Walls- Is it really as great as people say

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If all you care about are Ivies (but not Cornell and Penn) please just do yourself a favor and send your kid to private school. Walls will never send more than a few kids to each Ivy a year.

No one is getting into an Ivy from the top privates anymore unless their parent(s) went to the Ivy AND they (the parents) are VIPS or big donors. And maybe the very top two kids in the class. Maybe. (and that--(being the top kid)--is an incredible feat of talent and luck).
It's much easier to get into an Ivy unhooked in 2023 from Walls than it is from Sidwell or similar.

Signed, a private school parent who has been watching this play out up close.

If this is true, it's a huge relief for our family (legacy, but neither private school nor meaningful giving in our budget). We're counting on DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Same is true for Wilson….

Great. Who said this thread was about JR?

[Anonymous]

PP again and some of us don’t live in boundary for JR. So the constant comparison just doesn’t mean much.

[Anonymous]

My kid is new at Walls. My observations are that the teachers are generally very good (I am in higher ed myself), the kids are very independent, motivated, and organized. My kid does miss the lack of a campus.

[Anonymous]

It’s only “great” as compared to the other DCPS high schools. And with a cherry-picked cohort of on-grade, motivated kids it should be the best HS in DC. But, it would really only be considered a normal, average school in most upper middle class suburbs.

[Anonymous]

Does Walls admit kids with IEPs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s only “great” as compared to the other DCPS high schools. And with a cherry-picked cohort of on-grade, motivated kids it should be the best HS in DC. But, it would really only be considered a normal, average school in most upper middle class suburbs.

DCPS for whatever reason has decided that their application schools will be "better" than comprehensive schools, but not even close to the magnet programs in the area.

If you look at TJ, it of course pulls the best-and-brightest, but also provides the best facilities/resources of any public school in NoVa and offers courses and activities that none of the NoVA publich HSs come close to matching. Walls arguably has some of the worst facilities, or more accurately no facilities.

That said, Walls is also an outlier for the area. I am not aware of any non-STEM magnet schools in our area. Walls definitely offers STEM classes, but it is not the reason for its existence like TJ, Blair Magnet, Poolesville Magnet, etc.

I know Walls had a very progressive reason for its existence when it was founded. It was supposed to incorporate experiential learning as core to the process...i.e., we are learning about US Government, let's go to the US Capitol right now and see Congress in action...it was supposed to be a School Without Walls. It is now a very traditional school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s only “great” as compared to the other DCPS high schools. And with a cherry-picked cohort of on-grade, motivated kids it should be the best HS in DC. But, it would really only be considered a normal, average school in most upper middle class suburbs.

I don't think this is true - your "normal, average" school, even in an upper middle class suburb, is going to have plenty of not particularly bright and/or disruptive kids. Walls biggest strength is the (almost) uniformly high-achieving cohort. The disruptive kids have been (for the most part) weeded out (I think disruptive kids have a hard time achieving a 3.9 GPA (application cut off last year) in middle school, even if they are super bright). So Walls is chock full of high-achieving kids who want to get straight As and who toe the line, for the most part. Probably why lots of teachers want to teach there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s only “great” as compared to the other DCPS high schools. And with a cherry-picked cohort of on-grade, motivated kids it should be the best HS in DC. But, it would really only be considered a normal, average school in most upper middle class suburbs.

I don't think this is true - your "normal, average" school, even in an upper middle class suburb, is going to have plenty of not particularly bright and/or disruptive kids. Walls biggest strength is the (almost) uniformly high-achieving cohort. The disruptive kids have been (for the most part) weeded out (I think disruptive kids have a hard time achieving a 3.9 GPA (application cut off last year) in middle school, even if they are super bright). So Walls is chock full of high-achieving kids who want to get straight As and who toe the line, for the most part. Probably why lots of teachers want to teach there.

+1

I’ve taught at “normal, average” schools in suburbs. They aren’t all Potomac. Lots of disruptive kids, kids who are absent a lot, don’t care about school. The difference is at many of those schools they offer honors or AP classes so those kids are all grouped in the nonhonors classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If all you care about are Ivies (but not Cornell and Penn) please just do yourself a favor and send your kid to private school. Walls will never send more than a few kids to each Ivy a year.

No one is getting into an Ivy from the top privates anymore unless their parent(s) went to the Ivy AND they (the parents) are VIPS or big donors. And maybe the very top two kids in the class. Maybe. (and that--(being the top kid)--is an incredible feat of talent and luck).
It's much easier to get into an Ivy unhooked in 2023 from Walls than it is from Sidwell or similar.

Signed, a private school parent who has been watching this play out up close.

Andover and Exeter seem to be doing ok...

1)I was talking about the DC privates
2)The vast majority of the Andover and Exeter Ivy admits are hooked: URM, legacy, recruited athletes. I'm talking unhooked kids.

Are you suggesting that Sidwell et al aren't hooked up? Have the decency to slink away into the corner.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My observation of watching the friends of my three kids who went to Lafayette ES and Deal MS, all of whom graduated over the last 7 years: there is no observable difference in the overall patterns of where the Walls vs Wilson (now Jackson Reed) went to colleges. Mix of selective, highly selective, and elite colleges, both public and private. The handful of kids that went to Ivies from both schools were legacies and/or athletes. Pretty much the pattern you'd expect.

Those who went from Deal to private high schools probably were more likely to go to private colleges compared to the kids who went to Walls or Wilson.

