Timing of Interview/Essay High Schools?

[Anonymous]

*rubric

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if Walls will (once again) change the amount of weight given to teacher recs.

They follow a rubic. Why do you think they would change it now? There is a lot of weight given to teacher recs. That’s just the facts.

Because they have before--without telling teachers. Maybe you would word your recommendation differently if you knew that it was going to be the deciding factor in a student's application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if Walls will (once again) change the amount of weight given to teacher recs.

They follow a rubic. Why do you think they would change it now? There is a lot of weight given to teacher recs. That’s just the facts.

Because they have before--without telling teachers. Maybe you would word your recommendation differently if you knew that it was going to be the deciding factor in a student's application.

From my understanding, teacher recs is the deciding factor to getting an interview. Is it not? After meeting the GPA threshold, the teacher recs carry so much weight that it is absolutely the differentiator.

[Anonymous]

When was the interview for Walls last year? I’m hoping it won’t conflict with the Deal language trips …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:When was the interview for Walls last year? I’m hoping it won’t conflict with the Deal language trips …

According to the SWW website for 2025:
The School Without Walls (SWW) in Washington, D.C. has student and parent interviews on Saturday, February 22 and Saturday, March 1, 2025.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:When was the interview for Walls last year? I’m hoping it won’t conflict with the Deal language trips …

According to the SWW website for 2025:
The School Without Walls (SWW) in Washington, D.C. has student and parent interviews on Saturday, February 22 and Saturday, March 1, 2025.

Walls has had these dates posted for awhile now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder if Walls will (once again) change the amount of weight given to teacher recs.

They follow a rubic. Why do you think they would change it now? There is a lot of weight given to teacher recs. That’s just the facts.

Because they have before--without telling teachers. Maybe you would word your recommendation differently if you knew that it was going to be the deciding factor in a student's application.

From my understanding, teacher recs is the deciding factor to getting an interview. Is it not? After meeting the GPA threshold, the teacher recs carry so much weight that it is absolutely the differentiator.

The first time this was true (teacher recs as the threshold vs. a straight cutoff using the highest GPAs) was last year. IIRC, Walls didn't even ask for teacher recs as part of the process before last year. And then right out of the gate, they were the most important thing.

[Anonymous]

Exactly. So our best information is that they still are, but we have no reason to believe that they won't shuffle the deck again as they've done before.

[Anonymous]

Just noting that SWW's (vague) rubric is available here: https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/201

[Anonymous]

My kid applied to Walls. She's at a DC private right now. From what I understand, they're to working to reduce homogenization of the student population. And, from what I gather, this process of so much weight on recs and interview + essay is meant to account for differences in educational resources, recognize different strengths and learning styles, mitigate bias and privilege in standardized testing, encourage holistic review and individual growth, and reduce the risk of a narrow, one-size-fits-all selection process.

It feels like what we've experienced during various private school admissions processes. No idea if my kid will get an interview and acceptance, but we're really, really hoping she will -- just like all the other thousands of kids + their families are probably doing right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid applied to Walls. She's at a DC private right now. From what I understand, they're to working to reduce homogenization of the student population. And, from what I gather, this process of so much weight on recs and interview + essay is meant to account for differences in educational resources, recognize different strengths and learning styles, mitigate bias and privilege in standardized testing, encourage holistic review and individual growth, and reduce the risk of a narrow, one-size-fits-all selection process.

It feels like what we've experienced during various private school admissions processes. No idea if my kid will get an interview and acceptance, but we're really, really hoping she will -- just like all the other thousands of kids + their families are probably doing right now.

Thank you for this. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The first time this was true (teacher recs as the threshold vs. a straight cutoff using the highest GPAs) was last year. IIRC, Walls didn't even ask for teacher recs as part of the process before last year. And then right out of the gate, they were the most important thing.

I’m genuinely curious. What would you have done differently if you had known that the teacher’s recs were weighted the way they were?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We just got notification that Ellington auditions are Feb 10 - 13. Not all recs are in yet, so I'm glad that they still included my kid in the audition schedule.

The dates for Ellington's auditions (https://www.ellingtonarts.org/admissions-schedule-and-procedure) and the pre-audition workshops (https://www.ellingtonarts.org/open-house-and-workshops) are usually posted in December on the Admissions section of their website.

All applicants have to audition.
They invite back some of those who audition for callbacks. I think call backs are for those who they are seriously considering (but not 100% certain if it's that vs those who they need to see more of to make a decision).

For those who they are seriously considering, they invite you to the family interview.

[Anonymous]

In the past, McKinley has done waves of interview invites through early March at least.

Walls in the past has sent invites to interview early in the week of the 1st interview date. They order applicants based on GPA & score from teacher recs, then cut at the number they plan to interview. So if they plan to interview 400, the top 400 of that ranked list get an invite (I'm not sure how many they are interviewing this year, assume 300-500). https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY25-26_26-27_SWW_Admissions_Process_Rubric_FINAL_0.pdf
They usually send the interview invites out in 1 batch vs in waves. With the teacher rec deadline extended to 2/14, would expect to see invites go out early next week.
For offers, Walls puts applicants in order by final score based on the above rubric and offers are given in order on list until all seats available are matched. The order of the remaining students on the list is the order for the WL (some will drop off if admitted to schools they ranked higher).

Banneker sets a threshhold score for the interview/onsite writing prompt (12 of 15 points) that anyone who scores at least 12 is given an offer. Those who score below 12 might get an offer based on their total score (interview/writing prompt + GPA + teacher recs + appl essay). https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY25-26_26-27_Banneker_Admission_Process_Rubric_FINAL.pdf

McKinley ranks all eligible applicants (GPA at least 3.0) by cumulative score
https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY25-26_26-27_MTHS_Admissions_Process_Rubric_FINAL_0.pdf
In the past they've had more avail lottery seats than # of matches, so there's a good chance if the applicant meets criteria to be invited for interview that they will be offered a seat if they rank McK Tech first or don't match at any schools they've ranked higher in their application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the past, McKinley has done waves of interview invites through early March at least.

Walls in the past has sent invites to interview early in the week of the 1st interview date. They order applicants based on GPA & score from teacher recs, then cut at the number they plan to interview. So if they plan to interview 400, the top 400 of that ranked list get an invite (I'm not sure how many they are interviewing this year, assume 300-500). https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY25-26_26-27_SWW_Admissions_Process_Rubric_FINAL_0.pdf
They usually send the interview invites out in 1 batch vs in waves. With the teacher rec deadline extended to 2/14, would expect to see invites go out early next week.
For offers, Walls puts applicants in order by final score based on the above rubric and offers are given in order on list until all seats available are matched. The order of the remaining students on the list is the order for the WL (some will drop off if admitted to schools they ranked higher).

Banneker sets a threshhold score for the interview/onsite writing prompt (12 of 15 points) that anyone who scores at least 12 is given an offer. Those who score below 12 might get an offer based on their total score (interview/writing prompt + GPA + teacher recs + appl essay). https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY25-26_26-27_Banneker_Admission_Process_Rubric_FINAL.pdf

McKinley ranks all eligible applicants (GPA at least 3.0) by cumulative score
https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/sites/dcpsenrollment/files/page_content/attachments/SY25-26_26-27_MTHS_Admissions_Process_Rubric_FINAL_0.pdf
In the past they've had more avail lottery seats than # of matches, so there's a good chance if the applicant meets criteria to be invited for interview that they will be offered a seat if they rank McK Tech first or don't match at any schools they've ranked higher in their application.

This is the most useful high school application info yet! Appreciate it.