SWW - when do notices go out about interviews?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the letter of recommendation didn’t meet the threshold for an interview and essay submittal opportunity in which he might of been able to share some of who he is and what he has accomplished. Following is some of what I wrote to his school OA & Walls:

“Something doesn’t seem fair and this just isn’t a parent complaining and trying to make him better than he is. My son is a well rounded student, vast international travel experience, trilingual, ( English, Spanish, Chinese), multi cultural parents/ family, climbed to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro at age 13, achieved a green belt in karate at 11, developing into a strong and able soccer player, has had a high lexile reading/ comprehension score since 4th grade reading then at 11 grade level and now at 12 grade level; he has always performed well in math, high spelling bee placements over the years , he plays piano superbly and is a good singer and performed in several talents shows, has been in the school musical, at a young age he has produced some incredible color animes figures. He is and has been in the OA swim team the last 2 years as well as the soccer team this year. He has the uncanny personality that allows him to have a wide range off different type of friends and relate well to them all. He is a good friend to many and is always willing to help and truly would of been an asset to Walls which offered a more intimate and demanding educational opportunity and environment to achieve his potential .”
Acceptance as difficult as it is, is in the works.
Thanks for reading.

All this does is reek of privilege. I understand that you and your child are disappointed but perhaps you should consider this an opportunity to humble yourself. It just seems that you've built a resume for a middle schooler and are now pissed that everything you wanted isn't what you're going to get. You've tried to really stick it to them, but more than likely an email like this will elicit gratitute for avoiding another set of delusional parents.

This. OP, you really need to look at what you've written more objectively. It's not just about having high scores and high intelligence, it's what you do with those things. What you've described is a kid who has a good grades, is bright, tests well, plays piano and does some sports, and has a broad friend group. But lot of what you've written here isn't an accomplishment that's relevant to high school. Karate when he was 11, so what, he doesn't do it anymore. Lots of international travel, so what? Having wealthy parents who like to take him places is not an accomplishment *for him*, even if it's an accomplishment for *you*. Doing some anime drawings and having an ear for singing, being in a musical are nice things, but they're also not that big a deal. Lots of kids are in the musical. Lots of kids are on a sports team.

Speaking three languages is nice, but I notice you don't say how well. Unless he's really quite fluent and reads and writes the languages too, I don't see what's here to really set him apart from other high-income kids in the applicant pool. And I think that might be the reason he didn't get picked. We all acknowledge it's basically a crapshoot among the kids who have 4.0 or close to it, and either he just didn't get lucky, or he lacks a specific focus and achievement and other kids had something more compelling.

[Anonymous]

😂😂

[Anonymous]

Seems like with all the walls rejections of highly qualified kids DCPS could easily replicate the experience you describe at another campus or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes abundantly clear that DC is operating in a scarcity mindset when it comes to high-achieving high schools. We need to transition to an abundance mindset. We need more academically challenging HS programs. Perhaps they should make another Walls campus (or two).

No. This is not it at all. Dcps is all about offering “challenging” classes to kids who are ill prepared. The problem
Is that dcps does not like to let a critical mass of high performers cluster at one school. As it is there are not enough students prepared for what dcps wants to offer. These kids try to congregate at a place like walls and dcps does its best to dilute.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
Seems like with all the walls rejections of highly qualified kids DCPS could easily replicate the experience you describe at another campus or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes abundantly clear that DC is operating in a scarcity mindset when it comes to high-achieving high schools. We need to transition to an abundance mindset. We need more academically challenging HS programs. Perhaps they should make another Walls campus (or two).

No. This is not it at all. Dcps is all about offering “challenging” classes to kids who are ill prepared. The problem
Is that dcps does not like to let a critical mass of high performers cluster at one school. As it is there are not enough students prepared for what dcps wants to offer. These kids try to congregate at a place like walls and dcps does its best to dilute.

It's called MacArthur.

Maybe the year Latin Cooper offers 9th grade will be a little easier. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Seems like with all the walls rejections of highly qualified kids DCPS could easily replicate the experience you describe at another campus or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes abundantly clear that DC is operating in a scarcity mindset when it comes to high-achieving high schools. We need to transition to an abundance mindset. We need more academically challenging HS programs. Perhaps they should make another Walls campus (or two).

No. This is not it at all. Dcps is all about offering “challenging” classes to kids who are ill prepared. The problem
Is that dcps does not like to let a critical mass of high performers cluster at one school. As it is there are not enough students prepared for what dcps wants to offer. These kids try to congregate at a place like walls and dcps does its best to dilute.

It's called MacArthur.

Maybe the year Latin Cooper offers 9th grade will be a little easier. Sigh.

