Can any teachers chime in here with insights?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This evening, my kid received an invitation for a SWW interview. The email said that we would receive a second email tomorrow with the exact date and time.

I have to say, with the extended deadlines for recommendations, it must have been tough to wade through the pile so quickly.

+1

The turnaround time on this is really quick. I think DCPS should adjust the due dates for application HS. Walls gets over 1,000 applicants each year. And it is not someone’s full time job to run admissions.

How on earth don they get through it all? Seems impossible to me.

Since the teacher recommendations involve grading kids (range of 1-5, I believe) on multiple fronts, and only a little free writing, I suspect they choose kids for interviewing based only on the numerical results. That's just a guess, of course. Would be nice if they were more transparent about the whole process!

Anonymous wrote:Congratulations to your kid (who sounds a lot like mine) getting the Banneker interview. We still haven't heard from them either.

Banneker sends out interview invites in waves. My older kid sweated through waiting and was interviewed in the last wave of Banneker interviews. She got in. So, don't give up hope.

As an FYI, last year we received notice about the Banneker interview 2-3 weeks after finding out about the Walls interview.

Congratulations to your kid (who sounds a lot like mine) getting the Banneker interview. We still haven't heard from them either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing yet. 9pm Tuesday and interviews start this Saturday.

Same. My kid has a 4.0 and I am assuming good teacher recs, so expecting at least an interview

lol

Same, and we have heard nothing. No interview invite. No ding. I thought this was a magnet school where they considered a student's application, but this feels like pure lottery.

It’s essentially both. There is a lot of demand and not a lot of supply, so essentially it’s a lottery to whittle down. Im sorry for those qualified kids who didn’t get an interview.

The system is just horrid. DC needs more schools like Walls. If they had more schools city-wide of Walls' size it would benefit so many kids.

We're also hoping for an interview for our kid, but on paper he's like a so many kids... high GPA, in advanced math, excellent teacher recommendations (according to our Banneker interviewers), skilled musician.
Not giving up hope yet

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing yet. 9pm Tuesday and interviews start this Saturday.

Same. My kid has a 4.0 and I am assuming good teacher recs, so expecting at least an interview

lol

Same, and we have heard nothing. No interview invite. No ding. I thought this was a magnet school where they considered a student's application, but this feels like pure lottery.

It’s essentially both. There is a lot of demand and not a lot of supply, so essentially it’s a lottery to whittle down. Im sorry for those qualified kids who didn’t get an interview.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Nothing yet. 9pm Tuesday and interviews start this Saturday.

Same. My kid has a 4.0 and I am assuming good teacher recs, so expecting at least an interview

lol

Same, and we have heard nothing. No interview invite. No ding. I thought this was a magnet school where they considered a student's application, but this feels like pure lottery.

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone been notified that they will not receive an interview?

not yet

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone been notified that they will not receive an interview?

No. But we haven't heard that we will.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just got four emails (back to back) inviting us to interview on either Feb 22 or Mar 1. We had Banneker today.

We got three of the emails…

Walls must have had tech issues today - we received 3 of the same email for something re our current Walls student

Has anyone been notified that they will not receive an interview?

Anonymous wrote:I just got four emails (back to back) inviting us to interview on either Feb 22 or Mar 1. We had Banneker today.

We got three of the emails…

Banneker had at least 16 panels at a time going today. That is the highest number I heard called while my kid was doing his writing sample.

Anonymous wrote:They received 1400 last year. Not sure how may will receive interviews. How do they even manage interviewing hundreds of students in only two days? They must have several groups doing the interviews simultaneously.

They do. We went through it last year and they have a bunch of staff conducting interviews (each teacher paired with a student). I don’t remember the exact amount but I would say there were about 20 kids during my kid’s time slot.