if you are open to those languages.

But that rule about kids from other feeders is only for 6th, is my understanding.

Yes I think it is only for 6th. There are some spots for 7th and 8th but not a lot because DCI has a high retention rate.

There are also some spots for 9th so definitely list it for high school. But if your kid is coming in this late with no language, unlikely they will be successful in the IB diploma track or succeed in getting the IB diploma.

But the school also has a good computer science track and engineering track also as optiins.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son goes to walls and I think that his extracurriculars stood out and distinguished him from other kids vying for a space. He has a unique set of interests and they’re not just recent hobbies. He’s been engaged in them for years. Some of his friends who got accepted into walls also had some unique extracurriculars. That is the only thing I can think of that I believe helped him get in because there are tons of kids with great grades and recommendations who didn’t make it in.

Can you elaborate on what extracurriculars helped him stand out? Genuinely curious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son goes to walls and I think that his extracurriculars stood out and distinguished him from other kids vying for a space. He has a unique set of interests and they’re not just recent hobbies. He’s been engaged in them for years. Some of his friends who got accepted into walls also had some unique extracurriculars. That is the only thing I can think of that I believe helped him get in because there are tons of kids with great grades and recommendations who didn’t make it in.

Except Walls never collects a list of extracurriculars.

It might come up in the (short) interview or the recommendations (if the recommender is aware and it's relevant to the questions asked) or possibly the essay (if it can be shoe-horned in).

[Anonymous]

Totally understand that getting into Walls involves a lot of luck.

I'm trying to understand to what degree that is, let's call it subjective luck, where people are basing who gets in on your grades and extracurriculars and your recommendations and your essay and your very short interview, and since there are waaaay too many kids with great grades and extracurriculars and recommendations, a lot of it comes down to weird impressions or what happened to connect with that person or some weird class shaping that's totally not transparent. IE - the same kinda luck that gets an unhooked kid into an Ivy, but with a less rigorous process, so the luck factors in even more.

And, to what degree, if at all, your lottery number, true random luck, comes into play. It seems to me that the only way lottery number doesn't contribute to your Walls luck is if the admissions folks not only hand pick the 190 kids who get an offer on results day, but then rank every single one of the 123 kids on their waitlist, (okay, this kid will be #1, this kid will be #2, this kid will be #3, all the way up to 123) and provide that to MySchoolDC so they can manage the waitlist.

Seems more likely and manageable to me that Walls says, okay, here's the 190 kids that definitely get a seat. Then here's the 123 for the waitlist. Reject the rest. And then the waitlist gets ordered by lottery number.

Or maybe they do a few "buckets" - 190 acceptances, then here's 10-20 more that we'd like to be able to offer a seat to, they go on the top of the waitlist. Then here's the next 50 that would work fine. Then here's the next 50 - just in case we have space. Reject everybody else. And then those first 10-20 are ordered by lottery number and then the next 50 are ordered by lottery number, and then the next 50.

I mean, they can't possibly be manually ordering 100+ kids on the waitlist based on qualifications, right? That would be incredibly time intensive. And yet, everyone who isn't outright admitted or rejected gets an actual waitlist number on match day.

Anyone have any knowledge of this?

[Anonymous]

For walls I think there is a rubric and you get scores for each component; top 190 composite scores get offers; waitlist is in score order.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:For Walls, you really, really need to understand that there is a massive amount of luck involved, even if your kid wildly exceeds the baseline stuff.

That is what parents say with no accountability. My child is not even in Walls and I am fairly confident they are in the running because they have a massive extracurricular load in addition to the standard 4.0. This discussion is the same for college admissions. It is kind of interesting that the answers to the test are available but people don't want to see it. Develop well rounded humans and the process will recognize them. Focus on metrics and validation of their mental superiority and the process will not.

Ugh, I hope for their sake that your kid gets into Walls, and then into whatever elite college you’re so sure they’ll get into without a decent SAT score.

