How old will your child be when they start college?

Lafalum84
Sun, 19 Jul 2009 20:49:10 +0000

I’m lucky - both my kids are spring birthdays, so they are pretty much in the middle of their class. (Cutoff here is 8/31). Both were/will be 18 when they go to college. I think it will be fine for both of them.

I’ve known people all over the map on the whole kindergarten entrance thing, and I don’t think any of their parents were thinking about college at the time. I agree that it’s a highly individualized thing. I also think that social maturity and the ability to pay attention are more important in starting kindergarten than academics.

D dated 2 boys who were summer birthdays and their parents held them back a year. In both cases I think it was a wise decision. One of them definitely needs another year of maturity (if not more than that) before heading to college. The other is one of the most mature kids I’ve ever met, and may end up as valedictorian. But physically he is small, and was among the smallest kids in his grade even though he was one of the oldest. As an athlete, I think being a year older was his saving grace.

My neighbor, on the other hand, didn’t hold her August birthday son back and later wished she did. He was half-way through second grade before he could sit still and pay attention like the other kids did in first grade. Not ADD, just high energy. He was also on the short side, and spent much of his elem/middle school years trying to “prove himself” to the other kids. He’s in college now and it’s fine, but I think he’d have had an easier time both socially and academically in elem & middle school if she had held him back a year. But hindsight is 20/20.

OTOH, both DH and I were the youngest in our grades. We’re both fall birthdays who just made the cutoffs (mine 9/30, his 11/1). We were both more than ready to get out of hs and go to college, and both did fine there. I had a friend a week younger than me who was a grade behind me. All her friends were in my grade, and she was lonely and miserable her senior year.

Again, it’s a kid by kid decision.