My son is now 2nd grade, and we really want him to go to Harvard-Westlake middle school.
Other than School Grades, ISEE, Recommendation Letters, any other skills we should get ready for? like sports, arts, competitions, and to what extent? they are elementary students after all.
One of my friends told me that family’s fanancial situation is very important, very little chance for an average middle class family. Is that true?
Any suggestions and experiences are really appreciated.
The highest math class you can test into in 7th grade at HW is Algebra 2 honors… and it is HARD. So work backward and figure out what math he should be doing now to make to Algebra 2 HONORS. So prealgebra by 5th grade (yes it’s possible… my DS was in Algebra by 5th). There are tons of online math enrichment classes to get him on track. If he likes math, think about entering math kangaroo competitions, and other competitions. Math camps like Epsilon also help. Try to get into the UCLA math circle. Oleg runs that and is awesome (many kids at HW participate in this). If you’re going to have him do sports, then find one a little off the beaten path like wrestling, water polo, rowing, etc. ISEE is key. 9s across the board. Concentrate on the ERBs when he starts taking them. HW sometimes asks for these scores. Does your elementary school commonly send kids to HW?If now look for another school that has better luck . Yes money helps, but they rather have a smart kid. They have a ton of average kids with huge family money… have your boy be the one they actually want. Just MHO. I’m sure many will disagree with me…
Or… You could just let your second grader start growing up to be a kind, curious, adventurous child secure in the unconditional love of parents who model character, generosity, honesty, and deep integrity with a great sense of humor and grace. Follow where your child’s interests lead and help him become the best version of his lovely young self at every step, whatever that looks like. Focus on the importance of every moment you are able to spend with this child. Teach him well. Love him better. THAT’S what will give this child the “edge” at every stage of his life. The rest will take care of itself.
IMO, focusing on a particular middle school and finessing how to get there at this early stage encumbers what should be a joyous, carefree time in a young life. You can challenge his intellect, feed his curiosity, and build up his body without setting rigid goals and benchmarks that may actually stifle what’s truly special about your son. Now is not the time to worry about admission to a middle school that may not even be a good fit for the future person your son is developing into. Don’t shove this child into any middle school profile. Let him develop into his own special self and then, when the time comes, match the school to your son, not the other way around.
Is this question a joke or ■■■■■■■■? I’m skeptical that a parent of a 2nd grader is really asking this. Kids learn through play so I hope you are giving your child free play time and a chance to make mistakes and learn through them. That’s what I’d focus on in 2nd grade. 
I’m not familiar with HW, other than that I’ve been told the kids aren’t particularly happy at the school, so I don’t have advice on how to prep your 2nd grader for admissions.
Why is ■■■■■■■■ blocked out as if I swore, which I did not?
I private messaged you but there are words that the system will block out.
While I generally agree with the copious wisdom expressed in this thread by ChoatieMom, I may have a slightly different perspective, namely: some potential hooks for “tippy top” private schools do require years of practice beginning in early elementary school for the student to be advanced enough to help in admission. E.g., if a student wants a good chance to achieve admittance to Phillips Exeter, for example, with a string instrument as a hook, he or she needs to have started on the instrument during the young elementary school years. Otherwise, the student probably won’t be good enough for it to make a difference. The same is true for certain sports, like soccer. Probably won’t be good enough to make a difference in tippy top admissions if the student hasn’t had years of training in the technical and tactical skills of the game.
Agree, hooks are helpful for Tippy Tops. Although one shouldn’t start playing the violin, for example, merely so they can one day perform at Carnegie Hall. Getting to CH should be the byproduct of immense talent and a love affair with music.
Let one’s passions and talents map out the journey, and parents, please - avoid the pitfall of looking at the “end point” and then working backwards.
And then there are those like poor ChoatieKid who ran amok all his unscheduled young life, never played a sport, and used his trumpet to torment his cat. How he got in to Choate, we’ll never know. 
Perhaps the parent interview had something to do with it!
No parent interviews here. Wish there had been, though. Kiddo interviewed with a Choate alum at a local Starbucks. We just dropped him off and picked him up.
Moved to the main thread
More than half of the students’ families living in houses with average estimation > $5.0 M, so the real question should be how you become that parent, if you can’t make it, why shall the kiddo 
According to our experience, here some information for your reference.
Don’t intentionally tailor your kid to fit any school, it won’t work.
Check my post from last year, nobody really knows how you can prepare your kids to HW, my son was in HW waitlist (7th) and eventually not able to go off, so he went to another elite school, and he is thriving there now, he likes the school, very caring, he likes every teacher, I am sure the school has the best teaching resource.
