Anonymous wrote: Go to SWW and Wilson and feel comfortable in your own little sanctuary. .
Anonymous wrote:I think the PP poster brings of up important issues that affect most students in most jurisdictions. If you took the elite top 20 schools how many slots are there really , especially for out of state kids. We are talking may be thousands and they want geographic variety so maybe hundreds available in the DC area. DCUM moms are a competitive bunch that want kids that are excellent at everything and at top whatevers but the reality is that the majority of us are middle whatevers. We are not the top partner, ceo, manager etc. We need to raise our kids to be informed citizens, able to learn and maybe good enough. That is what most high schools and certainly public education is designed to do. Maybe you do have a child that is going to be the next nobel or company ceo but most of us don't. We need a place that will help our kids be good without drowning them in perfection. This is what Banneker accomplishes. Is this why education is a mess nationally maybe, but I also wonder if we on DCUM lack a perspective of what is really needed.
Anonymous wrote:WHO SCORES HIGHEST?
Here are average SAT scores in various categories for the high school class of 2010.
By score and group:
1721: Students reporting family incomes
of more than $200,000 a year
1714: Students who had taken AP
or honors courses in natural sciences
1636: Asians
1580: Whites
1558: Students who took core curriculum
1546: Students who previously took PSAT/NMSQT (a pre-SAT)
1523: Boys
1510: Students reporting family incomes
of $60,000 to $80,000 a year
1509: National average
1496: Girls
1444: American Indian
or Alaskan natives
1407: Students who did not take
core curriculum
1400: Students who did not take
PSAT/NMSQT
1369: Mexican and Mexican Americans
1363: Latinos (excluding Mexicans,
Mexican Americans and Puerto Ricans)
1349: Puerto Ricans
1329: Students reporting family incomes
of less than $20,000 a year
1277: African Americans
Source: SAT 2010
The issue with people from prestigious schools ending up at less prestigious colleges is not unique to banneker...there are graduates of private schools who are enrolling in montgomery college, bowie state....they're not all at mit/duke/usc....Anonymous wrote:I graduated from Banneker and the SAT averages don't surprise me. Looking back, I think the true success of Banneker is that it provides an environment for those who want to learn. The entrance exam and interviews do a good job of populating the school with kids who actually want to be there. A lot of us came from low income families and were forced to go to our neighborhood schools that were either falling apart, run by uninterested faculty or filled with a lot of problem children who seriously detracted from the learning process. It took a while to get used to being in class and not being laughed at or made fun of simply because I raised my hand to answer a question. The pressure is actually placed on you to study so that you don't feel left out in the classroom discussions.
With all of this said, the school does fall short in a lot of places. The SAT prep is not as good as it could be. A lot of focus is placed on being able to function above and beyond once you get to college, but not so much attention is placed on actually getting a high score. I think a lot of times they rest on their reputation saying, "these colleges know who we are and they know that a 'B' from Banneker is an 'A' from somewhere else." In the four years that I was there, I learned to write a 15 page paper in my sleep. I have a love of classical literature that I surely wouldn't have had if I'd gone somewhere else. Still, my SAT score wasn't high enough for any of my top choices. That part is a flat out lie. A lot of us are encouraged to apply to lower schools just to have a backup and trust me when I say that most of us go to the back-up schools.
The school gets a lot of praise for the scholarships amounts, but most of it goes to only a few students. A lot of us went to college solely through loans. We did well once we got there, but a higher SAT/GPA would've helped pay for it.
your small liberal arts college may very well have been 'better', depending on the criteria and viewpoint of different individuals....just not as prestigious (the collective view/groupthink)...Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Umm - OK. A Howard education doesn't compare to a Harvard education. That's a pretty non-controversial statement. Are you saying that Howard is a better education than Harvard? That's against all conventional wisdom - care to explain why?![]()
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I should ignore this, but I won't....conventional wisdom may be more of a lemming mentality
I went to Howard, and despite all the issues there, I never received a single lecture from a grad student...all the lectures were direct from faculty...![]()
I could walk up to the Dean's office and be seen that day, for a problem...Renowned physicists such as Dr W Henry would sit at my table in the cafeteria, and converse with myself and other students...I'm not looking to send my DC's to Howard, it's too close to home, but I'm not looking for Harvard either...that's too much $$$$ to not even be taught by a 'real' lecturer
By this rationale, my small liberal arts college in VA is also "better" than Harvard. And so is just about every community college in the country.
Glad to see Howard is teaching its graduates the finer points of logic, though. Must be quite a rigorous program.