The fact is that some of the most well-rounded kids I know got in to Walls — and some of the most well-rounded kids I know were rejected. The admissions process at Walls is a jury-rigged, fly-by-night operation compared to admissions at an elite college. That inevitably introduces a lot of randomness into the process.

This, kids with EC and top grades did not get in. There is no transparency and rhyme or reason. It’s totally random and luck.
You have no control over it, no matter now great an applicant your kid is.

Don’t rely on it and make sure you have other options or even better, of better options, move on.

This is true but some people here want to believe that their precious darling is more important and better than other kids and that is why they got in 🙏🏼 #braggingrights

I would believe that its random. But I also know a couple families where all their kids get in to Walls (and the kids are very smart and wonderful).

If you flip a coin twice, sometimes it will come up heads both times. Sometimes even three times in a row or more.

Maybe. But it might has something to do with the middle school (these families were at small middle schools where their smart kids were standouts).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For walls I think there is a rubric and you get scores for each component; top 190 composite scores get offers; waitlist is in score order.

I think this is correct. But there's not that much nuance in the rubric, so I bet there are kids on the waitlist with the same score, which maybe makes the waitlist order random at some point. The kid at waitlist #65 might have the same overall score as the kid at waitlist #40, for example.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For walls I think there is a rubric and you get scores for each component; top 190 composite scores get offers; waitlist is in score order.

I think this is correct. But there's not that much nuance in the rubric, so I bet there are kids on the waitlist with the same score, which maybe makes the waitlist order random at some point. The kid at waitlist #65 might have the same overall score as the kid at waitlist #40, for example.

It’s also my understanding that the only way the random lottery number comes into play is when applicants have the same composite score. According to the rubric, the waitlist is ordered by applicants’ composite scores: “GPA, recommendation letter, interview, and writing sample scores are added together to give each applicant a cumulative application score. All applicants are ranked according to the total number of points earned for determination in the My School DC Lottery.”

OP, an overview of the application requirements for all the selective high schools is available here, along with links to the more detailed rubrics for individual schools: https://www.myschooldc.org/how-apply/applying-high-school

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For walls I think there is a rubric and you get scores for each component; top 190 composite scores get offers; waitlist is in score order.

I think this is correct. But there's not that much nuance in the rubric, so I bet there are kids on the waitlist with the same score, which maybe makes the waitlist order random at some point. The kid at waitlist #65 might have the same overall score as the kid at waitlist #40, for example.

Ah. So your lottery number probably orders you within your score group. That makes sense.

[Anonymous]

How many AP tests do kids take from Latin/Basis/Walls?

I’m assuming no AP from Banneker or DCI bc they’re IB.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gotta have an excellent 7th grade GPA. Spend 6th grade teaching your kid study and organization skills so they can earn a good GPA in 7th.

There is an application rubric on MyschoolDC that sets out the requirements for each school.

Look into Sojourner Truth as another lottery option.

No Truth is not an acceptable option unless you’re completely ok with community college. Which is fine of course. But if you want some academic rigor and you’re desperate, sincerely consider the IB Program at Eastern. Not Truth.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many AP tests do kids take from Latin/Basis/Walls?

I’m assuming no AP from Banneker or DCI bc they’re IB.

Banneker is AP and IB. My 9th grader is in pre-AP and honors courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How many AP tests do kids take from Latin/Basis/Walls?

I’m assuming no AP from Banneker or DCI bc they’re IB.

and my stem focused neighbor

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many AP tests do kids take from Latin/Basis/Walls?

I’m assuming no AP from Banneker or DCI bc they’re IB.

Banneker is AP and IB. My 9th grader is in pre-AP and honors courses.

Pre-IB or Pre-AP? When do students take AP classes and what grades?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How many AP tests do kids take from Latin/Basis/Walls?

I’m assuming no AP from Banneker or DCI bc they’re IB.

and my stem focused neighbor

Apologies for broken post. Neighbor claims walls doesn’t always offer all AP stem courses every year. Not sure if this is still the case and wanted confirmation.