pros/cons Ellington, Walls and Wilson

[Anonymous]

We're looking at the museum studies program at Duke Ellington and are applying to Walls and an academy at Wilson.

If you have kids at these schools what are your pros/cons? What do you love about them? Are they a good fit for a motivated kid who isn't an academic star but has great basic skills and is an enthusiastic learner.

[Anonymous]

Dd was at Ellington for a year in the Literary Media Program. LMP was great -- worked with professionals and had to write every day. I also loved the warm feeling of community at Ellington. Many things I liked about it.

However, dd's experience was that kids were not particularly interested in academics because they were so focused on their art. She's now in private where she gets peer support/pressure for doing her work and being engaged in academics.

That's something to consider with regard to Ellington. I think it's a good place for a kid who is driven to excel in the arts but the academics are somewhat uneven.

Good luck with your search!

[Anonymous]

thanks, appreciate the info

[Anonymous]

You're welcome.

And I wanted to add, that if I were looking at those three schools again (dd got into all 3), I would push her to go to Walls. I say that under the assumption that all the Walls kids would be there because of academics not in spite of it. But I should also add that I felt like I still didn't know enough about it. Dd really wanted Ellington and the orientation process for Walls was such that I didn't feel like I had a good handle on the school. Next time I would call up some Walls parents and get feedback from them.

[Anonymous]

I attended Walls myself and I'd recommend it to other parents/students. The transition from junior high to high school was something else, but going from high school to college was a very easy transition. In 9th grade, there was a law firm that used to tutor and edit our papers for us if you signed up. That's how I learned to write papers. (And there were lots of them!) I took English Comp I at a local university in first semester of junior year and I ended up getting a letter from the English dept saying I should consider majoring in English based on the professor's recommendation (he didn't know I was in high school). We've had that happen with other students at Walls who were the highest performers in their off campus classes. I was not an academic star at the school (laziness), and I still left with 9 college credits under my belt. It would have been 18 credits, but I started slacking and dropped 3 classes (you can attend classes at GWU, UDC, American, Spanish 3 is taught at Howard) during senior year. When I became a college freshman, I was already used to being on a campus.

[Anonymous]

Ellington's academics have been uneven in the past, but the new principal is into his third year and has hired great teachers, while weeding out mediocre ones. Last year's graduating class received almost 3 million in scholarships to many top tier schools. You should go to an open house.

[Anonymous]

thanks for both the walls and ellington info. I've gone to the Walls and Wilson open houses, we're scheduled for an Ellington visit in Dec.

[Anonymous]

Ellington Alum here. The school is EXCELLENT for it's ARTS program(I graduated and immediately got a paying job in my art discipline) However, I would not send my child there if I really wanted them to go to college. The academics are absolutely horrible. What a lot of my friends did(and what I would suggest) is they went to surrounding schools (GDS, Sidwell, Wilson,
St. Ann's) for academics and then came to Ellington for the arts. Back when I was a student there, this was possible because all the academic classes were in the morning and the arts were in the afternoon. I don't know if that is the current set up, I graduated over 20 years ago ! Just my 02 cents ....

[Anonymous]

I agree about the academics at Ellington. I graduated in '88 and I had to go to Wilson (my In-Bounds school) for academics last 2 years because there wasn't enough for me to take at Ellington. Went to Wilson in the a.m. for 4 classes and then to Ellington for about 4 hours in the afternoon. It wasn't easy, but it was the only choice for ending up at a good university (though I did got for music, not academics for college). Anyway, the spirit at Ellington was great and I truly loved it there and I think the energy made me what I am today, despite the mediocre academics. The kids are definitely motivated by the arts and if they could just get decent college prep classes in place, it would be perfect. I would not send an unmotivated kid there as there's a lot of room for goofing off (at least there was when I was there). I'm thinking of Walls for my own daughter (she's super young still, so it's way off in the future) for the reasons given by others. But again only if you're motivated -- not a lot of watching over you at either school.