Talk:Harvard-Westlake School

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[edit] Possible confusion

I'm guessing that this school has absolutely nothing to do with Harvard University; it would be great if someone could please confirm this and add this to the article. The name of the school is so similar, it would be good to make that clarification in the article. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.206.196.96 (talk) 22:27, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

Sir: "Little," but not "absolutely nothing." The Harvard High School, from which the Harvard-Westlake school takes part of its name, licensed the name from Harvard University nearly a century ago, which sought a west coast prep school to provide more students. The article ought to mention this. Non Curat Lex (talk) 08:55, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Accusations of Advertisment

If you're going to call this article an advertisment, you would be best served to tell me what part of it seems to you as such. With all due respect, simply objecting to the word "illustrious" will not suffice. Not only was the section for performing arts written by an unbiased source familiar with Los Angeles high school performing arts, but the department is also indeed illustrious. I beg of you to find a more accomplished secondary school program in this capital of media and entertainment.

Furthermore, whether you like it or not, Harvard-Westlake is indeed considered by the eligible and informed residents of this city, the city from which most of its students come, to be the best private secondary school. Or do you consider a 99% (278/280) college matriculation rate not deserving of your most desired pride? If so, perhaps you should see the rate for the rest of Los Angeles, or your own high school--that is, assuming you attended. --Cjmsheng 17:32, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

There are many other private secondary schools with 100% college matriculation rates that are considered "illustrious" and the "best private secondary school" in los angeles. i again refer you to Polytechnic School and Westridge School for Girls. Kiwidude 19:51, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

The general rule on Wikipedia is to show why something is important or "illustrious" rather than simply asserting that it is so. If the school has received awards for its performing arts department, or if alumni have gone on to successful careers in that field, or whatever the metric of illustriousness is, let's mention those instead. Wikipedia:Avoid peacock terms. -Will Beback · † · 22:01, 4 January 2007 (UTC)

Worthy of further note might be the lack of less "illustrious" comments pertaining to the school's history and present. The article contains neither any mention of the rather widely publicized legal action taken against the school in recent years nor a section pertaining to the common complaints of stress, drug use, lack of sleep, etc. lodged by students. This article may not be an advertisement per se, but I would not think it outrageous to question its neutrality. 207.153.112.110 16:18, 2 February 2007 (UTC)hwstudent

Stress, drug use, et. al. pertains to specific students and not the school as a whole, nor do you have any published evidence as to the incidents to which you refer. If at some point you come across something of that nature, then by all means feel free to summarize it. And whoever tagged this as advertising probably should be so good as to point out exactly where he or she or it sees it.

[edit] ranking

whats H-W's ranking among other high schools (in the state, country whatever)?

  • i've never seen rankings for private schools.Kiwidude 01:01, 27 April 2006 (UTC)
  • By reputation, one of the best.--Cjmsheng 20:14, 28 July 2006 (UTC)
  • By reputation, never heard of it. -ACH
  • The school's reputation doesn't establish ranking and should not be the basis of information in this article. Kiwidude 05:19, 14 August 2006 (UTC)
  • The school's reputation does not establish ranking; however, its reputation is a major reason why it even has a page. The author of this page would not have found it necessary to lose complete focus at work and write the entire article if Harvard-Westlake's reputation for sending bright and young, though desperately naive, alumni to top colleges and universities did not preceed it. --Cjmsheng 11:01, 29 August 2006 (UTC)
  • Therefore loads of schools have pages. --Cjmsheng 05:11, 5 September 2006 (UTC)
  • Kiwidude did you go to poly?76.172.71.118 10:21, 5 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Motto

The correct translation of "possunt quia posse videntur" (and I'm a Harvard-Westlake Latin student) is "They can because they are seen to be able [to]" from the Aeneid, Book 5, line 231. Colloquially this is interpretted as "They can because they think they can," and indeed it was intended as such by Vergil, but the direct translation is incorrect. --Cjmsheng 03:07, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

it shows in your attitude--76.80.210.38 06:21, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Commentary

Let's keep the opinions and frivolity to a minimum. --Cjmsheng 05:48, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

  • I really don't care. Kiwidude 16:59, 27 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Students and Alumni of Note

The title of this section is neither "Students with Famous Parents," "Students that May or May not have Appeared in the Los Angeles Times," nor "Students who have been Talked About on Campus". Stop listing people who only have the potential to become famous. Astronauts, yes; LA City Council members, yes; college freshman basketball players, et cetera, no. --Cjmsheng 20:09, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Currently Being Updated

I will submit a replacement for this page within days.--Cjmsheng 21:31, 28 July 2006 (UTC)

  • done.
Excellent work. -Will Beback 20:26, 31 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Student Life

Anyone want to write the section on student life?--Cjmsheng 01:00, 29 July 2006 (UTC)

