Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We heard from Banneker last night. Nothing from Wall yet. Will we get an email from Walls that DS did NOT get an interview, or is no news, no news?

Walls will send an email if not selected to interview.

Anonymous wrote:

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

Re: the interview. I suggest asking a family friend or two to do a mock interview with your kid. Even if over zoom. My kid is shy and this prep helped immensely. Ask about academic goals, study habits, academic challenges and how they’ve overcome, what they’ll do when the going gets rough, college and career goals, things they do for fun, how they’ll try making friends, club interests, etc.

And like a job interview, have your kid practice asking questions of the interviewers. It will be a panel of 2-3 teachers and/or other admins. They may come across as intimidating and warn about how tough school is, ask how your kid handles competition, etc. Or they might be warm and fuzzy; no guarantee who you’ll get.

I’ll be honest — the interview completely turned me off the school and I thought my kid would feel the same way. But it fired him up; he absolutely loved their approach. And the school has been a great fit.

Anonymous wrote:We heard from Banneker last night. Nothing from Wall yet. Will we get an email from Walls that DS did NOT get an interview, or is no news, no news?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets into banneker. If your not accepted it because they didnt have enough space. I know people who had B’s and even C’s but still got in. They were also pretty badly behaved in middle school. And before you say anything, I have a child at banneker and another at walls and a third at JR.

This is absolutely not true. My son didn't get into Banneker. Many kids don't get into Banneker. Believe it or not, it's quite selective. Maybe they don't make the choices you would, but they choose and the majority of kids who apply don't get in.

My kid did not get into Banneker either, but I assumed that was because they did get in to an application school that they ranked ahead of Banneker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets into banneker. If your not accepted it because they didnt have enough space. I know people who had B’s and even C’s but still got in. They were also pretty badly behaved in middle school. And before you say anything, I have a child at banneker and another at walls and a third at JR.

This is absolutely not true. My son didn't get into Banneker. Many kids don't get into Banneker. Believe it or not, it's quite selective. Maybe they don't make the choices you would, but they choose and the majority of kids who apply don't get in.

My kid did not get into Banneker either, but I assumed that was because they did get in to an application school that they ranked ahead of Banneker.

Yes, it was.

I know several parents whose well behaved children didn't get into Banneker. It may have been true at some point that everyone gets in, but it's not now.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets into banneker. If your not accepted it because they didnt have enough space. I know people who had B’s and even C’s but still got in. They were also pretty badly behaved in middle school. And before you say anything, I have a child at banneker and another at walls and a third at JR.

This is absolutely not true. My son didn't get into Banneker. Many kids don't get into Banneker. Believe it or not, it's quite selective. Maybe they don't make the choices you would, but they choose and the majority of kids who apply don't get in.

My kid did not get into Banneker either, but I assumed that was because they did get in to an application school that they ranked ahead of Banneker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everyone gets into banneker. If your not accepted it because they didnt have enough space. I know people who had B’s and even C’s but still got in. They were also pretty badly behaved in middle school. And before you say anything, I have a child at banneker and another at walls and a third at JR.

This is absolutely not true. My son didn't get into Banneker. Many kids don't get into Banneker. Believe it or not, it's quite selective. Maybe they don't make the choices you would, but they choose and the majority of kids who apply don't get in.

Anonymous wrote:Just got notice from Banneker for interview on 2/11.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it possible to do a Walls interview by video?

If you want to look like a douche you could?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Wow. Cheated and still WL’ed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Re: the interview. I suggest asking a family friend or two to do a mock interview with your kid. Even if over zoom. My kid is shy and this prep helped immensely. Ask about academic goals, study habits, academic challenges and how they’ve overcome, what they’ll do when the going gets rough, college and career goals, things they do for fun, how they’ll try making friends, club interests, etc.

And like a job interview, have your kid practice asking questions of the interviewers. It will be a panel of 2-3 teachers and/or other admins. They may come across as intimidating and warn about how tough school is, ask how your kid handles competition, etc. Or they might be warm and fuzzy; no guarantee who you’ll get.

I’ll be honest — the interview completely turned me off the school and I thought my kid would feel the same way. But it fired him up; he absolutely loved their approach. And the school has been a great fit.

Does anybody know how many people are in the interviews at McKinley and how it is structured? I have heard there are multiple students per interview, it is more a 'group' structure. Is that correct?

McKinley interviews are groups of applicants and a group of interviewers that includes at least one student.

Do they ask the kids questions one at a time, or is more a group discussion/dialogue type interview? I feel like I have seen group interviews handled well, and poorly...

My kid said it was more of a group panel but not discussion interview.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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

Re: the interview. I suggest asking a family friend or two to do a mock interview with your kid. Even if over zoom. My kid is shy and this prep helped immensely. Ask about academic goals, study habits, academic challenges and how they’ve overcome, what they’ll do when the going gets rough, college and career goals, things they do for fun, how they’ll try making friends, club interests, etc.

And like a job interview, have your kid practice asking questions of the interviewers. It will be a panel of 2-3 teachers and/or other admins. They may come across as intimidating and warn about how tough school is, ask how your kid handles competition, etc. Or they might be warm and fuzzy; no guarantee who you’ll get.

I’ll be honest — the interview completely turned me off the school and I thought my kid would feel the same way. But it fired him up; he absolutely loved their approach. And the school has been a great fit.

Does anybody know how many people are in the interviews at McKinley and how it is structured? I have heard there are multiple students per interview, it is more a 'group' structure. Is that correct?

McKinley interviews are groups of applicants and a group of interviewers that includes at least one student.

Do they ask the kids questions one at a time, or is more a group discussion/dialogue type interview? I feel like I have seen group interviews handled well, and poorly...