We did not even consider private school until the 6th grade started already, the reason we applied was that the son wanted to play baseball program in HW, he thought he was good enough (indeed he is really good at solid USSSA/AAA level playing >60 games each year), but how do you know he will thrive in baseball when he was only in 6th grade, so this won’t be a factor in the admission, even your passion won’t be a factor.
Grading wise, you even never know, the son got 9/9/9/9 in ISEE for the first-ever test, only 3 quiz wrong, “Valedictorian” for grade promotion of the best public elementary school in the school district. Unfortunately nobody in the valley admitted to HW before through grading only. It is NOT a true fact at all many applicants got all 9s, there were all 7s got admitted, so it is not a decisive factor, I am so sure about that, among the entire admitted student body, of it is <10% achieved all 9s
Other things, chess ranking, oil painting award from city, math award from school district, district math field day top award, what you can expect from a 6th grade?
Got 100% in algebra 1 placement test, geometry as well in the other elite school prior to summer break … honestly it doesn’t mean anything to the school
Parent were interviewed virtually as well, were not given any chance to ask or talk, full pay, solid financial situation, though not wealthy family.
So, all to say, really doesn’t matter, nobody knows about the HW admission
What are you looking for your kids? what you are looking for in HW, and really HW can offer that opportunities? Educate the kid to be a great young people, to be great and passionate on something, other things will come. (“He is a great young man and a great fine player” … from the former HW head coach, I like that more than being a student for HW).
HW > Ivy alum here from the 90’s, so take with a grain of salt.
What I haven’t seen posted in this thread is the most obvious advice to get into the quintessential Ivy feeder high school… go to a prestigious feeder elementary school.
It requires competing, but thats the best prep for HW. I’d say anywhere from 40-50% of the 250 kids in my graduating class went to one of:
Center for Early Education
Curtis
John Thomas Dye
Mirman
St James’
St Matthew’s
Some come from K-12 schools like Crossroads, Brentwood, Oakwood but you have to be really clear that you’ll switch if accepted.
Sorry, wish the names on this list were more diverse and werent all sourced from rich and connected families, but thats what HW is. Best of luck!
The upset part, including HW, the 4 bigs private schools (HW/Prep/Poly/Bishop) barely admit applicants from public schools, especially “unknown” public schools unless you are “talented” in some ECs, which align with your observation. However, many of the kids in those school are not better at all than many common kids, at least from what we observed in the prep league sports and what we learned from the community. So 2 cents are that parent should find what is the best for the kids first, not tailoring them to fit something.
This is the obvious answer, esp. for 7th grade entry: go to a feeder school.
I’ve heard that the Eaglebrook School is among the best prep school feeder schools in the country (Outside of the NYC private schools).
“Eaglebrook School is an independent junior boarding and day school for boys in grades six through nine. It is located in Deerfield, Massachusetts, on the Pocumtuck Range near Deerfield Academy and sited on an 724-acre campus.”
This thread got me thinking…
My kid goes to a private k-8 school which could be considered a feeder school - in a different city from HW, but we have one very prestigious private high school that is on every ambitious parent’s list. And some other good schools, but there’s the one that makes everyone’s ears perk up.
Every year, a handful of kids who graduate from my kid’s school are admitted to the prestigious school. That’s out of a pretty small class, and not counting kids who left our school early to attend middle school at the prestigious school (and other middle schools that feed directly to high school), which starts in earlier grades but doubles the class size in 9th grade.
I wonder, what sets apart these kids who are admitted? Being at a feeder school isn’t enough, and sometimes the kids you expect to get in don’t. I guess without having gone through the process, I can’t know, I just have to wait and see. My kid wants to go to the prestigious school, and I think she has a chance but it’s hard to know for sure. Maybe when she is in 8th grade our school counselor will advise us. A couple of my kids classmates have older siblings who graduated from the school and are now in the top high schools, so I can ask them about it, but I don’t think they will tell me a lot (for so many reasons). I am encouraging my daughter but also tempering expectations- she is an excellent student, well rounded (academic, sporty, arty, and musical), stands out in a couple of areas (both academic and extracurricular), in demand as a friend, but in the end, we are not full pay, and it seems like a crapshoot. She might enjoy our local public high school, which has its pros and cons but has academic rigor for those who seek it, and my older daughter will be there next year to test it out.
The key question is always what does your kid bring to the school-be it prestigious parents, stellar test scores, musical talent, diversity. What institutional priority does your kid fill? Depending upon the school’s endowment, financial aid may be allocated to those higher on the priority list.