This is all still pretty new to us. I’ve been reading about reclassing on here as we approached and passed M10 reading a variety of totally valid reasons why a student might want to or need to do it.
Wouldn’t a BS generally see most reclassed 9th as stronger candidates over 8th grade applicants? Thinking that they may perform better for the school? I understand that there may be certain qualities and 8th grader may bring to fill a certain bucket of course.
Do schools try to keep the % of reclassed students to a threshold?
I really don’t think that’s how admissions work. Admissions committees, for the most part, aren’t looking at an application and comparing it to the rest in their pile. Otherwise, how would they start the process? They are evaluating an application as an individual and asking questions like “does this applicant seem mature/nice/interesting/talented/etc?” before advancing them to another reader for more notes.
There are plenty of kids at every school who never re-class in 9th grade. If you (or your kid) were waitlisted, assume that the application was evaluated as an individual, and that application made it through at least one read by a committee member. Remember, you can re-apply next year (including evaluating whether a reclass would be beneficial at that point) if you feel like that would make sense for you/your family.
I think the reclassing discussions on here are often viewed in terms of “would it increase my odds of acceptance,” which is a mistake. A better way to think about reclassing is asking yourself “would I/my kid benefit from another year of maturing before boarding school?” (Full disclosure: I have two kids who went through the process, neither of whom relcassed at any point.)
if you can reclass do it. I’ve heard numbers as high as 40% of kids reclass. You should talk to a professional, but if we had to do it all over again,
we would reclass.
good luck!
My son is a senior at an independent day prep school in MA. Off the top of my head, there are 14 reclasses in his grade that I know of. 13 are boys and 1 is a girl (and she’s the daughter of the associate head of school). There are 95 kids in their grade. So roughly 15% of their grade reclassed. Every one of the boy reclasses are athletes. And most have spring or summer birthdays, meaning that they were young for their grade prior to reclassing. I really think that outside of athletics, reclassing does not happen as much as people think it does.
Having said that, reclassed 9th graders seem to do pretty well with admissions. But for the most part it’s because these kids are now competitive with strong 8th graders when they wouldn’t be before. (And that sometimes is as simple as age or maturity).
One of mine is at a small independent day school in MA (focused not at all on sports, but very much on academics) and don’t think they have any re-classes in their grade. I haven’t met one, at least, and I have met pretty much all the families. (Some may have been redshirted for K, I wouldn’t know that offhand). I do know a 10th grade transfer a few years ago that did re-class.
I think different schools have very different philosophies and sports plays into this a lot!
I think reclassing is much less common at day schools. A kid who is academically capable but immature faces a whole different set of challenges living in a dorm with more mature kids than one going home every night.
Also, reclassing within the community you have been in – which is part of the day school experience – if far tougher than starting in a whole new group as a reclassed student.
It’s often hard for students to imagine themselves reclassing for this reason – they imagine all their peers advancing a grade while they hang back. Agh! But when you’re not with that cohort, it doesn’t matter.
(I was responding to someone specifically talking about a day school!)
I agree with you though, it is less common for day schools in general. I think both for social maturity to be at BS and the over-emphaisis and focus on sports (I am editorializing) at many (not all) BS.
thanks for the responses. I’m more just curious as I didn’t think about reclasses in the applicant pool much before and how admissions may weigh that extra year of academic, athletic and/or maturity growth compared to other younger applicants if at all to build the strongest class/team they are looking for. It doesn’t seem like it would be a significant number for any one “bucket” at a given school.
As I mentioned, as a parent, I completely understand a number of valid reasons I would consider reclassing a child, and may do so for my other kid.
Reclassing is not something we would consider for my 8th grader, academically. They’re ready for 9th.
Good points! I think though at the very basic of levels, admissions has to compare individuals (as much as I don’t want any student to feel that way) once they get past your point of first read to see if a student seems like a general fit for the school. Then isn’t it more like which of these students is the best fit for a strong class at this school?
My question wasn’t should a kid reclass to get an edge, and what am I missing.
It would be irresponsible to hold a kid back who is ready just to get into any school. And I totally get those that reclass for age, maturity, concerns about boarding young, transferring etc.
It was wouldn’t admissions consider *
most reclassed students stronger candidates in the pool, and what am I missing.
From others responses here and elsewhere on his forum, I gather most people really don’t think there’s much direct comparison and that despite the extra year of high school level academics if 9-9, they don’t think it factors in on the 1:1 student level during admissions. Though I was surprised to hear that, anecdotally 15-40% of some classes are reclassed students. I’m not sure how accurate this. Thank you
I think reclassing is common for athletes as @laxmom24 said. I also live outside Boston and my current 9th grade son will be going to a highly-ranked ISL school as a 10th grader. The two school schools he applied to only admit 5-10 rising 10th graders and the lacrosse coach at one asked if he would consider reclassing. We were a little surprised since he is an all-honors student with a 4.5 GPA, a class officer, scored 93rd percentile on the SSAT, etc. etc.
I think this may be suggested for current 9th graders in particular because even if the kid is a strong candidate, there are only 5 spots for 10th grade, but would be a slam-dunk showing you already get As in the same honors courses among the pool ~70 rising 9th graders.
Also, matriculation numbers matter. For better or worse, many of the top college numbers you see are for recruited athletes, not necessarily the academics. So, if a coach can get a current 9th grader who is still physically developing to reclass, it will give the coaches one extra year to help with the recruiting process of a child who may be bigger, stronger, and faster (and help the school win more titles, pay an extra year of tuition, raise the test score numbers, etc.).
The coach said even though he is a strong candidate, so are all the other rising 10th graders who have similar stats but could be reclasses, coaches for all the sports will be fighting to get their chosen kids in, and some kids may be possible recruits in multiple sports (not to mention the non-athlete applicants who may be gifted artists or generally strong academics). Getting one of those 5 spots will be far tougher than getting in with the 9th grade masses, so you can see where someone would reclass to get an edge.
My son was accepted at both. Aside from him, there is another boy from his lacrosse club and I overheard a parent last week saying her son was a reclass going into 10th, so at least 3 of the 5 incoming 10th graders are male athletes, one of which is a reclass.