Reply to DCPS Selective HSs: What to know.

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]For Walls, you really, really need to understand that there is a massive amount of luck involved, even if your kid wildly exceeds the baseline stuff.[/quote]

That is what parents say with no accountability.  My child is not even in Walls and I am fairly confident they are in the running because they have a massive extracurricular load in addition to the standard 4.0.  This discussion is the same for college admissions.  It is kind of interesting that the answers to the test are available but people don't want to see it.  Develop well rounded humans and the process will recognize them.  Focus on metrics and validation of their mental superiority and the process will not.[/quote]
Ugh, I hope for their sake that your kid gets into Walls, and then into whatever elite college you’re so sure they’ll get into without a decent SAT score.

The fact is that some of the most well-rounded kids I know got in to Walls — and some of the most well-rounded kids I know were rejected. The admissions process at Walls is a jury-rigged, fly-by-night operation compared to admissions at an elite college. That inevitably introduces a lot of randomness into the process. [/quote]

This,  kids with EC and top grades did not get in.  There is no transparency and rhyme or reason. It’s totally random and luck.  
You have no control over it, no matter now great an applicant your kid is.

Don’t rely on it and make sure you have other options or even better, of better options, move on.[/quote]

For Walls, ECs don't matter at all for admissions, per Walls staff during the school open house. [/quote]

Agree and grades are only 10% and they don’t look at what courses you took at all. [/quote]

My god so recommendations and interview account for 90% of admissions??

That is crazy and so subjective. [/quote]

Well no. There is a GPA cutoff first. So those things, as well as the essay, account for most of it *after* the GPA cutoff is applied. [/quote]

There is so much grade inflation in DCPS that grades are just not enough.  You need to be looking at courses and have some type of standardized objective testing.

I also bet the interview weighs a ton more in the 60% then the required “essay”

How can you call Walls a selective school when the admissions criteria is not objective at all.  Let’s call it the whim of the admissions committee to be more accurate.

[/quote]

I do find it maddeningly subjective and squishy. But it's just not correct to say grades don't matter. And at my kid's school, there absolutely are parents sweating the 3.5 GPA cutoff.[/quote]

The grades are so school dependent too. Lots of the charters talked about on here don’t grade inflate.

Best shot at getting the highest grade is going to DCPS middle school and taking the easiest courses.  Done and easy.  This helps no one because it is easy to game the system, and why you see the academic cohort getting weaker at Walls along with such subjective admissions criteria.[/quote]
Take the easiest courses?  Except for math and language choice, all kids at Deal take the same classes.  Where are these MSs where kids can "game the system" like this?

Also, I doubt that parents are doing this.  Walls isn't a guarantee, so there's an incentive for bright kids to take classes at the appropriate level if they want to apply to private, or take APs in HS, and I can't see parents who care about their kids' education letting them do this.  [/quote]

This. Walls is very seldom the only school to which a student applies.

Not sure how DCPS works but at our HRCS the kids have a choice of electives and some are seen as more difficult. For example Spanish is harder than PE for many kids, and the musical is an elective but also requires after school rehearsals so in that sense it's more work.[/quote]

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