My S23 was also 16 at the beginning of senior year of HS. Both my kids have fall birthdays and we did not delay school entry for either of them.
It’s funny because people always think S23 is much older. When he was a freshman in college, people kept assuming that he was a junior or senior and would express surprise when he said he was a freshman. 
Oh yes, I forgot some of those things like RD or EA and deadline, lol. That, too. 
It’s very common in our area to start kindergarten at 6 as well, especially at private schools. My D26 did an extra year after kindergarten, so she turned 18 this past June. She’s a bit on the older end in her grade, but there are a handful of kids who are older. (But there are also some who are almost a year younger.)
I didn’t have to sign many of the endless forms at the beginning of this year – like the concussion stuff and the honor pledge and what not – they just needed her signature!
C26 has always been tall so was never noticeably younger than other kids. It was occasionally the case that kids who had been held back to start later would be almost 2 years older, and there are some of those (one was very prem and parents advised to work on what age “should” have been), but most seem to have followed the normal age schedule. So we are seeing the bulk turn 18 from around now through the rest of the school year.
S26 looks older than he is (he’s 17). last week he was stopped in the hall by their school librarian asking to see his school ID. She then went to double check that he belongs in the school. When S26 asked what was the matter she told her “You look like one of those college students that come back to their high school to relive their glory days” 
It sure does! Literally, our whole attitude changed when she loved that school. Unless something catastrophically bad happens, our worst case scenario is she goes to a school literally tied as her #1 choice! We feel so lucky.
For D26 it is the opposite. She is young for being a senior (just turned 17) but she looks like a baby! 
Her school is an open campus- except for Freshmen- and she gets stopped regularly when leaving and/or coming back onto campus.
Drives her crazy!- told her she will one day appreciate that- but she surely does not now 
My D22 has a suite mate this year who is like this – she’s a college senior, but she’s really petite and looks about 12. I’m sure she hates it, lol.
Meanwhile, my D26 was 6 feet tall by age 11 or 12, so even though her face looked young, everyone thought she was much older. And then she’d start talking about My Little Pony or something, and people would clue in quickly. 
Same! D26 doesn’t have any serious reaches on her list – her reachiest school accepts about 50% of applicants from her high school (in-state), so she has a pretty good shot. And it’s not even in her top three choices, lol.
So it’s been fairly low-stress – especially compared to my D22’s list, which was mostly insane reaches.
I really hope I didn’t just jinx it by saying that!
You and me both hoping we aren’t jinxing. My daughter’s reaches are definitely reachy (acceptance rates in the low teens), but her counselor thinks she actually has a legit shot at them. One is a contender, but the other is like ranked fifth on her list. I don’t even understand why she is applying there given I don’t see a path where she chooses it over easier to get into schools she likes much more. But, I’m not stressing about it.
This is my daughter too. I feel for her when she has her drink brought to her with a lid. She is 18, but could be mistaken for a 6th grader.
Just a thought, but C26 could reach out to the admissions officer and ask their advice, especially since the change in required/recommended just occurred? I also understand not wanting to call attention to it, but most of the admissions people we’ve encountered have been sincerely helpful and wanting to provide good advice. Hopefully it’ll be good news, but it also seems better to know if it’s a hard no before applying. Best of luck to C26!
It’s a good thought, but C26 has emailed the department contact for admissions before about something (I don’t recall what) and never received a reply. But maybe they can email the admissions contact for the school that has responsibility for our high school.
Ugh, that’s frustrating about the department contact not replying, but yes, hopefully the school admission rep would be more forthcoming. Our S26’s high school also has a load of college rep visits lined up (that don’t work for him as he is bussed to another school 1/2 the time). If the school rep is coming to C26’s high school, it might be nice to talk in person.
I don’t think there’s a visit planned (at least not last time we checked the list, will check again) but Maia lists the contact details for all admissions officers responsible for our school.
Edit: I just checked with C26 and it was actually a question about this - there was apparently contradictory wording on two different website pages before between required vs recommended (I’d obviously only seen the recommended before ). So even more frustrating that it wasn’t answered. And they showed me the email contact address and it was specifically for undergrad arch admissions so definitely the best placed to answer…
Edit again: they looked again. The pages are still contradictory…
Such unnecessary stress for your kid. If they can’t get it together to have the right info on their page, at least respond to the kid. Jeez!
Like Ralph Macchio- literally still looks like he could pass for 40 (he is 63)
D26 has a couple of schools on her list that are reaches for her, but they are fairly far down. She was already accepted into her top choice so that is a real load off her mind (although the tough part is still to come- getting her portfolio done and accepted into the BFA program). It’s kind of a double-edged sword though because I think it’s making her more lax about her essay.
D26 took a film acting class where they talked about what age range they fit into and she was put in the 17-24 category.
So D26 had her first major hiccup with the application process. Not too crazy since it was discovered in plenty of time.
This year, her school switched to School Links so that has caused a few issues- everyone-including the teachers/counselors- are learning it in real time which is slowing down some of the request. Not a big deal.
But they also migrated to a new email system over the summer. Well, some emails changed for the teachers, but they never told us that. Nor did they set up any kind of forwarding or kickback message.
School Links also had the older emails in there!!! So, her LOR request where not being seen/sent to the correct recipient.
D26 was getting kind of sad because her top/main LOR teacher that she has been working with in clubs since middle school and was her teacher for CS classes 9-11th was not responding to her emails or School Links request (did she get ghosted!?- by a favorite teacher!!) This teacher is located at the districts Tech school so D26 could not just pop by her classroom after school.
D26 found this all out when teacher finally sent her an email asking what was going on with LOR needs (D26 told her last year that she was getting application done pretty early so she was worried that she had yet to hear from D26). That is when they were able to put 2 and 2 together and figure out what was going wrong.
It is now getting fixed- but I am just worried about other students who may not be paying attention- how many are not going to get their stuff taken care of because of this?!
What a nightmare! Hopefully it’s not impacting most students and teachers too badly because they are at same site and students can see teachers and ask if no response. Then again, I imagine lots of kids would be afraid to approach a teacher they think is ghosting them.
Glad you discovered it in time!
I also found an interesting hiccup. I googled our high school profile and it lists a ton of AP and honors classes that are allegedly offered, which are in fact not offered. The school is new, just opened last year and I believe they just copied the list of advanced classes offered from the other district high schools where most kids transferred from. S26’s rigor is not that great anyway but this profile makes it seem worse than it is.
The other interesting thing is that the average ACT score (based on just one very small senior class) is much higher than the other district schools those kids came from. It must have been a pretty self selecting group of seniors that chose to transfer last year.