<p>Didn’t realize the National Merit criteria but it makes sense. As a parent who has a very young sophomore (still 14) we contemplated repeating, however he was admitted as a sophomore and not as a repeat freshman. It also went through my mind that what happens if he doesn’t adjust or wants to come back home; then if he repeats he is stuck with being a year behind. We felt that it would be better to attend without repeating and if he wasn’t quite ready for college to take a post-grad year. So his current sophomore class has students ranging from 14 to almost 17. </p>