Wilson/College Matriculation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM Wilson Parents - here is what you need to know: at the beginning of junior year, hire a private college counselor, and take SAT/ACt prep. classes. That will set you back about $3,000-$5,000 total - it will close any gaps between Wilson and expensive privates. No, it is not cheap - unless you compare it to the $150,000 that private school would have cost you.

Signed -

Parent of a Wilson senior.

sorry to say, but SAt prep needs to be done summer before junior year, or the psat is not going to vet your child to nmf consideration

Who really cares about NMF consideration. It's a nice honor but it doesn't confer a lot else.

First of all - as another Ivy alum, I call BS on the person's Wilson experience above. Second, DCPS's college counselor situation is very similar to other public schools - even in MoCo and in NoVa. There parents often regularly are also paying for SAT prep classes etc. If you are savvy about the college application process as parents and put the time in yourself, you don't need a college counselor - but one way or another, it does help to have some knowledge base of how it works and how to position your kid. On the flip side, you aren't in a pool like many of the privates where nearly 100% of the kids are applying to all of the same schools - and you paid $40K per year for the benefit of college counselors who end up often in a position of trying to explain that your kid is not one of the legacy or tippy top kids getting within that class getting into the Ivy slots.

NP. Yet another Ivy alum and volunteer interviewer, I call BS on you.

I recently stopped interviewing in DCPS, period, after 6 or 7 years of doing it. Wilson, Walls, Banneker, you guys can have them all. Mediocre is too tame a word for each of these programs where prepping the strongest students for college goes.

Now I stick to MoCo, NOVA and independent schools. I agree with the rest!

Please explain what the issue with DCPS students? Mediocre how?

You really want to know? For starters, many of the Wilson students who load up on AP classes clearly don't belong in AP classes, or at least not a full complement of them. There seems to be an open enrollment policy for AP classes at Wilson, which hurts the best students. It's rare to talk to a Wilson student who has scored 4s and 5s on half a dozen or more APs, unlike in the burbs, or at Walls that matter.

What I'm going to call academic extra-curricular activities aren't pushed at Wilson, from competing in regional, national and international science competitions, to essay competitions, to doing academic research and publishing, to interning at the Smithsonians, to foreign language competitions etc. This is changing, but slowly.

From what I've observed, many of the kids who crack Ivies are low SES and/or minority - the mediocrity hits high SES white kids who are strong students harder than others. It's more gratifying to interview kids, both high and low SES, who attend test-in HS programs in MoCo and NOVA, such as the Blair Montgomery magnets, the Richard Montgomery IB program and of course TJ. They have a much better shot of being offered a spot, and, presumably, thriving in college. Launch into me for my observations but I'm not the one impacted by the mediocrity. Parents tend to assume that attending a DCPS school will earn high SES white kids a "break" in elite college admissions. Not from what I've observed.

Yes, there are kids who crack Ivies at Wilson, but not a lot.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM Wilson Parents - here is what you need to know: at the beginning of junior year, hire a private college counselor, and take SAT/ACt prep. classes. That will set you back about $3,000-$5,000 total - it will close any gaps between Wilson and expensive privates. No, it is not cheap - unless you compare it to the $150,000 that private school would have cost you.

Signed -

Parent of a Wilson senior.

sorry to say, but SAt prep needs to be done summer before junior year, or the psat is not going to vet your child to nmf consideration

Who really cares about NMF consideration. It's a nice honor but it doesn't confer a lot else.

First of all - as another Ivy alum, I call BS on the person's Wilson experience above. Second, DCPS's college counselor situation is very similar to other public schools - even in MoCo and in NoVa. There parents often regularly are also paying for SAT prep classes etc. If you are savvy about the college application process as parents and put the time in yourself, you don't need a college counselor - but one way or another, it does help to have some knowledge base of how it works and how to position your kid. On the flip side, you aren't in a pool like many of the privates where nearly 100% of the kids are applying to all of the same schools - and you paid $40K per year for the benefit of college counselors who end up often in a position of trying to explain that your kid is not one of the legacy or tippy top kids getting within that class getting into the Ivy slots.

NP. Yet another Ivy alum and volunteer interviewer, I call BS on you.

I recently stopped interviewing in DCPS, period, after 6 or 7 years of doing it. Wilson, Walls, Banneker, you guys can have them all. Mediocre is too tame a word for each of these programs where prepping the strongest students for college goes.

