Anonymous
12/19/2024 19:33
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.
If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.
Where are you getting info/data that college admissions are "clearly slipping"? Could you provide more on this?
I know kids at both and I still think Jackson-Reed for all it's faults - has much more rigor and a wider breadth of classes without a workload just to have one.
NP and obviously JR does- it’s like four times the size of Walls. But college admits this year have been fantastic at Walls.
Same tune on winter Walls threads every year but take it with a grain of salt, make that a bag. The inconvenient truth is that the class of 2025 is the first that was admitted without the Walls exam or submission of a standardized test score and it shows. My eldest went through Walls with a much stronger cohort than my youngest, a junior, particularly for advanced STEM work. Who can deny that the admissions system has become something of a joke, favoring DCPS middle school grads with B+ averages who would pretty clearly have struggled at BASIS or top privates. If you have access to BASIS or JR, go.
Where's your data on the class of 2025 is clearly worse than previous cohorts? The class of 2025, the same one everyone goes on about having been admitted without a test, has 6 national merit semi-finalists. For a class of 150 kids that's an outstanding number. I don't put a lot of stock in standardized tests but surely that should resonate with the "test" people on this board.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 18:56
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.
If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.
Where are you getting info/data that college admissions are "clearly slipping"? Could you provide more on this?
I know kids at both and I still think Jackson-Reed for all it's faults - has much more rigor and a wider breadth of classes without a workload just to have one.
NP and obviously JR does- it’s like four times the size of Walls. But college admits this year have been fantastic at Walls.
Same tune on winter Walls threads every year but take it with a grain of salt, make that a bag. The inconvenient truth is that the class of 2025 is the first that was admitted without the Walls exam or submission of a standardized test score and it shows. My eldest went through Walls with a much stronger cohort than my youngest, a junior, particularly for advanced STEM work. Who can deny that the admissions system has become something of a joke, favoring DCPS middle school grads with B+ averages who would pretty clearly have struggled at BASIS or top privates. If you have access to BASIS or JR, go.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 16:29
Subject: Re:Walls application - quiet kid
There are lots of quiet kids at Walls. The outgoing ones are going to always volunteer for open house so it’s a bit of volunteer bias there. I would practice interviewing with your kid. Some kids are afraid to talk a lot about themselves because they think it’s bragging but encourage your student to speak about their accomplishments. Good luck!
Anonymous
12/19/2024 16:26
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.
If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.
Where are you getting info/data that college admissions are "clearly slipping"? Could you provide more on this?
I know kids at both and I still think Jackson-Reed for all it's faults - has much more rigor and a wider breadth of classes without a workload just to have one.
NP and obviously JR does- it’s like four times the size of Walls. But college admits this year have been fantastic at Walls.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 14:59
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.
If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.
Where are you getting info/data that college admissions are "clearly slipping"? Could you provide more on this?
I know kids at both and I still think Jackson-Reed for all it's faults - has much more rigor and a wider breadth of classes without a workload just to have one.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 14:56
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Sure, prepare, but try to internalize that there’s only so much you and she can control. I think the interview is likely what put my DS on the waitlist – the interviewer seemed deeply uninterested and that threw DS off big time. Would a more extroverted kid have fared better in that situation? Maybe, but who knows. Other students equally “qualified” didn’t even get an interview. It is a crapshoot at many levels. DS got into privates as well and is happy at Banneker.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 14:27
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.
If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.
LOL...You may want to look at this years admissions..That's right you are not a present parent...
Anonymous
12/19/2024 13:39
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.
If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.
Where are you getting info/data that college admissions are "clearly slipping"? Could you provide more on this?
Anonymous
12/19/2024 13:20
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Anonymous wrote:Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Prepare her to talk fast in the interview right out of the gate, since she's only going to get about 5 minutes to talk, 10 tops. The ridiculously brief/cursory Walls interview can be a disaster for shy kids who take time to warm up. We learned this the hard way for our eldest.
If you want my two cents worth, nobody in your family should think in terms of Walls being a dream school. The head is a dingbat (yes woman for DCPS, not more), the building run down, the academics not as robust as they were pre Covid (mainly because the Walls specific test and a standardized test score were dropped during Covid). The English lit curriculum is weak, and a mess. AP sciences aren't always taught in a given year. College admissions are clearly slipping. I could go on. It's still a decent school, but hardly a....dream.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 13:01
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
It's a roll of the dice. Don't count on it.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 12:56
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
Get the requests for LORs in early and provide some info in the email request. Make sure she asks the teachers herself, in person and then she follows up with the thank you for agreeing email with the extra info. Look at the forms posted in the current Walls admissions thread.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Then spend a little time prepping for the interview - what sorts of Qs, use someone familiar to her but not you.
Then she will have more confidence and if she doesn’t get in, she will know she did her best. Looking at some of the results for my kids’ years, it’s a crap shoot.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 12:42
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
My quiet kid got in and extroverted one didn't, so who knows
Anonymous
12/19/2024 12:14
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
TBH my very high flying kid with lots of great activities and recs didn't get in and I'm pretty sure it was the interview. They got into some of the most difficult private schools so student profile was there, but I think they just couldn't get comfortable enough in the very short interview. If I could go back in time I'd do practice interviews -- the private school admissions people do 30 -40 minute interviews which allow shy kids to open up. The SWW cattle call interview structure did not work for mine.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 11:28
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
I imagine when it comes down to it she could get the recommendations. Could she succeed in the interview? If so, I think she'd probably get in unless the GPA cutoff is really cruel.
Anonymous
12/19/2024 11:09
Subject: Walls application - quiet kid
My kid is involved in school (sports, band, MS student gov't) and has a 3.9 GPA, but is very quiet. Teachers comment that they'd love to hear her speak up more, which is a work in progress.
Walls is her dream school and she knows a few kids already there. I seem to read here that Walls thrives on confident, outgoing kids and that's what they look for in applicants.
I know, of course, that Walls is not a sure thing for any kid, but I'm curious about successful acceptance of quiet ones who get good grades and are deeply involved in school activities despite their shyness. Anyone have stories to share?
Walls is her dream school and she knows a few kids already there. I seem to read here that Walls thrives on confident, outgoing kids and that's what they look for in applicants.
I know, of course, that Walls is not a sure thing for any kid, but I'm curious about successful acceptance of quiet ones who get good grades and are deeply involved in school activities despite their shyness. Anyone have stories to share?