DCPS Selective HSs: What to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Everybody in the thread invested in the DCI boosterism sidetrack should read pages 10-13 of the DCI 24-25 Annual report detailing student performance ( https://dcinternationalschool.org/organizational-transparency/ ) and look at the 8th grade Science CAPE results (19% meets/exceeds, 46 out of 246 students).

Setting aside Walls for STEM, the real choice may be between DCI and homeschooling with a few Museum of the Bible field trips to learn about evolution.

If you're on DCUM, your kid will obviously be one of the 46, so who cares? DCI isn't a selective school, so this doesn't really mean anything.

[Anonymous]

If applying to colleges is your main focus, it's much easier to compete against 46 students for the top colleges than it is to compete against 246.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Everybody in the thread invested in the DCI boosterism sidetrack should read pages 10-13 of the DCI 24-25 Annual report detailing student performance ( https://dcinternationalschool.org/organizational-transparency/ ) and look at the 8th grade Science CAPE results (19% meets/exceeds, 46 out of 246 students).

Setting aside Walls for STEM, the real choice may be between DCI and homeschooling with a few Museum of the Bible field trips to learn about evolution.

Ya. Choosing DCI for STEM kids is not a completely rational decision in middle school, though maybe they correct themselves during high school. The robotics team aside, their science scores and science olympiad performance makes it seem like some science education is lacking. It's great that a few kids are doing robotics though.

You can take the same courses offered at walls for the most serious students as a freshman and sophomore at DCI.

Rational arguments are hard to stomach when you just hate being black and brown kids succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Everybody in the thread invested in the DCI boosterism sidetrack should read pages 10-13 of the DCI 24-25 Annual report detailing student performance ( https://dcinternationalschool.org/organizational-transparency/ ) and look at the 8th grade Science CAPE results (19% meets/exceeds, 46 out of 246 students).

Setting aside Walls for STEM, the real choice may be between DCI and homeschooling with a few Museum of the Bible field trips to learn about evolution.

Why do Walls families continue to try to put down DCI and present things out of context text? It’s so tiring.

I looked at above and the ELA and Math scores for the school for 4 and above is high for a non-selective school.

As to the science, that is actually pretty good where many middle schools in DC the percentages are single digits. Also if you look at Deal their number is only 30% considering how much lower wealthier the families and lower at risk kids.

DCI is doing a good job educating kids in this town.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Everybody in the thread invested in the DCI boosterism sidetrack should read pages 10-13 of the DCI 24-25 Annual report detailing student performance ( https://dcinternationalschool.org/organizational-transparency/ ) and look at the 8th grade Science CAPE results (19% meets/exceeds, 46 out of 246 students).

Setting aside Walls for STEM, the real choice may be between DCI and homeschooling with a few Museum of the Bible field trips to learn about evolution.

Why do Walls families continue to try to put down DCI and present things out of context text? It’s so tiring.

I looked at above and the ELA and Math scores for the school for 4 and above is high for a non-selective school.

As to the science, that is actually pretty good where many middle schools in DC the percentages are single digits. Also if you look at Deal their number is only 30% considering how much lower wealthier the families and lower at risk kids.

DCI is doing a good job educating kids in this town.

This. Brookland middle, IB for lots of familias, science is only 1.6%. Huge difference and at least the school still has kids take standardized science tests so know where they stand and can place kids appropriately. Also good info for parents.

You can’t say same of DCPS which has completely stopped testing in science. I hear the new Amplify science curriculum they have implemented is terrible too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Come on, they were not just mentioning Walls STEM offerings and asking about robotics. People would answer questions about both and it turned into “what robotics competition, otherwise there is no team”. This is not about boosting Walls, it’s about putting thr school down to boost dci.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Come on, they were not just mentioning Walls STEM offerings and asking about robotics. People would answer questions about both and it turned into “what robotics competition, otherwise there is no team”. This is not about boosting Walls, it’s about putting thr school down to boost dci.

Did you even read that section? No one said what you put in quotes. And multi posters were questioning about the STEM offerings at Walls with no mention that they were from DCI.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Come on, they were not just mentioning Walls STEM offerings and asking about robotics. People would answer questions about both and it turned into “what robotics competition, otherwise there is no team”. This is not about boosting Walls, it’s about putting thr school down to boost dci.

Did you even read that section? No one said what you put in quotes. And multi posters were questioning about the STEM offerings at Walls with no mention that they were from DCI.

Reread the thread. There were lots of comments about Walls not having a robotics team, no STEM ECs, etc. Even after those claims were refuted the question was “what competition did they go to? Why can’t Walls parents give a straight answer?”

I’m not a Walls booster but people were just listing untrue things about the school and doubling down. Go back and re-read the thread.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Come on, they were not just mentioning Walls STEM offerings and asking about robotics. People would answer questions about both and it turned into “what robotics competition, otherwise there is no team”. This is not about boosting Walls, it’s about putting thr school down to boost dci.

Did you even read that section? No one said what you put in quotes. And multi posters were questioning about the STEM offerings at Walls with no mention that they were from DCI.

You’re responding to two different PPs who both remember it the same way FWIW. Also, there are constantly aggressive DCI boosters on this site who are always looking to put down other schools. Walls has been the target recently. For awhile it was Latin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Come on, they were not just mentioning Walls STEM offerings and asking about robotics. People would answer questions about both and it turned into “what robotics competition, otherwise there is no team”. This is not about boosting Walls, it’s about putting thr school down to boost dci.