Now I stick to MoCo, NOVA and independent schools. I agree with the rest!

Please explain what the issue with DCPS students? Mediocre how?

Yes, because clearly, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Cornell, Brown, Dartmouth, Columbia, Stanford, and 168 other colleges and universities disagree with you. But surely you know better.

The 'interviewers' don't seem to get that the alumni interview thing is a fundraising ploy by their Ivy schools to get them to feel important and give more money... and as a former admissions officer... these things are not really even looked at.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM Wilson Parents - here is what you need to know: at the beginning of junior year, hire a private college counselor, and take SAT/ACt prep. classes. That will set you back about $3,000-$5,000 total - it will close any gaps between Wilson and expensive privates. No, it is not cheap - unless you compare it to the $150,000 that private school would have cost you.

Signed -

Parent of a Wilson senior.

sorry to say, but SAt prep needs to be done summer before junior year, or the psat is not going to vet your child to nmf consideration

Who really cares about NMF consideration. It's a nice honor but it doesn't confer a lot else.

First of all - as another Ivy alum, I call BS on the person's Wilson experience above. Second, DCPS's college counselor situation is very similar to other public schools - even in MoCo and in NoVa. There parents often regularly are also paying for SAT prep classes etc. If you are savvy about the college application process as parents and put the time in yourself, you don't need a college counselor - but one way or another, it does help to have some knowledge base of how it works and how to position your kid. On the flip side, you aren't in a pool like many of the privates where nearly 100% of the kids are applying to all of the same schools - and you paid $40K per year for the benefit of college counselors who end up often in a position of trying to explain that your kid is not one of the legacy or tippy top kids getting within that class getting into the Ivy slots.

NP. Yet another Ivy alum and volunteer interviewer, I call BS on you.

I recently stopped interviewing in DCPS, period, after 6 or 7 years of doing it. Wilson, Walls, Banneker, you guys can have them all. Mediocre is too tame a word for each of these programs where prepping the strongest students for college goes.

Now I stick to MoCo, NOVA and independent schools. I agree with the rest!

Please explain what the issue with DCPS students? Mediocre how?

You really want to know? For starters, many of the Wilson students who load up on AP classes clearly don't belong in AP classes, or at least not a full complement of them. There seems to be an open enrollment policy for AP classes at Wilson, which hurts the best students. It's rare to talk to a Wilson student who has scored 4s and 5s on half a dozen or more APs, unlike in the burbs, or at Walls that matter.

What I'm going to call academic extra-curricular activities aren't pushed at Wilson, from competing in regional, national and international science competitions, to essay competitions, to doing academic research and publishing, to interning at the Smithsonians, to foreign language competitions etc. This is changing, but slowly.

From what I've observed, many of the kids who crack Ivies are low SES and/or minority - the mediocrity hits high SES white kids who are strong students harder than others. It's more gratifying to interview kids, both high and low SES, who attend test-in HS programs in MoCo and NOVA, such as the Blair Montgomery magnets, the Richard Montgomery IB program and of course TJ. They have a much better shot of being offered a spot, and, presumably, thriving in college. Launch into me for my observations but I'm not the one impacted by the mediocrity. Parents tend to assume that attending a DCPS school will earn high SES white kids a "break" in elite college admissions. Not from what I've observed.

Yes, there are kids who crack Ivies at Wilson, but not a lot.

Interesting! Thank you for answering. I am not going to argue with you. From what I have observed, many of the higher SES kids are just following what their parents want them to do in life. I’ve heard parents tell me how they constantly tell their kids where to apply and what extra curricular things to do. It’s like they are living through their kids. I feel bad for some of these kids because their parents have sucked the fun and motivation right out of them.

And you’re right! I have also been told if my kids go to Wilson, they will have a leg up on the Ivy League. I always find this comment absurd because my kid hasn’t expressed any interest in any college yet (he’s in MS)!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM Wilson Parents - here is what you need to know: at the beginning of junior year, hire a private college counselor, and take SAT/ACt prep. classes. That will set you back about $3,000-$5,000 total - it will close any gaps between Wilson and expensive privates. No, it is not cheap - unless you compare it to the $150,000 that private school would have cost you.