Umm....I wonder if there is a school with a new building on 9th St NW that can accommodate 2x the students that SWW can...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Unfortunately the letter of recommendation didn’t meet the threshold for an interview and essay submittal opportunity in which he might of been able to share some of who he is and what he has accomplished. Following is some of what I wrote to his school OA & Walls:

“Something doesn’t seem fair and this just isn’t a parent complaining and trying to make him better than he is. My son is a well rounded student, vast international travel experience, trilingual, ( English, Spanish, Chinese), multi cultural parents/ family, climbed to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro at age 13, achieved a green belt in karate at 11, developing into a strong and able soccer player, has had a high lexile reading/ comprehension score since 4th grade reading then at 11 grade level and now at 12 grade level; he has always performed well in math, high spelling bee placements over the years , he plays piano superbly and is a good singer and performed in several talents shows, has been in the school musical, at a young age he has produced some incredible color animes figures. He is and has been in the OA swim team the last 2 years as well as the soccer team this year. He has the uncanny personality that allows him to have a wide range off different type of friends and relate well to them all. He is a good friend to many and is always willing to help and truly would of been an asset to Walls which offered a more intimate and demanding educational opportunity and environment to achieve his potential .”
Acceptance as difficult as it is, is in the works.
Thanks for reading.

All this does is reek of privilege. I understand that you and your child are disappointed but perhaps you should consider this an opportunity to humble yourself. It just seems that you've built a resume for a middle schooler and are now pissed that everything you wanted isn't what you're going to get. You've tried to really stick it to them, but more than likely an email like this will elicit gratitute for avoiding another set of delusional parents.

This. OP, you really need to look at what you've written more objectively. It's not just about having high scores and high intelligence, it's what you do with those things. What you've described is a kid who has a good grades, is bright, tests well, plays piano and does some sports, and has a broad friend group. But lot of what you've written here isn't an accomplishment that's relevant to high school. Karate when he was 11, so what, he doesn't do it anymore. Lots of international travel, so what? Having wealthy parents who like to take him places is not an accomplishment *for him*, even if it's an accomplishment for *you*. Doing some anime drawings and having an ear for singing, being in a musical are nice things, but they're also not that big a deal. Lots of kids are in the musical. Lots of kids are on a sports team.

Speaking three languages is nice, but I notice you don't say how well. Unless he's really quite fluent and reads and writes the languages too, I don't see what's here to really set him apart from other high-income kids in the applicant pool. And I think that might be the reason he didn't get picked. We all acknowledge it's basically a crapshoot among the kids who have 4.0 or close to it, and either he just didn't get lucky, or he lacks a specific focus and achievement and other kids had something more compelling.

They did not turn down this kid because they went, "oh, three languages? but you're not really fluent, so meh" or "a 12th grade reading level? that's nothing, we have 100 kids like that." They turned them down because they explicitly exclude all of that type of information from the process of determining who gets an interview. I personally do not think that karate, sports teams, or music should be criteria for getting into an academic high school. But you know what should be? Academic achievement and potential. And that's not part of it, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Seems like with all the walls rejections of highly qualified kids DCPS could easily replicate the experience you describe at another campus or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes abundantly clear that DC is operating in a scarcity mindset when it comes to high-achieving high schools. We need to transition to an abundance mindset. We need more academically challenging HS programs. Perhaps they should make another Walls campus (or two).

No. This is not it at all. Dcps is all about offering “challenging” classes to kids who are ill prepared. The problem
Is that dcps does not like to let a critical mass of high performers cluster at one school. As it is there are not enough students prepared for what dcps wants to offer. These kids try to congregate at a place like walls and dcps does its best to dilute.

It's called MacArthur.

Maybe the year Latin Cooper offers 9th grade will be a little easier. Sigh.

Umm....I wonder if there is a school with a new building on 9th St NW that can accommodate 2x the students that SWW can...

Yeah Banneker is our kid’s second choice, followed by J-R.

I wonder how this weekend’s SWW interviews went….

[Anonymous]

Hey
As a parent with an accepted child I was wondering how others interviews may have gone. The “penguin pointers” left on the email were too broad in my opinion and I was proven right after I heard about my daughter’s interview. They asked 3 questions all very simple like what’s your favorite book or movie character so obviously they wanted the students to explain. When the essay came it wasn’t even an essay it was just a one paragraph response which was relieving but also nerve wracking since their futures were decided on 10 - 20 sentences. I know that SWW is looking for a diverse community in both race and gender so my white daughter may not be as lucky as others. I guess we can only hope!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes abundantly clear that DC is operating in a scarcity mindset when it comes to high-achieving high schools. We need to transition to an abundance mindset. We need more academically challenging HS programs. Perhaps they should make another Walls campus (or two).

