Wilson H.S. or GDS/Sidwell/St. Albans for your basic Ward 3 smart kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've interviewed a dozen Wilson students applying to my alma mater (an Ivy) in the last six or seven years, and none has been admitted, and not for lack of brains or industry. Wilson does get one or two students into my school every year, I just haven't interviewed any of the succesful applicants. If you're willing to play guidance counselor to your kid to a large extent junior and senior year, your kid may indeed do just as well at Wilson as St. Albans etc. The Wilson kids simply don't seem to get nearly enough attention from college counselors as individuals, a public school problem hardly unique to the school. But if your kid winds up as Ivy League material, regardless of which area school he ends up attending, you may wish to seriously consider doing something radical for senior year. That is get him OUT of the DC applicant pool altogether somehow, have him graduate from a school in North Dakota, or Alaska, or Kenya, or the Bahamas. Anywhere but here or NYC. The numbers crunch at 5-star schools (mine admits 8%) has become increasingly brutal for a decade, no matter if your kid applies to Stanford, Georgetown, Ivies of military academies, or if a kid graduates from Sidwell, St. Albans or Wilson. I don't see more kids getting in from the DC independents than Wilson (although kids from high-powered suburban magnets like Blair in Silver Spring and Thomas Jefferson in Alexandria seem to have an edge). But sometimes I interview kids on the phone, kids who live in cities where few graduates of my school reside, like Minneapolis, and Honolulu and Tuscon. These kids can get in with academic records that wouldn't fly for a DC applicant by a long shot. I've seen DC applicants who've taken 9 AP classes, and received all 5s on the their tests get shot down. I've seen valedictorian kids with perfect SAT scores who published op-ed pieces in the Post and did research at NIH get rejected. But from Honolulu, they sometimes get in with 4 or 5 AP classes and SATs in the 600s under their belts (and there are not low-income minority kids). Take it from me, applying to college from DC, the country's second toughest applicant pool, hurts your kids chances of admisssion - the type of the school, the name of the school, doesn't change that.

So what? This has been the case even when I went to college, 20+ yrs ago. At the Ivy I attended, there were a boatload of kids from the DC metro area just the same. My DH and I both interviews students for our respective schools, both Ivies, when we lived in NYC and while very few of the ones we interviewed got in, there are boatloads of kids from NYC at those schools too.

[Anonymous]

What kids need to succeed is a core group of motivated peers and a strong AP or IB program. Wilson has that. Like Poster 22:02, I've been pretty involved with admissions from the DC area to my alma mater ( an Ivy). Wilson produces strong candidates, and the only applicant I've ever seen whom we could characterize as a once-in-a-generation intelligence came out of Wilson. Parents in Ward 3 who aren't shelling out for private also have disposable income for enrichment/depth in extracurriculars.

That said, as previous posters have noted, if your kid isn't a self-starter or needs hand-holding, a large school may not be the way to go. I've certainly interviewed kids from the Big 3 (4?) who had lower test scores and less challenging courseloads than the top ten or fifteen kids from my garden variety public school in the 80's. These kids aren't going Ivy, but I'm not sure what they would have done in a large school. If your kids goes with the flow, maybe you need to be more careful about where the flow is heading than the parents of self-starters.

[Anonymous]

Good point that it's just as hard to get into a top college from St. Albans, Sidwell etc. as for Wilson these days. Far too many affluent parents around the city seem to think the opposite is true.

[Anonymous]

Apply to Latin. Our kid is having an amazing freshman year. No lie. Very satisfied. We know very satisfied families at Wilson and Walls too. Duke Ellington? Banneker? Too many options to go private, unless there is something there that is absolutely right for your kid? Perhaps religious instruction? Nationally ranked sports team? (I'm offering that respectfully; nothing wrong with seeking that if its a BIG part of what your child needs to have an amazing HS experience). Personally, an AMAZING HS experience should be the goal. I think a healthy college experience, young adulthood kind of naturally follows in most cases.

[Anonymous]

Am I assuming the top-students at the other comprehensive high-schools are not getting into their colleges of choice? I would beg to differ.

[Anonymous]

You're begging to differ with your own assumption?

I'm confused

[Anonymous]

I think the point is that there are no guarantees about where your kids will get in based on if they attend public or private high school. The top-tier colleges are incredibly difficult to get into. And if you dig deeper into the selection process at some of the top schools, you learn that it is completely out of your control. I was convinced of this after listening to the NPR story on the Amherst undergrad selection process. Being put in the "yes" pile could come down to something as silly as word choice in your essay. I think the approach to take is what 19:53 says. Focus on finding an amazing HS experience for your kid where they can start to find and develop their passions.

[Anonymous]

Nicely said!!! Couldn't have said I better.

[Anonymous]

I beg to differ because my child is at Harvard and his high school was of the same caliber like Ballou. To the previous poster they are correct in regards to the college/university process. My case Yale and Columbia said no but Harvard and Princeton said yes. Locally GW said no but Georgetown said yes.

[Anonymous]

GDS is essentially Wilson with tuition. $35K incl various fees. It's an absurd school.

[Anonymous]

08:20. That is so true it's not even funny.

[Anonymous]

No doubt about it. If your child can get into a school like GDS and STA then send your child there. Don't go to Wilson if you have other options because your child will definitely succeed at schools like GDS STA and the others you mentioned.

[Anonymous]

You could take the $140,000 you plan to use for private HS and invest it for the kid's future - a pre-funded retirement plan, travel abroad, a down payment on a condo after they graduate. If they are young enough, who needs college? They could live off the interest!
I went to private HS and no question it was a great education, but I was on scholarship. My parents were only able to pay a few hundred dollars a month, so that's what they did. All I am saying is if your kid looks at Wilson or Latin or Banneker, and thinks they would be happy there, you can use that money to help them in other ways down the line.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In a few years, DS will be choosing a high school. We have the money set aside to do private, and DH and I went to highly competitive private schools ourselves. Highly. Stress factories that send 1/3 of the graduates to an Ivy, if you catch my meaning.

I'm intrigued by the idea of Wilson H.S. even though I know they won't send DS to Beijing on a luxury summer to "study culture" the way one of the above-named schools will. I know for certain that kids like DS from Ward 3 and then wind up at Oberlin, UW-Madison, Columbia U. and McGill.

But what about the intervening 4 years? I assume that if Kid X get admitted to Columbia, SOMEthing really good happened between the walls of Wilson during his time there, right? Do you personally know any teens well from Ward 3 who attend Wilson now, and if so, what do they think? ( I know, long shot since al our kids are 7 or younger ....)

You'll probably get a fuller answer if you post the same question to the private schools forum. I think you can expect them to be just as convinced of the superiority of their choice(s), as it would appear that parents are here.

You ask in the public schools forum, you can guess in advance which way the wind will blow. And, vice versa, of course.

[Anonymous]

I'm doing a project as to why Obama should send his kids to a DCPS and randomly came across this thread.

Definitely send your children to Wilson, It'll be better for them in 50000 different ways. I graduated from Wilson two years ago and now go to the University of Texas in Austin, one of the best universities in the country. Those years at will always be some of the best and most memorable in my life. Not only will you save money for their college fund, your kids will learn valuable life lessons they will never while sheltered at a private school.

It also doesn't hurt that Wilson stomps on all of them at many of the main sports.