You can’t ignore kids applying for 10th from Private Day School and JBS. This is a very competitive pool with both FA and FP applicants. Depending on the BS ( you’re applying to) or circumstance some applicants will make it known ( to admissions ) that they’re willing to repeat 9th or would like to be considered for both 9th or 10th.
If you’re applying for BS again next year or for the first time you should definitely weigh the advantages and disadvantages @GMTplus7 outlined above. Once you’ve thought it through it would behoove you to have a strategy in place prior to your first interview next fall.
DD applied to 11th grade as a current soph in day school this year and was accepted to a few boarding schools. I didn’t realize that repeating a year was possible (and even fairly common) in the BS world until I discovered CC after application was submitted. I did email a couple of schools after the fact and relayed the information that she would consider repeating a year if warranted. Both schools replied that grades and recommendations did not indicate that she needed to repeat a year. So I assume they take strength of applicant and curriculum into consideration when determining grade placement.
A big consideration if u easily/u scored in the far upper end of the SSAT score range: u will likely also score well on the PSAT and be a contender for National Merit Finalist. Check the rules for National Merit (they have a website). I think u have to complete HS in 4 years max to be eligible.
Only US citizens/PR are eligible. It’s ~ top 1% PSAT scorers in each state. Boarding school students are in a separate scoring pool from the state pool.
Most of the selective boarding schools boast a few to several dozen National Merit Finalists every year.
There are many colleges that give automatic scholarships to NMF, including full and half tuition scholarships.
I would just say that if you are coming from a public school with a January-December grouping for each class you will not be as old switching into a private school as you might think. Many private schools are now more of September-August, or in the case of many boys’ private schools (at least 50% of those grads go on to BS) the incoming kindergardeners may have turned 6 as early as April before they start. Most have Sept 1 birthday cutoffs and it is very very common to push that towards the older by another 2-4 months. A February birthday is on the very young end in my kids classes.
So fast forward a few years and you have a lot of incoming 9th graders who are almost 15 and a half, and those aren’t the ones who are repeating.
Since I’m so far clueless just like many 13 yr olds on this board… I was going to post…
Is there any merit to being a National Merit Semifinalist? Don’t they just give like $1000 for the NM Scholar? and then I remembered google…
and found this answer…
[QUOTE=""]
"What it means is that you will get a lot of junk mail from colleges in the coming months. I was a National Merit Commended Scholar, which I think is one tier under Semifinalist. The junk mail just poured in. So many trees died just because I happened to do well on a test...
Other than that, it was just one more thing to put on a college application." :-j :smiley:
[/QUOTE]
At our local school, DS1 took PSAT in freshman year and PLAN in sophomore year.
SO many trees are dying because of that and he didn’t even score well… they just got our address in their system and our recycling bin is exploding.
The most uber selective colleges which give no merit scholarships period, tend to give only the token 1000 bucks to NMF, bcs these schools have no shortage of NMFs.
But there are many selective, very desirable schools that give half or full tuition scholarships to NMF, e.g. Northeastern, Fordham, USC (Univ Southern Cal), GWU? There are a number of flagship state universities which give either full tuition scholarships or instate tuition rates to out of state NMF.
Some private buisinesses participate in NMF also so if you have a parent who works there you can qualify for $ that way.
If you are a repeat 9 or 10th grader I think the PSAT in 10th grade is your qualifying score. At DS school all 10th & 11th graders take the PSAT and I thought it was partly for repeats.
In MA kindergarten cut offs are in September and have been for many years. So even if you are a fall birthday in other states repeating can put you in line with other kids of the same age.
I think goldenfygg meant that goldenf was already older with October birthday so repeating would put goldenf two years older than some of the freshmen, at almost 16 next fall. Nothing wrong about that just stating it for goldenf.
I am in the same situation as @goldenfygg and our birthdays are less than two months apart (I’m a bit younger). If I reapply as a repeat 9th grader I will also be almost 16 by next fall. For those who know others who reapplied, usually what opportunities are there for older reapplicants to be with lowers their age? I don’t mind being one of the oldest in my class, but I am interested in how older reapplicants interact with those in academics/athletics.
Besides that there are a lot of kids who repeat 9th (and occasionally 10th), there are a fair number of kids who started school a year older back in Kindergarten (these seem to mostly be either from New York or various places in Asia). There is also a lot of crossover between years at BS-- in sports, theater, music, arts for sure-- but also just among friend groups. My son’s group of closest friends the past couple of years spans 2 years anyway (last year freshmen and sophomores, this year sophomores and juniors). The dorms are separate, but they all hang out together in whoever’ room is largest (this year it’s the room of a particular junior). He even managed to squeeze a couch in his room for extra seating. My son’s also friends with a couple of freshmen and seniors from various sports/ECs, although, as I said, his closest friends are sophomores (like he is) or juniors. People also date kids in different grades (which he is as well).
@stargirl3 my daughter read The Odyssey in the 7th grade and will be reading it again starting next week. She found her book and it had lots of notes in it that she made and she’s pysched about that. Glad she kept the book and found it
@stargirl3 I wonder if you could get placed into 10th grade English avoiding 9th grade Odyssey. Repeating grade does not mean repeating classes. Generally in math and foreign languages you will be placed into class levels independent of your grade. I wonder if that’s true with English as well. Even at our local school, several 8th graders are placed into 9th grade English.
@payn4ward
Current schedule (honors everything): Spanish 4, English 1, modern world, biology, geometry
Freshman year at Solebury, it would be normal to take physics, freshman history, and freshman English, but I’d also be in AP Spanish and algebra 2. Only two of my classes would be different entering as a frosh vs. a sophomore (English and history).
The English course is mostly different books, and a good teacher can make even The Odyssey fun (mine did!). I’m not really worried about it.
@thelittleswimmer… feel free to PM me. My DD applied this year as a 10th grader and I am happy to share what we thought the pros/cons were. I don’t like to post too much personal info.
Just curious, @stargirl3, (if it’s something you can share) why they didn’t want you to start in 10th grade? Others have pointed out that with FA a consideration, schools may be more willing to pay for 2 or 3 years than for 4.
