Anonymous wrote:It seems like they just want to pick the class they want and gerrymander the demographics and the wards.

I have no idea why people tolerate this.

If you looked at the actual percentage from the different wards, you'd see that your comment is not correct unless you think they're trying to select kids from Wards 3 and 6.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like they just want to pick the class they want and gerrymander the demographics and the wards.

I have no idea why people tolerate this.

Maybe but they seem to do a good job of getting well rounded classes. I don't pretend to know how they do what they do. The Wards seem to be the same regardless of test vs no-test.

No one can possibly know this yet. The new standardless standard and BS interview process in less than a year old.

Have an idea..kid is there now. Of course, in about two years it will be kinda clear.

I had no idea the interview was so short. During the open house they made it sound more in-depth, but I was wondering how on earth they could substantively interview 500 (or around there) kids. What a total crapshoot.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like they just want to pick the class they want and gerrymander the demographics and the wards.

I have no idea why people tolerate this.

Maybe but they seem to do a good job of getting well rounded classes. I don't pretend to know how they do what they do. The Wards seem to be the same regardless of test vs no-test.

No one can possibly know this yet. The new standardless standard and BS interview process in less than a year old.

Anonymous wrote:It seems like they just want to pick the class they want and gerrymander the demographics and the wards.

I have no idea why people tolerate this.

Maybe but they seem to do a good job of getting well rounded classes. I don't pretend to know how they do what they do. The Wards seem to be the same regardless of test vs no-test.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rejection is part of life. It’s an opportunity for kids to learn how to handle it. But I think parents on DCUM struggle with it more than their kids.

Rejection is one thing. Being stuck in an admissions process that lacks transparency and consistency is another

Seems like a good teaching moment. Do you think college is any more transparent or consistent? Grad school probably is a little bit more consistent, but applying for jobs is even less transparent and consistent.

Agreed. We’re another family who told DD “it’s basically a lottery once people make the grade cutoff, do your best in an interview but don’t take anything personally.” I consider that a very useful lesson for later life.

In middle school, I participated in drama competitions where the same pool of kids performed the same pieces in 5-6 competitions each year. There was a pool of some kids who usually won medals and other kids who never did. But beyond that, there was little rhyme or reason to who placed where on any given day. Judges have preferences for different kinds of material, just liked one kid better, were hungry and cranky and grader lower than the judge in the next room over, whatever. After that, I’ve taken the “do your best, but don’t take it personally” lesson into every application, competition, or job interview I’ve ever done. and now that I’ve been on the hiring/judging side as well, I’ve definitely seen it happen from both sides. Any time you have people ranking other people, there’s almost no way to remove subjective preferences and personality quirks from factoring into those rankings.

Anonymous wrote:At least two years ago looks played into who was chosen. My daughter has two friends who are objectively gorgeous--they were selected although they were in low math classes and had multiple Bs. neither took the spots as they had no real interest in Walls. But the interviewers definitely voted for them.

Previous poster again. I should elaborate and say that I know because my daughter and friends were talking about this. of their friend group (8?) the quiet, plain, studious ones were not taken. The beautiful, glam, charismatic ones were, I remember because we had a conversation about it--they were laughing about it.
It's how the world works but kind of crappy for high school admissions but not surprising when 90% of admissions was based on a 2 minute interview by a teenager. a kid is going to consciously or unconsciously go with the visually appealing option.

At least two years ago looks played into who was chosen. My daughter has two friends who are objectively gorgeous--they were selected although they were in low math classes and had multiple Bs. neither took the spots as they had no real interest in Walls. But the interviewers definitely voted for them.

It seems like they just want to pick the class they want and gerrymander the demographics and the wards.

I have no idea why people tolerate this.

Hahaha Walls also includes this:

All students who complete the interview will be provided with an additional score based on their GPA,
along the following scale (worth 14% of admission, with interview worth 86%):

• 3.8 and higher – 5 points
• 3.5 - 3.79– 4 points
• 3.2 - 3.49 – 3 points
• 3.0 - 3.19 – 2 points

But... the GPA cutoff in the past 2 years has been something like 3.7, which means it is only possible for a kid to get 4 or 5 points in that section. And also that section is 100% correlated with qualifying for the interview in the first place (GPA cutoff).

So yeah, the entire admission (31 of 36 points) is based on the interview. And kids/parents need to treat that 100% as a lottery.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:For 9th graders, do they look at 7th and/or 8th grade GPA? The application requirements are not clear on this.

7th grade

Is it going to be two-minute interviews conducted by students again? Because that seems like a super rigorous and consistent process.

Anonymous wrote:For 9th graders, do they look at 7th and/or 8th grade GPA? The application requirements are not clear on this.

7th grade

For 9th graders, do they look at 7th and/or 8th grade GPA? The application requirements are not clear on this.

Anonymous wrote:On the broader subject of Walls admission, and agreeing it essentially feels lottery-esqe after the interview process - does anyone have any sense of impact if applying from a private school rather than DCPS? We moved our middle schooler as needed a smaller environment due to covid but never had planned to go private and hoping to get in as a smaller choice for HS and return to public.

interested in any experiences to that end...

Yes, just make sure you upload the report cards as requested. Our report cards had a lot of comments so during the interview it seemed like the interviewer reviewed some of it. We had some confusion with the transcript later but other than that nothing abnormal. Good Luck...

Those are the application requirements. There are more detailed admissions rubrics for each school here:

https://enrolldcps.dc.gov/node/201