Signed -

Parent of a Wilson senior.

sorry to say, but SAt prep needs to be done summer before junior year, or the psat is not going to vet your child to nmf consideration

Who really cares about NMF consideration. It's a nice honor but it doesn't confer a lot else.

First of all - as another Ivy alum, I call BS on the person's Wilson experience above. Second, DCPS's college counselor situation is very similar to other public schools - even in MoCo and in NoVa. There parents often regularly are also paying for SAT prep classes etc. If you are savvy about the college application process as parents and put the time in yourself, you don't need a college counselor - but one way or another, it does help to have some knowledge base of how it works and how to position your kid. On the flip side, you aren't in a pool like many of the privates where nearly 100% of the kids are applying to all of the same schools - and you paid $40K per year for the benefit of college counselors who end up often in a position of trying to explain that your kid is not one of the legacy or tippy top kids getting within that class getting into the Ivy slots.

NP. Yet another Ivy alum and volunteer interviewer, I call BS on you.

I recently stopped interviewing in DCPS, period, after 6 or 7 years of doing it. Wilson, Walls, Banneker, you guys can have them all. Mediocre is too tame a word for each of these programs where prepping the strongest students for college goes.

Now I stick to MoCo, NOVA and independent schools. I agree with the rest!

Please explain what the issue with DCPS students? Mediocre how?

You really want to know? For starters, many of the Wilson students who load up on AP classes clearly don't belong in AP classes, or at least not a full complement of them. There seems to be an open enrollment policy for AP classes at Wilson, which hurts the best students. It's rare to talk to a Wilson student who has scored 4s and 5s on half a dozen or more APs, unlike in the burbs, or at Walls that matter.

What I'm going to call academic extra-curricular activities aren't pushed at Wilson, from competing in regional, national and international science competitions, to essay competitions, to doing academic research and publishing, to interning at the Smithsonians, to foreign language competitions etc. This is changing, but slowly.

From what I've observed, many of the kids who crack Ivies are low SES and/or minority - the mediocrity hits high SES white kids who are strong students harder than others. It's more gratifying to interview kids, both high and low SES, who attend test-in HS programs in MoCo and NOVA, such as the Blair Montgomery magnets, the Richard Montgomery IB program and of course TJ. They have a much better shot of being offered a spot, and, presumably, thriving in college. Launch into me for my observations but I'm not the one impacted by the mediocrity. Parents tend to assume that attending a DCPS school will earn high SES white kids a "break" in elite college admissions. Not from what I've observed.

Yes, there are kids who crack Ivies at Wilson, but not a lot.

Most of the kids who crack the Ivies at Wilson are white. You don't know what you are talking about.

What are your data points to back up the numbers of kids that get into Ivies? I've actually seen those data points.

[Anonymous]

Self-reported Naviance data points, right? Take them with a grain of salt. No, make that a bag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Self-reported Naviance data points, right? Take them with a grain of salt. No, make that a bag.

And the photos DCPS posts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Self-reported Naviance data points, right? Take them with a grain of salt. No, make that a bag.

FCPs ad MCPs Naviance data is self reported as well. Why is this only brought up on Wilson or Dcps threads??

Afraid the data doesn't support your BS narrative?

[Anonymous]

Search "Naviance" on the VA schools threads and read the very same thing. Self-reporting = inaccurate reporting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCUM Wilson Parents - here is what you need to know: at the beginning of junior year, hire a private college counselor, and take SAT/ACt prep. classes. That will set you back about $3,000-$5,000 total - it will close any gaps between Wilson and expensive privates. No, it is not cheap - unless you compare it to the $150,000 that private school would have cost you.

Signed -

Parent of a Wilson senior.

sorry to say, but SAt prep needs to be done summer before junior year, or the psat is not going to vet your child to nmf consideration

Who really cares about NMF consideration. It's a nice honor but it doesn't confer a lot else.

First of all - as another Ivy alum, I call BS on the person's Wilson experience above. Second, DCPS's college counselor situation is very similar to other public schools - even in MoCo and in NoVa. There parents often regularly are also paying for SAT prep classes etc. If you are savvy about the college application process as parents and put the time in yourself, you don't need a college counselor - but one way or another, it does help to have some knowledge base of how it works and how to position your kid. On the flip side, you aren't in a pool like many of the privates where nearly 100% of the kids are applying to all of the same schools - and you paid $40K per year for the benefit of college counselors who end up often in a position of trying to explain that your kid is not one of the legacy or tippy top kids getting within that class getting into the Ivy slots.