Did you even read that section? No one said what you put in quotes. And multi posters were questioning about the STEM offerings at Walls with no mention that they were from DCI.

Reread the thread. There were lots of comments about Walls not having a robotics team, no STEM ECs, etc. Even after those claims were refuted the question was “what competition did they go to? Why can’t Walls parents give a straight answer?”

I’m not a Walls booster but people were just listing untrue things about the school and doubling down. Go back and re-read the thread.

Why do Walls families continue to put things out of context to serve their agenda?

I did re-read the thread. Someone posted the list of No’s that they thought and ASKED Walls families to update or correct. Then someone said Walls had a robotics team which no one refuted but asked what competition? No one answered that so it was asked if the team did not compete then what do they do? Way towards the end of the thread was the answer given that they do compete.

As to the “straight answer”, a Walls parent wrote they had science labs and internships. Then people asked where are the lab classrooms and what internships did the school offer? Not one Walls parent who posted other things on this thread answer this question. Not one for pages and why the “straight answer” question. It turns out, no there are no lab classrooms at the school and no the school does offer students any summer internships or is there an application for such.

Lastly, in none of these pages did DCI come up or anything about DCI until someone posted a racist remark about the DCI robotics tram.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are Walls parents so insecure?? It’s a well known fact that Walls is not a STEM school and is a humanities school. And that is OK. Every school has its strengths and weaknesses.

Starting the smug post above is really a poor showing for the Walls crowd.

No dog in this fight, but I SO disagree. DCI boostering on here is insane. The latest has been "Walls doesn't even have a Robotics team, I don't care if PP claims their kid is on it" and "Walls teams sucks and DCI's is amazing, who would ever send their STEM kids to Walls?" So the Walls parent comes along and is like, look, both teams exist and did comparably -- if not very well -- at the first tournament. The only reason this is even relevant is the crazy and constant DCI boostering. DCI seems like a perfectly good place to send kids, but they NEED it to be better than Walls and they need everyone to agree with them. Most people don't, so they get sad.

No, I’ve been following this thread from the get go and no one said anything you wrote in quotes above.

There was no boosting but a family stated that they were not considering Walls because it did not offer certain STEM courses. Then there were so many pages and pages of Walls families coming on saying this and that about the school and STEM offerings. Questions were then asked about specifics, one of which was about the robotics competition which did not get answered until way later on.

I suggest you re-read the thread. It wasn’t about DCI boosting but more about Walls families trying to justify as to why if you have a STEM kid, you can send your kid there.

Come on, they were not just mentioning Walls STEM offerings and asking about robotics. People would answer questions about both and it turned into “what robotics competition, otherwise there is no team”. This is not about boosting Walls, it’s about putting thr school down to boost dci.

Did you even read that section? No one said what you put in quotes. And multi posters were questioning about the STEM offerings at Walls with no mention that they were from DCI.

Reread the thread. There were lots of comments about Walls not having a robotics team, no STEM ECs, etc. Even after those claims were refuted the question was “what competition did they go to? Why can’t Walls parents give a straight answer?”

I’m not a Walls booster but people were just listing untrue things about the school and doubling down. Go back and re-read the thread.

Why do Walls families continue to put things out of context to serve their agenda?

I did re-read the thread. Someone posted the list of No’s that they thought and ASKED Walls families to update or correct. Then someone said Walls had a robotics team which no one refuted but asked what competition? No one answered that so it was asked if the team did not compete then what do they do? Way towards the end of the thread was the answer given that they do compete.

As to the “straight answer”, a Walls parent wrote they had science labs and internships. Then people asked where are the lab classrooms and what internships did the school offer? Not one Walls parent who posted other things on this thread answer this question. Not one for pages and why the “straight answer” question. It turns out, no there are no lab classrooms at the school and no the school does offer students any summer internships or is there an application for such.

Lastly, in none of these pages did DCI come up or anything about DCI until someone posted a racist remark about the DCI robotics tram.

typo team

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

For Walls, ECs don't matter at all for admissions, per Walls staff during the school open house.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

For Walls, ECs don't matter at all for admissions, per Walls staff during the school open house.

Agree and grades are only 10% and they don’t look at what courses you took at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

For Walls, ECs don't matter at all for admissions, per Walls staff during the school open house.

+1. Something that does matter is the interview.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

For Walls, ECs don't matter at all for admissions, per Walls staff during the school open house.

+1. Something that does matter is the interview.

And it seems like ECs matter for the interview -- it was definitely one of the things my kid talked about during hers.

What I will say is that the kids we know who got into Walls this year, ours included, were smart kids with good grades and a variety of serious ECs. (If I were betting, they all had good CAPE scores even if those weren't considered.) As were many of the kids we know who *didn't* get in. There are more smart, engaged kids in DC than spots at Walls, which is unfortunate. There is obviously luck involved.

Also, as to "what courses you took," my kid literally had no choice about what classes to take at Deal. There aren't any electives. You test in 6th grade for math placement. That's it. There's no honors English or whatever. Maybe other MSes are different, but a lot of kids come from Deal, and those kids aren't choosing their class rigor.