Wilson/College Matriculation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 Parent of Wilson graduate and Wilson junior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

+1 Parent of Wilson graduate and Wilson junior.

Also describes my neighbors who went to Wilson. One now at Brown, one at Michigan, one at Pomona.
My kids are early elementary and we're not sure we'll even be in DC in a few years (anticipate a job transfer) so I have no dog in this fight.

[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.

They're scrappy!

I'd make this statement about diversity even stronger. Wilson students have a strong fluency in discussing race/socioeconomic relations. It's one thing to read about discrimination or racial inequities in a book. But to see it in your environment and discuss, debate, and try to solve it? It puts them on a totally different level. I say this as an African American parent at Wilson. Many of those students give me hope for the future.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They're scrappy!

I'd make this statement about diversity even stronger. Wilson students have a strong fluency in discussing race/socioeconomic relations. It's one thing to read about discrimination or racial inequities in a book. But to see it in your environment and discuss, debate, and try to solve it? It puts them on a totally different level. I say this as an African American parent at Wilson. Many of those students give me hope for the future.

Especially since the discussions and debates are taking place among kids on every part of that spectrum.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They're scrappy!

I'd make this statement about diversity even stronger. Wilson students have a strong fluency in discussing race/socioeconomic relations. It's one thing to read about discrimination or racial inequities in a book. But to see it in your environment and discuss, debate, and try to solve it? It puts them on a totally different level. I say this as an African American parent at Wilson. Many of those students give me hope for the future.

Wonderful! How about strong fluency in calculus, statistics, hard sciences, academic research, history, literature, foreign languages etc. Do they have that, like their future competitors, particularly those from China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and elsewhere in East Asia rising? Somehow, learning that discussing race/socioeconomic relations is their strong suit isn't doing much for me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They're scrappy!

I'd make this statement about diversity even stronger. Wilson students have a strong fluency in discussing race/socioeconomic relations. It's one thing to read about discrimination or racial inequities in a book. But to see it in your environment and discuss, debate, and try to solve it? It puts them on a totally different level. I say this as an African American parent at Wilson. Many of those students give me hope for the future.

Wonderful! How about strong fluency in calculus, statistics, hard sciences, academic research, history, literature, foreign languages etc. Do they have that, like their future competitors, particularly those from China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and elsewhere in East Asia rising? Somehow, learning that discussing race/socioeconomic relations is their strong suit isn't doing much for me.

Apparently you can't read. The question was about the different strengths of Wilson students. A fluency in discussing and solving racial/socioeconomic disparities was mentioned as ONE of those strengths. Perhaps you haven't been paying attention but anyone who plans to be successful in the future needs those skills. Funny that you would bring up countries that are pretty homogenous as comparison points. Maybe homeschool for you is better?

[Anonymous]

Singapore has four official national languages and comes top, or near the top, of the PISA listings for math.

The US has one national language. English.

We got a scholarship to a private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Singapore has four official national languages and comes top, or near the top, of the PISA listings for math.

The US has one national language. English.

We got a scholarship to a private.

Then why do you posting here? Worried about the competition?

[Anonymous]

Don't take the bait, PP. Wilson's academics haven't kept up with demographics in the catchment area. Too many weak teachers protected by the union!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Singapore has four official national languages and comes top, or near the top, of the PISA listings for math.

The US has one national language. English.

We got a scholarship to a private.

The vast majority of Singaporeans are only bilingual - so I'm not sure that's a good argument for you re: private schooling your kids. I think "it worked for MY kid" is stronger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Singapore has four official national languages and comes top, or near the top, of the PISA listings for math.

The US has one national language. English.

We got a scholarship to a private.

This post is unintentionally illustrative of the point about diversity.

