MCPS students, beware: as of the 2024-2025 school year, the county has officially been moved from the warning label to the banned list by the National American Ivy League Society (NAILS). This demotion, which can be virtually irreversible, means that no U.S. Ivy League university will grant admission to any student graduating from WCHS under reasonable circumstances.
The Ivy League, which is composed of Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University and Yale University, is in theory simply a collegiate athletic conference among these select few northeastern universities. Yet, all college-bound students know it is much more than that. Regardless of how accurate this claim may be, the Ivy League continues to represent the pinnacle of American higher education and, thus, the American dream. WCHS—which has historically sent many students to these high-ranking schools—only has itself to blame for its new fate.
“Moving a county to our blacklist is a very difficult decision to make, as we know that it will affect hundreds of thousands of students,” Ima Legacy, the chairperson of NAILS, said. “Unfortunately, we could no longer ignore how WCHS’ blatant grade inflation and lax policies for students was resulting in students who on paper seemed like a great fit for our high standards, but in reality struggled to an unimaginable extent.”
In the post-COVID years, as WCHS has fought the pandemic-era learning loss by catering, first reasonably but then excessively, to the wishes of its students, the changes in academic policies have come under much questioning and debate. The refusal to listen to the counterarguments by hiding behind the buzz of “mental health” and the performative philosophy of “the students should control their own education,” however, has led to the county being accused of slapping band-aids on the issue rather than truly explore how to genuinely change the toxic academic culture to improve students’ wellbeing.
“I have worked so hard these past three years in high school, taking the standard 9-10 AP classes a year, and to realize that that is going to waste because of decisions that were out of my control is infuriating,” WCHS junior Shouldabin Anathlete said. “My friends and I, who relied more on our academic transcript and awards, have backed ourselves onto the edge of a cliff. I wish someone had told us that was the worst thing we could do to ourselves.”
Anathlete’s comment comes in the light of NAILS’ caveat to schools placed on the blacklist: all legacy students — meaning that their parents graduated from an Ivy League university—and student-athletes will still be considered for admissions.
“We remain committed to ensuring that legacy students and student-athletes, who are held to a different standard than regular applicants, will receive the same opportunities as their other such peers throughout the nation,” Legacy said.
As WCHS students continue to grapple with this unexpected and devastating change to their future, MCPS has been reminding us not to give up hope with daily inspirational hour-long PRIDE lessons, colorful stickers and reruns of commercials of happy students MCPS-TV. Despite their efforts, the effectiveness of these changes when up against the festering rage of the students remains to be determined.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Anathlete said. “My parents won’t have anything to brag to their friends about.”
