If not Basis or Latin, where?
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Anonymous
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PP, I find it incredibly remarkable that out of the hundred thousand schools in the US, you seem to have managed to get students who so conveniently fit the profile of a comparison of DC schools and BASIS. The chances of that actually occurring are in the one-to-hundreds-of-thousands. What an astonishing coincidence, defies statistics.
In other words, BULLSHIT ALERT. Troll with a bashing agenda. |
Anonymous
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^I don't understand your issue. Many Ivy League grads interview applicants, and many BASIS seniors apply to Ivies. My Ivy isn't the only one short on graduates to do interviews in AZ, or in the DC Metro area for that matter. Fifteen years ago, the school was getting around 20,000 applicants each fall and winter; this year, close to 45,000. There used to be a couple hundred applicants from AZ, now there are four times that many, mostly because of BASIS. I've been asked to Skype interview BASIS applicants two years running, and will surely be asked again. I was expecting more from those I interviewed.
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Anonymous
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Although reality is a tough concept for the BASIS boosters, I hope the school does well. Latin parents sound more grounded. They don't seem to be expecting the sun, the moon and the stars.
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Anonymous
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I am all for people developing a sense of connectedness with their community and those in need. However, a few trips to the homeless shelter should not make a huge difference. Furthermore, a interviewer writing off entire schools (St As, Basis etc) seems crazy.
Ivy league schools clearly have a difficult job selecting from tens of thousands of applicants but this interviewer makes it seem quite a silly process. Any other interviews out there who can talk me down. Please. |
Anonymous
| I wonder if having ivy league alum do interviews is more about making the alum feel important and invested in their alma mater so they donate more. |
Anonymous
Over the years, I've interviewed kids from Wilson, SWW, Dunbar, Banneker, TJ, the Blair magnets, as well as Gonzaga, St. Anselm's and a dozen non-sectarian privates. I also phone interview kids in areas of the country without enough alums on the ground to provide full coverage, e.g. Hawaii, Idaho, Arizona. TJ and Blair kids are my out and out favorites, around one-third get in (vs. maybe one in a dozen from Wilson and SWW) and they're almost always fun to talk to. The parochial boys in NE are generally a pleasure to meet as well. Gonzaga makes the boys work in a soup kitchen and do service projects on school breaks, which pays off. The Jesuits don't mess around and the kids are obviously encouraged to think for themselves. I've given up on St. Albans and Georgetown Prep and most of the other NW cocoons. Sure, half a dozen BASIS Tuscon kids is hardly a representative sample, but all were in the top 10% (or so they claimed) and none seemed to have much to say. My expectations were clearly too high, after all the DC hype. One question I answer for the school is "Did, you enjoy talking to this applicant?" With the BASIS kids, honestly, not much. I'll offer to try again over the winter. If I were a harsh or indifferent interviewer, I'd be surprised if my Ivy would ask me to interview as many as a dozen kids an application season. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, I smell a rat. The 6 BASIS kids (out of the multitudes of candidates you claim to have interviewed) "were in the top 10% (or so they claimed)" - aren't you given enough info about these kids to tell whether they are lying? Transcripts, etc? You seem to know they had weak extra currics - or did you skilfully draw that out of them? Any chance their reticence had something to do with your lack of skills at interviewing people who are not like you? Ever think maybe the culture in Arizona is different? My interviewer had a sheet of paper about me on her desk when I walked in the door... But I forgot, you are telepathic. Because you knew that those kids were cramming for the AP's an And having the "hype" here about Basis affect your evaluations of the college bound students in Tucson.. This is DCUMS. Those kids have nothing to do with DC, and the oldest kids here are in 8th grade. The school started this year. You said AFTER all the hype here you were disappointed - so I guess you interviewed 6 kids between this year and last year? That means they were 1/4 of all your candidates in the last two years as you interview "as many as a dozen kids a season." Have you read any hype about St. Albans on DCUMS? Done a similar kind of research on any of the other schools since the info here about Basis seems to have influenced you so much? A lot of this makes no sense to me, and your snide comments about future Basis kids here turning down Harvard and your dairy farmer father are over my head I guess or maybe just too far below the belt. Perhaps the kids did not get your sophisticated sarcasm. You seem pretty full of yourself. er mDoes your reference to your father mean you were a legacy? Maybe you need to go work at Martha's Table for a while. Do you bond with them Idaho kids about milking cows having grown up on a dairy farm? OOps. Potatoes come from Idaho not milk. But your stereotypes seem to come from lots of mysterious places. I'm really glad that you are willing to give BASIS kids another chance unlike the poor doomed kids at St. Albans who you have "pretty much given up on". But despite your purported open mind, I beg you not to volunteer to interview more Basis kids. Why don't you give someone else a chance next winter. You seem to have been working very hard for many years. You also seem to only like boys. Well, not the ones at St. Albans or Georgetown Prep. Ever interviewed an applicant from Landon? Or maybe you really like Catholic boys. If they cannot come from TJ or Blair at least those Jesuits may have given them something interesting to say. I'm sure you ask them all about the soup kitchens and mention them in your evals. How do you feel about Quakers? Same as Episcopalians? Does your Ivy know of your prejudices? Do the kids in the NW "cocoon" have more to say than those withdrawn