NP. Yet another Ivy alum and volunteer interviewer, I call BS on you.

I recently stopped interviewing in DCPS, period, after 6 or 7 years of doing it. Wilson, Walls, Banneker, you guys can have them all. Mediocre is too tame a word for each of these programs where prepping the strongest students for college goes.

Now I stick to MoCo, NOVA and independent schools. I agree with the rest!

Please explain what the issue with DCPS students? Mediocre how?

You really want to know? For starters, many of the Wilson students who load up on AP classes clearly don't belong in AP classes, or at least not a full complement of them. There seems to be an open enrollment policy for AP classes at Wilson, which hurts the best students. It's rare to talk to a Wilson student who has scored 4s and 5s on half a dozen or more APs, unlike in the burbs, or at Walls that matter.

What I'm going to call academic extra-curricular activities aren't pushed at Wilson, from competing in regional, national and international science competitions, to essay competitions, to doing academic research and publishing, to interning at the Smithsonians, to foreign language competitions etc. This is changing, but slowly.

From what I've observed, many of the kids who crack Ivies are low SES and/or minority - the mediocrity hits high SES white kids who are strong students harder than others. It's more gratifying to interview kids, both high and low SES, who attend test-in HS programs in MoCo and NOVA, such as the Blair Montgomery magnets, the Richard Montgomery IB program and of course TJ. They have a much better shot of being offered a spot, and, presumably, thriving in college. Launch into me for my observations but I'm not the one impacted by the mediocrity. Parents tend to assume that attending a DCPS school will earn high SES white kids a "break" in elite college admissions. Not from what I've observed.

Yes, there are kids who crack Ivies at Wilson, but not a lot.

I don't agree that kids who are overscheduled necessarily thrive in college. Many of them are burnt out and anxious.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Search "Naviance" on the VA schools threads and read the very same thing. Self-reporting = inaccurate reporting.

My quibble with it is that people can't have it both ways. If that data is no good for Wilson then it's no good for anyone. It seems to be ok for Bethesda magazine which publishes all of the college acceptances for MCPS using Naviance data, but not good enough to show how many Wilson kids were admitted to Ivies. SMH

[Anonymous]

Most Wilson kids who make it to the Ivy’s are white. Very few minorities and lower income kids make it. Also most colleges don’t care too much about the actual AP scores. True that Wilson does not offer many hard core academic clubs or research opportunities. Wilson does give you a different type of kid though compared to your average academic powerhouse suburban kid.

[Anonymous]

Most colleges don't even offer competitive admissions. For highly competitive colleges, AP scores do matter, a lot.

Not buying that Wilson kids in college admissions mainly because they're in DCPS. On a bright note, Wilson families can find research opportunities in DC due to the location.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most Wilson kids who make it to the Ivy’s are white. Very few minorities and lower income kids make it. Also most colleges don’t care too much about the actual AP scores. True that Wilson does not offer many hard core academic clubs or research opportunities. Wilson does give you a different type of kid though compared to your average academic powerhouse suburban kid.

PP, can you elaborate?

[Anonymous]

What I mean is that Wilson kids do have some different strengths - not sure if these matter to the Ivy’s but it is a good way to add some color and personality to the incoming freshman college class. Wilson kids are very street smart. They have a good appreciation and understanding of diversity. The successful ones are very resourceful and good at advocating for themselves. The ones without private college counselors have to navigate the maze of college admissions by themselves. The high achieving kids at Wilson may not have as much advanced content knowledge as the high achieving kids at good suburban and private high schools but they are very tenacious and driven to succeed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I mean is that Wilson kids do have some different strengths - not sure if these matter to the Ivy’s but it is a good way to add some color and personality to the incoming freshman college class. Wilson kids are very street smart. They have a good appreciation and understanding of diversity. The successful ones are very resourceful and good at advocating for themselves. The ones without private college counselors have to navigate the maze of college admissions by themselves. The high achieving kids at Wilson may not have as much advanced content knowledge as the high achieving kids at good suburban and private high schools but they are very tenacious and driven to succeed.

This is definitely true of the Wilson kids I know, including my child who is a senior.