Unlike most countries, the US has ZERO official languages due to the diversity of languages spoken here. Dozens of languages are spoken in the US, including indigenous languages in Native American communities and a huge number of immigrant languages, the largest of course being English. For many non-English world languages, the largest or second largest community of speakers in the world is here rather than in the country of origin. Speaking of Singapore, we do have larger communities of almost every Singapore language group than Singapore does --- 250K Tamil speakers vs about 170K in Singapore, 3.4 million Chinese speakers (all dialects) versus 1.7 million for all dialects in Singapore. The only possible exception is Malay, for which I didn't immediately see US data (and which I know nothing about). This is the kind of American history/culture 101 stuff that's important if you hope to make policy, participate in politics or run an HR department in a city like LA or New York (or Sheboygan Wisconsin, where board meetings for many companies were until recently conducted in German).

The ability to work with data like this and not just confidently spout nonsense about language and ethnicity is an important skill, and one that Wilson students are more likely to have than many others. But yes, math is important too, and is something that Wilson could do much better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't take the bait, PP. Wilson's academics haven't kept up with demographics in the catchment area. Too many weak teachers protected by the union!

Whatever. It hasn't prevented Wilson kids from getting into top colleges and succeeding there. Plus, with all of that, they are still scrappy and know about the world. They are not little snowflakes.

One of my son's best friends left Deal and went to Maret. He is a white kid and still can't adjust to Maret. He can't believe how socially inept and awkward they are. If he hadn't been recruited for his sport, he would have left already. He surprised they can even wipe themselves without supervision.

It's hilarious when I listen to him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

They're scrappy!

I'd make this statement about diversity even stronger. Wilson students have a strong fluency in discussing race/socioeconomic relations. It's one thing to read about discrimination or racial inequities in a book. But to see it in your environment and discuss, debate, and try to solve it? It puts them on a totally different level. I say this as an African American parent at Wilson. Many of those students give me hope for the future.

Wonderful! How about strong fluency in calculus, statistics, hard sciences, academic research, history, literature, foreign languages etc. Do they have that, like their future competitors, particularly those from China, Taiwan, Korea, Singapore and elsewhere in East Asia rising? Somehow, learning that discussing race/socioeconomic relations is their strong suit isn't doing much for me.

I hire a lot of people. It's amazing to me how many really "smart" ivy league kids can't hold a freakin' conversation. I don't want to work with them. Good luck on the data and chemistry and everything else you know b/c in the real world, you still need social skills.

[Anonymous]

I also hire a lot of people, as a NASA contractor. Personable people from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Russia, Iran, Israel etc.

My vote is for less emphasis on studying peace, harmony, love and sports in American public high schools and more on math, science, languages, English etc.

The fact is, Wilson's track record on AP participation is dismal. Only a little more than half the students take and pass at least 1 AP with a score of 3 each year.

I hire a lot of people from China...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Singapore has four official national languages and comes top, or near the top, of the PISA listings for math.

The US has one national language. English.

We got a scholarship to a private.

This post is unintentionally illustrative of the point about diversity.

Unlike most countries, the US has ZERO official languages due to the diversity of languages spoken here. Dozens of languages are spoken in the US, including indigenous languages in Native American communities and a huge number of immigrant languages, the largest of course being English. For many non-English world languages, the largest or second largest community of speakers in the world is here rather than in the country of origin. Speaking of Singapore, we do have larger communities of almost every Singapore language group than Singapore does --- 250K Tamil speakers vs about 170K in Singapore, 3.4 million Chinese speakers (all dialects) versus 1.7 million for all dialects in Singapore. The only possible exception is Malay, for which I didn't immediately see US data (and which I know nothing about). This is the kind of American history/culture 101 stuff that's important if you hope to make policy, participate in politics or run an HR department in a city like LA or New York (or Sheboygan Wisconsin, where board meetings for many companies were until recently conducted in German).

The ability to work with data like this and not just confidently spout nonsense about language and ethnicity is an important skill, and one that Wilson students are more likely to have than many others. But yes, math is important too, and is something that Wilson could do much better.

Love this post! Nice job pp. You convinced me. We need more Wilson type schools although I really wish they would make their 9th grade stronger.