Nicely said. Scarcity mindset across the board -- they aren't particularly generous with kids who need academic support, either.

[Anonymous]

Banneker is great - but soon we will be hearing about smart kids who didn’t place there either. It’s also also very different from SWW. This is good - not every school should be the same.

McA is good, I suppose, though it’s strangely located in an area with an abundance of public and private choices, which is inaccessible to most of the city.

And if the big neighborhood high schools are under enrolled, get creative. Start some new programs that share the buildings.

We need more high performing HS options in more parts of DC!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Seems like with all the walls rejections of highly qualified kids DCPS could easily replicate the experience you describe at another campus or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes abundantly clear that DC is operating in a scarcity mindset when it comes to high-achieving high schools. We need to transition to an abundance mindset. We need more academically challenging HS programs. Perhaps they should make another Walls campus (or two).

No. This is not it at all. Dcps is all about offering “challenging” classes to kids who are ill prepared. The problem
Is that dcps does not like to let a critical mass of high performers cluster at one school. As it is there are not enough students prepared for what dcps wants to offer. These kids try to congregate at a place like walls and dcps does its best to dilute.

It's called MacArthur.

Maybe the year Latin Cooper offers 9th grade will be a little easier. Sigh.

Umm....I wonder if there is a school with a new building on 9th St NW that can accommodate 2x the students that SWW can...

Yeah Banneker is our kid’s second choice, followed by J-R.

I wonder how this weekend’s SWW interviews went….

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Banneker is great - but soon we will be hearing about smart kids who didn’t place there either. It’s also also very different from SWW. This is good - not every school should be the same.

McA is good, I suppose, though it’s strangely located in an area with an abundance of public and private choices, which is inaccessible to most of the city.

And if the big neighborhood high schools are under enrolled, get creative. Start some new programs that share the buildings.

We need more high performing HS options in more parts of DC!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
Seems like with all the walls rejections of highly qualified kids DCPS could easily replicate the experience you describe at another campus or two.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thread makes abundantly clear that DC is operating in a scarcity mindset when it comes to high-achieving high schools. We need to transition to an abundance mindset. We need more academically challenging HS programs. Perhaps they should make another Walls campus (or two).

No. This is not it at all. Dcps is all about offering “challenging” classes to kids who are ill prepared. The problem
Is that dcps does not like to let a critical mass of high performers cluster at one school. As it is there are not enough students prepared for what dcps wants to offer. These kids try to congregate at a place like walls and dcps does its best to dilute.

It's called MacArthur.

Maybe the year Latin Cooper offers 9th grade will be a little easier. Sigh.

Umm....I wonder if there is a school with a new building on 9th St NW that can accommodate 2x the students that SWW can...

Yeah Banneker is our kid’s second choice, followed by J-R.

I wonder how this weekend’s SWW interviews went….

You mean like the early college program at Coolidge and the IB program at Eastern?

DCPS doesn’t lack for ideas for new college-prep pathways. It lacks for established college-prep pathways. And you can’t just start up an established program.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hey
As a parent with an accepted child I was wondering how others interviews may have gone. The “penguin pointers” left on the email were too broad in my opinion and I was proven right after I heard about my daughter’s interview. They asked 3 questions all very simple like what’s your favorite book or movie character so obviously they wanted the students to explain. When the essay came it wasn’t even an essay it was just a one paragraph response which was relieving but also nerve wracking since their futures were decided on 10 - 20 sentences. I know that SWW is looking for a diverse community in both race and gender so my white daughter may not be as lucky as others. I guess we can only hope!

A 3-question interview and a 1-paragraph essay….

Seems par for the course.

[Anonymous]

Any good girls soccer players in the mix/interviewing? Last year Walls had a great team, but will be losing a couple of key seniors - so hoping for some strong incoming freshmen!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hey
As a parent with an accepted child I was wondering how others interviews may have gone. The “penguin pointers” left on the email were too broad in my opinion and I was proven right after I heard about my daughter’s interview. They asked 3 questions all very simple like what’s your favorite book or movie character so obviously they wanted the students to explain. When the essay came it wasn’t even an essay it was just a one paragraph response which was relieving but also nerve wracking since their futures were decided on 10 - 20 sentences. I know that SWW is looking for a diverse community in both race and gender so my white daughter may not be as lucky as others. I guess we can only hope!

A 3-question interview and a 1-paragraph essay….

Seems par for the course.

And this is how they winnow out over half of the interviewees.

[Anonymous]

MY KID CLIMBED KILIMANJARO