How old will your child be when they start college?

RobD
Sat, 18 Jul 2009 11:13:32 +0000

My DD will be 17 when she starts college & will turn 18 a month later (she has a September birthday.)

When we lived in NJ, the kindergarten cutoff was December 31st, so she started school when she was “supposed” to, two weeks before her 5th birthday. There were a number of kids who had November and December birthdays, so she certainly wasn’t the youngest and it wasn’t an issue. People in that area as a rule don’t “hold back” their kids from Kindergarten unless a preschool teacher has suggested it or if there are extenuating circumstances.

Fast forward a few years and we moved to TN. The cutoff age for Kindergarten here is September 30, but we know few people who have kids born close to the cutoff who actually send them then. DD is probably the youngest senior (at least she’s the youngest one we know of) and there are kids who are a few days older than her who are juniors. She was the last one to start driving, etc. And on the 1st day of her senior year, she’ll walk in at 16 and there will be a few turning 19 within a few months.

I think that even if we had lived here when she was starting school, I would have sent her when I did. She still would have made the cutoff and she was ready. I don’t think that academically it has hurt her at all. And DH is an October birthday; he started college at 17 (and played all kinds of sports successfully in HS) and I don’t think there’s been any long lasting repercussions ;)