My kid graduated from Walls in the last three years. Admitted to Ivy and attends there now. No hook, no legacy.

I know a bunch of Walls kids who went to Ivies over the past few years with no hook or legacy (and Stanford, Wash U, UCLA, Northwestern, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, etc.)

Yes, same.

And the Walls class of '23 college acceptances were very strong. From what I observed, that class was a particularly highly motivated group of kids.

About two dozen went to Ivies (I know one was a legacy), and a good number to other very selective schools--including
Yale
Princeton
Penn
Dartmouth
Barnard
Cornell
U Chicago
Berkeley
Stanford
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Amherst
UCLA
USC
Pomona
Pitzer
Swarthmore
Northwestern
Carnegie Mellon
Spelman
UNC Chapel Hill
Haverford
UVA
U Michigan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My observation of watching the friends of my three kids who went to Lafayette ES and Deal MS, all of whom graduated over the last 7 years: there is no observable difference in the overall patterns of where the Walls vs Wilson (now Jackson Reed) went to colleges. Mix of selective, highly selective, and elite colleges, both public and private. The handful of kids that went to Ivies from both schools were legacies and/or athletes. Pretty much the pattern you'd expect.

Those who went from Deal to private high schools probably were more likely to go to private colleges compared to the kids who went to Walls or Wilson.

My kid graduated from Walls in the last three years. Admitted to Ivy and attends there now. No hook, no legacy.

I know a bunch of Walls kids who went to Ivies over the past few years with no hook or legacy (and Stanford, Wash U, UCLA, Northwestern, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, etc.)

Yes, same.

And the Walls class of '23 college acceptances were very strong. From what I observed, that class was a particularly highly motivated group of kids.

About two dozen went to Ivies (I know one was a legacy), and a good number to other very selective schools--including
Yale
Princeton
Penn
Dartmouth
Barnard
Cornell
U Chicago
Berkeley
Stanford
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Amherst
UCLA
USC
Pomona
Pitzer
Swarthmore
Northwestern
Carnegie Mellon
Spelman
UNC Chapel Hill
Haverford
UVA
U Michigan

I agree Walls had good results...but they did not have 24 kids go to Ivies. Let's not get too crazy here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My observation of watching the friends of my three kids who went to Lafayette ES and Deal MS, all of whom graduated over the last 7 years: there is no observable difference in the overall patterns of where the Walls vs Wilson (now Jackson Reed) went to colleges. Mix of selective, highly selective, and elite colleges, both public and private. The handful of kids that went to Ivies from both schools were legacies and/or athletes. Pretty much the pattern you'd expect.

Those who went from Deal to private high schools probably were more likely to go to private colleges compared to the kids who went to Walls or Wilson.

My kid graduated from Walls in the last three years. Admitted to Ivy and attends there now. No hook, no legacy.

I know a bunch of Walls kids who went to Ivies over the past few years with no hook or legacy (and Stanford, Wash U, UCLA, Northwestern, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, etc.)

Yes, same.

And the Walls class of '23 college acceptances were very strong. From what I observed, that class was a particularly highly motivated group of kids.

About two dozen went to Ivies (I know one was a legacy), and a good number to other very selective schools--including
Yale
Princeton
Penn
Dartmouth
Barnard
Cornell
U Chicago
Berkeley
Stanford
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Amherst
UCLA
USC
Pomona
Pitzer
Swarthmore
Northwestern
Carnegie Mellon
Spelman
UNC Chapel Hill
Haverford
UVA
U Michigan

I agree Walls had good results...but they did not have 24 kids go to Ivies. Let's not get too crazy here.

Apologies, that should have been "more than a dozen." Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My observation of watching the friends of my three kids who went to Lafayette ES and Deal MS, all of whom graduated over the last 7 years: there is no observable difference in the overall patterns of where the Walls vs Wilson (now Jackson Reed) went to colleges. Mix of selective, highly selective, and elite colleges, both public and private. The handful of kids that went to Ivies from both schools were legacies and/or athletes. Pretty much the pattern you'd expect.

Those who went from Deal to private high schools probably were more likely to go to private colleges compared to the kids who went to Walls or Wilson.

My kid graduated from Walls in the last three years. Admitted to Ivy and attends there now. No hook, no legacy.

I know a bunch of Walls kids who went to Ivies over the past few years with no hook or legacy (and Stanford, Wash U, UCLA, Northwestern, Duke, Carnegie Mellon, etc.)

Yes, same.

And the Walls class of '23 college acceptances were very strong. From what I observed, that class was a particularly highly motivated group of kids.

About two dozen went to Ivies (I know one was a legacy), and a good number to other very selective schools--including
Yale
Princeton
Penn
Dartmouth
Barnard
Cornell
U Chicago
Berkeley
Stanford
Duke
Johns Hopkins
Amherst
UCLA
USC
Pomona
Pitzer
Swarthmore
Northwestern
Carnegie Mellon
Spelman
UNC Chapel Hill
Haverford
UVA
U Michigan

I agree Walls had good results...but they did not have 24 kids go to Ivies. Let's not get too crazy here.

Apologies, that should have been "more than a dozen." Thanks!

I had a student graduate from Walls last year. That class did very well for college admissions but I’m not sure if that is the norm every year or whether last year was unusual

[Anonymous]

My guess is that if you took the top 150 kids from J-R and the W schools, you'd see the same list as posted above...the point being, this is a self-selected group of kids whose performance may have little to do with the quality of Walls as a school.