Tucson kids but you just don't like the content? Or do they also become suddenly quiet when faced with your awesomeness/oddness? If I could forward your posts to your alma mater. I think your days as an alumni interviewer would be over. You have "pretty much given up on St. Albans." So when those "poor" rich kids walk in the room, you are just going through the motions? I don't think you are doing a great job, and I think revealing your prejudices along with your position makes your posts unprofessional. Certainly the St. Albans college guidance counselor would love to know who you are and which school you interview for to make sure his boys avoided you like the plague. I am damn glad you were not the interviewer for the Ivy I went to. I don't think the chemistry would have been that good between us. But then I am female, not Catholic, came from that "NW cocoon" and did not take calculus. I think your posts on here as an alumni interviewer do a disservice to whatever hallowed halls you used to walk in, in more than one way. You may be recommending the wrong kids! As for the idea that you can't be that bad because you get 12 kids a year, when they give you some from Hawaii, Idaho and Arizona and you live in Washington DC I would not necessarily take that as a complement. And this is not Goldman Sachs. There are no 360 reviews. You have no idea what the kids think about you or how they feel about your school after talking to you. Just some food for thought. Now go visit that soup kitchen with those nice Catholic boys for some food for your soul. |
Anonymous
I think you're on to something, PP. Also, if the interview will be the deciding factor for that candidate, the school probably won't give it to an alum. They'll have someone from the admissions office conduct the interview in the interest of fairness and uniformity. Alums probably interview only those who are already in or already out. I was interviewed by an alum over dinner as part of the admission process for Princeton. I enjoyed the conversation and the meal. As I was leaving, I asked him if I was likely to be accepted, and he told me that the admission office had already made its decision, and that I was in. It was great not having to wait for that letter. I don't know if he was in a position to change their decision, but he gave me the impression that it was a done deal. Perhaps if he suspected fraud in the application process, he could have alerted the admissions office to scrutinize my application. |
Anonymous
| Clearly, the "ivy league interviewer" is the same Latin parent who is constantly on these boards bashing Basis. She seems very insecure about her choice. My DC is ready for a challenge and really looking forward to attending Basis next year. |
Anonymous
Thanks. I also hope BASIS does well. I agree with your observation that Latin parents have lower expectations of their school than BASIS parents have. However, it's not clear to me that this is advantageous for the school or their children. |
Anonymous
| Latin parent here. That is a very loaded assumption pp. The idea that Latin parents have "lower expectations of their school". It's breathtaking how stupid that sounds. They are entirely different schools with entirely different visions of what secondary education should look like. My expectations as a Latin parent for what happens in the classroom as far as the level, depth and content of teaching and my child's learning are sky high. Couldn't get any higher and so far have been met. I do not, however, expect every student who studies in those classrooms to be academically gifted and competitive nor do my expectations for my child's future narrow to the pinprick of an ivy league school. Millions of well educated and upstanding citizens seem to carry out a successful and satisfying life with at degree from an ivy. I don't believe you can chalk differences up to higher or lower expectations of the school. Just different. |
Anonymous
As someone considering both for future years who doesn't know much about the differences, I would find it helpful if you or others could talk about what the differences in the visions of what secondary education should look like. Thanks. |
Anonymous
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When you make things up as you go along, it can be hard to keep your story straight.
In this thread--
In another thread two months ago-- http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/60/284163.page
http://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/75/284163.page
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Anonymous
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Whatever guys, I'm the interviewer. I talk to kids who apply to my Ivy every year between mid Oct (early admission) and Feb 15th, the regular admissions interview report deadline. When the school first asked me to phone interview several AZ kids, in 2011, I agreed, not knowing they would be BASIS students, or what the franchise was about. When I saw "BASIS" next to each applicant's name in my alum inbox I had a look on one or two BASIS threads on DCUM and Wikipedia. Then I talked to the kids, and found them less interesting and worth admitting than TJ, Blair math magnet and DC private school kids who compete in natl sci competitions. When I asked the BASIS applicants if they enter INTEL, Siemens, Google etc. they said no, we don't enter sci competitions, we take 10 AP classes. I don't see transcripts, but am supposed to ask kids about this and that, including subjects they enjoy studying and extra-curricular interests. No, I don't have children in DC public schools but if I did, and I were serious about BASIS, I might ask the school why AP tests trump more interesting STEM endeavors. I don't make admissions decions and most of the applicants I interview are rejected, even if I've plugged for them. It's a burnout gig - one year I interviewed 18 applicants, in person and by phone, each rejected. Next time, I'll interview somewhere other than AZ.
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Anonymous
Tuscon? |
Anonymous
As a Latin parent one thing that I found really helpful was to read through the Legendas on the school's website. Each week one of the letters is written by one of the administrators. They even archive them on the site. I disagree with the previous poster that Latin parents have lower expectations than BASIS parents. I find that parents from both schools have fairly high expectations. |