Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 14:43     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back


Maybe this is a dumb question ... but why are we interviewing parents for high school?


Why wouldn’t they?
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 12:10     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back


Maybe this is a dumb question ... but why are we interviewing parents for high school?


Genuinely to filter out disengaged, unsupportive, or problematic (on a whole number of dimensions) parents. It’s probably deeply biased against single parents.


Source? They told us last year that the parent portion of the interview (5 min?) was informational and didn't count in the scoring.


Informational is what I was told last year when I asked for the criteria used to judge parents. Not sure If I believe it. Very hard to have one part of the process not impact a judgement call. If it truly doesn't matter they shouldn't interview parents.


Exactly. In such a high stakes process with so many qualified students, I doubt it doesn't factor in at all.

And having been a teacher, I would advise parents not to come across as DC know-it-all types. And smile.
Anonymous
Post 02/04/2026 11:58     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back


Maybe this is a dumb question ... but why are we interviewing parents for high school?


Genuinely to filter out disengaged, unsupportive, or problematic (on a whole number of dimensions) parents. It’s probably deeply biased against single parents.


Source? They told us last year that the parent portion of the interview (5 min?) was informational and didn't count in the scoring.


Informational is what I was told last year when I asked for the criteria used to judge parents. Not sure If I believe it. Very hard to have one part of the process not impact a judgement call. If it truly doesn't matter they shouldn't interview parents.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 21:35     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back


Maybe this is a dumb question ... but why are we interviewing parents for high school?


Genuinely to filter out disengaged, unsupportive, or problematic (on a whole number of dimensions) parents. It’s probably deeply biased against single parents.


Source? They told us last year that the parent portion of the interview (5 min?) was informational and didn't count in the scoring.


This is correct. The parent interview for Walls doesn’t go into the scoring at all.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 20:34     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:from last year, what questions were asked during the interview and what was the writing sample about?
having ours coming up wednesday in a week and really want to get into Banneker.
thanks


oof wouldnt want to go there honey.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 13:54     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Our child was waitlist for Walls last year. If we could do it again we would have prepped him more for an interview - he'd never had one and he doesn't have much experience with public speaking.

We knew from waiting for our turn for the interview to start what they questions would be from friends who were there ahead of us.

If you search old threads you can find the interview and writing prompt questions from last year.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 13:23     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

from last year, what questions were asked during the interview and what was the writing sample about?
having ours coming up wednesday in a week and really want to get into Banneker.
thanks
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 12:35     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Can they start interviews without recommendation letters? Our math teacher said last night she has about 60 to write but there is still time till the 9th
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 12:08     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

If you are interested in Banneker and don't get invited to interview right away (on one of the dates the PP already mentioned), don't despair. They often do a second round of interviews later.

And yes, the parent interviews at Walls and Banneker interview are supposed to be informational only. (The Walls one is not structured as such, the Banneker one is.)
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 11:12     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back


Maybe this is a dumb question ... but why are we interviewing parents for high school?


Genuinely to filter out disengaged, unsupportive, or problematic (on a whole number of dimensions) parents. It’s probably deeply biased against single parents.


Source? They told us last year that the parent portion of the interview (5 min?) was informational and didn't count in the scoring.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 10:57     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back


Maybe this is a dumb question ... but why are we interviewing parents for high school?


Genuinely to filter out disengaged, unsupportive, or problematic (on a whole number of dimensions) parents. It’s probably deeply biased against single parents.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 10:50     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Families participate in the Walls interview. I'm not sure if you can request in advance to have one Saturday rather than the other.
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 10:26     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back


Maybe this is a dumb question ... but why are we interviewing parents for high school?
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 10:00     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.


Back to back
Anonymous
Post 02/03/2026 10:00     Subject: DC Selective High School Interviews

Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:A couple years ago, Banneker emailed during first week of February to invite student to interview on date about a week and a half later. Walls emailed the day after Presidents' Day that student would be invited to interview either the upcoming Saturday or the one following. Didn't find out which date or the time until Thursday evening, then the interview was on Saturday morning.


Do families participate in the Walls Interview or just the kid? We have another kid event one of those Saturdays and am afraid of how to plan that.


Last year Walls interviewed the kid and the parents separately, back up back.