I have added a brief section on the less-savory elements of student life. It requires clean-up, but the points addressed are, I should think, quite necessary to preserve the neutrality of the article. 207.153.112.110 16:27, 2 February 2007 (UTC)hwstudent

Please don't insert unsourced POV. If there's been a newspaper article covering topics of drug use or sleep deprivation then we can summarize that. But personal knowledge isn't sufficient. -Will Beback · † · 19:44, 2 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Location

The Middle School is not located within the gates of Bel Air, therefore it is not a part of Bel Air proper. Since it's off Sunset, north of Wilshire, east of Beverly Glen, west of Beverly Hills, and somewhere boxed in between Westwood, Little Holmby, Bel Air, and Beverly Hills, it more or less counts as Holmby Hills.

Sir: More or less? It IS in Holmby Hills. However, most people do not know where that is or what it means. Non Curat Lex (talk) 09:03, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

The reference to North Hollywood is not correct. Because it's just a few hundred yards south of Ventura Blvd. in the Valley, I think that's Sherman Oaks, but who knows what the school describes as its location. North Hollywood is far away.Link2dan (talk) 20:11, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

The address of the main campus is 3700 Coldwater Canyon Avenue, North Hollywood, CA 91604 [1]. Neighborhood borders aren't as distinct as we'd like. In any case, they've called their location "N.H." for decades. ·:· Will Beback ·:· 20:56, 1 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Academics

The opening paragraph of the Academics section does not make sense: "The academic program at Harvard-Westlake is regarded as one of the most rigorous in the country. However, this reputation is somewhat misrepresented; while the school does offer a veritable plethora of classes, especially in the junior and senior years, many of which are College Board Advanced Placement, the school’s requirements for graduation are relatively stringent." Rigorous and stringent mean the same thing. If the intended meaning of this statement is indeed correct, then a better word should be used. Dbf2112 16:36, 27 August 2006 (UTC)dbf2112

  • How about now? --Cjmsheng 10:51, 29 August 2006 (UTC)


Please stop taking down the notation regarding the cheating scandal. As much as it may be a stain on the schools public image, I think it's an important event that necessitates publication in a public forum. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.170.71.119 (talk) 17:53, 8 March 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Performing Arts

If no one minds, im gonna do a performing arts section....Julesrules989 06:07, 10 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Michael Chang

Didn't Michael Chang (tennis) go to H-W? jengod 20:55, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

  • I can't be sure, but that's one alumnus we definitely don't have hanging in the trophy cabinets or in the gym, so I seriously doubt it.

[edit] Vandalism

There are some nice nuggets of vandalism flavoring this page, such as "I like sex" and "they pretty much rock at every sport". It would probably benefit the article if someone went through and weeded them out. (It's not a simple revert job, several edits have been made since some of the comments were added. Look at the edit of User:Hipponotretro for a starting point.)

Have fun.Branman515 04:58, 7 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Extravagance

This page is very extravagant, espesically the "Athletics'" "Philosophy (verbatim)" section in addition to many other sections. This should be noted and acted on in order to follow Wikipedia's philosophy of equality in acticles and unbiased opinion in such acticles.

Can the person above even spell? "espesically" is spelled especially, and "acticle" is spelled article. --68.4.73.34 (talk) 03:42, 2 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Links

Why are there so many citations which don't link anywhere? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 128.122.11.33 (talk) 02:33, 29 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Fair use rationale for Image:Wolverine1.gif

Image:Wolverine1.gif is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in this Wikipedia article constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.

Please go to the image description page and edit it to include a fair use rationale. Using one of the templates at Wikipedia:Fair use rationale guideline is an easy way to insure that your image is in compliance with Wikipedia policy, but remember that you must complete the template. Do not simply insert a blank template on an image page.

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BetacommandBot (talk) 03:13, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Dubious

The boosterism in this article is unlike anything I've ever seen in my years patrolling college and university articles. Pretty much everything tagged with a "dubious" needs a citation or is liable to be stripped out. I'll set June 1 as a deadline and check back in to see how things are going. And please, don't try any WP:WAX, I've heard it all before. Madcoverboy (talk) 05:28, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

As has been mentioned before, this article indulges in the worst types of self-promotion that the WP:PRESTIGE, WP:SOAP, WP:PEACOCK caution against. I've gone through and trimmed out some of it since I couldn't conscience letting it remain. I left in the most egregious examples so that people would read the talk page. :) If you have a problem with it, I'd be glad to talk it over with you and bring more eyes here to improve it. Madcoverboy (talk) 05:39, 9 May 2008 (UTC)
As a sign of good faith and being bold, I fixed the bunching problem you had with the section edit boxes and wikified your alumni list. Madcoverboy (talk) 05:55, 9 May 2008 (UTC)