Apply to some schools for 9th grade, others for 10th?

baldingguy
Fri, 21 Dec 2012 19:29:11 +0000

Our son is currently a young 8th grader and he plans to stay at his current school through the end of 9th grade. So a year from now, he could either apply as a 9th grader, seeking entry to a new school at 10th grade, or seeking to repeat 9th grade. Although young, he’s excelling academically with kids older than him and he’s not a top athlete or anything. So in other words, I don’t think there’s a strong reason for him to repeat 9th grade either for academic or athletic reasons.

However, we are aware of how competitive some of the very good schools are. We also noticed that 9th grade seems to be a more natural entry year for some schools than others. We were therefore wondering:


If your child doesn’t have a strong opinion either way, does it make any sense to apply to repeat a year, just to improve the chances of getting in at a more competitive school and/or one that views 9th grade as the natural entry year?
Does it make any sense to apply to some schools for 9th grade and others for 10th?