This is TYPICALLY the case, however, some schools occasionally make an exception for students given valid circumstances. One example I know was at Suffield Academy, but it is very rare.
While it might not technically be termed as a prep school having its own students do a PG year, some essentially do it by allowing students to do an “internal reclass”. I have heard of it occurring at Avon Old Farms and Brunswick (day school). So as an example, a student might attend and do grade 9, grade 10, grade 11, do grade 11 AGAIN, then grade 12. Every example I have heard of is for sports purposes.
We know a young man who attended PG @ Salisbury and LOVED it. Unlike most of the PG’s we know, he was not an athlete. I share this only because many students do pursue a PG year for their sport. There was an interesting opinion/editorial in our school paper last year authored by a PG girl. Her perspective was that the PG year was different for boys & girls - in her experience the boys were welcomed more in the overall student social scene and integrated faster into the social scene compared to the girls. This could be due to being on a Fall team if you are a PG. If anyone has personal experiences to share, it would be helpful for prospective PG’s & parents to read.
All but 1 of the recent PGs I have known were BS kids for 9-12 and football players and are all playing in college. The 1 was also a football player.
They all feel more connected to their 9-12 BS than their PG BS. I too would love to hear other experiences (non BS 9-12, girls, not athletes, not fall sport.)
All the ones we know currently at my kid’s boarding school were in either public, catholic or private day school previously. They already have athletic commitments so it seems they are having a nice year, playing sports (not just their main one) and taking mostly fun classes. They seem to be quite nice and spending time bonding with the other kids, including freshmen like mine. And from my kid’s POV, they are very much needed to make the teams competitive. There are not that many of them but they are impact players by and large.
I don’t think blaming PGs for ‘regular’ kids not being able to rise up to the varsity team is unfair, because even at the schools that do not have PGs it is very hard to make varsity unless you play in the off season on a club team or elsewhere. The boarding school season is just too short and unless you are a phenomenal athlete it is unlikely to happen in any of the competitive sports schools recruit for (not just PGs, most recruits are not PGs). Football is the big exception here since the team is large and other sports help with cross training and general fitness much more so than for most other sports.
I agree with the above. Schools that are admitting PGs who then take varsity spots are likely also recruiting each year to bring in new high level athletes who may be repeat sophomores, juniors, or even seniors who are guaranteed varsity spots. As @417WHB says, varsity teams (at least in certain sports, and sports that are a priority for the particular school) are competitive. Often loaded with future college players. (Even JV can be very competitive, for example in hockey) And, as one of the above posters said, while PGs typically attend a different school, DS has a kid in one of his classes who re-classed for 11th and so will do an extra year at the same school.
As far as other reasons for a PG year — DS has PG athletes at his school, but there are others. For example, some overseas students come for a PG year through special programs in preparation for applying to US universities. Last year there was a boy through the Thai Scholars program, and this year DS has a kid through a similar program in his advisory. These kids are big contributors on campus and certainly take nothing away from anyone else.
I don’t have any issues with PGs, but this thread is reminding me of ChoatieKid’s first dropoff. While we were milling about in the common room of the freshman boy’s dorm waiting for the introduction/orientation talk to commence, I assumed the guy to DH’s left was the dorm head and would start speaking soon. Nope. He was a 16-year-old hockey recruit (and later friend of CK). So, not a PG, but definitely an impact player. The few PGs I later met over our years at Choate were positive contributors to the BS community (in many ways) and integrated well into the student body.
PGs are a small number of kids. If you play a Varsity sport you can end up waiting behind PG du jour/of the year ( as happened to my nephew). This can really impact you. Eventually my nephew played his sport and got a college scholarship but not before his dad told the coach he was going back to public school if they put one more PG as the key player. Happens in many sports.
It also has social implications. Remember kids can be PG and have started school late or been red shirted by their parents. That means a wide range of ages on the same campus ( not sure if it’s good or bad, but it is a reality). Could be an issue, just as two years of social development can be an issue without any PGs.
There are also PG’s from abroad.
Most PGs tend to be athletes. In my day, they were the jocks who didn’t do well in high school. I think today they might do a PG because they need an extra year to get recruited. Generally, you are not going to have to worry about them taking spots away from others academically/in the arts or in other areas. It’s the sports they seem to dominate. Also seem to be more PGs that are male. I have never heard of a PG that is female. Does anyone know of any?
There was a female volleyball PG in one of the acronym schools a year (or two?) ago.
I don’t understand why people are so worried about PGs when 1/4-1/3 of the class may have repeated anyway. There’s a repeat on my sons team who’s “taking his playing time.” There is a huge age range without the PGs and I don’t think they really add to it since all the repeats are going to be the same age as them anyway.
Choate had several female PGs. The two I remember were not athletes.
DA has had a good number of female PGs over the past few years. One year out of a class of 26 or so PGs, 9 of them were girls.
In my experience the “dumb jock” notion is inaccurate and quite unfair. While most of the PGs I know were athletes, they were all contenders for top schools, but were encouraged by college coaches to do an extra year to physically mature. They could have played D3 out of 12th grade, but were too small to play D1/ivy safely, but an extra year would make the difference. This does not make them dumb—I think it makes them savvy. Even with stellar academics, getting to go to ivy-level schools for an otherwise unhooked applicant is no lock; recognizing the benefit of being a recruited athlete is a smart move to improve your odds. (Personally, I would be ok if the athletic recruiting at ivys went away, but while it is here, it is certainly not stupid to take advantage of it). And they all appreciated having a qualitatively different academic experience (many came from public schools, all were very bright, but used to larger classroom settings, etc).
As for them being a bad influence, I also think your bias is off-base. In fact, I think you’d find most of them to be leaders and mentors to look up to. Remember, they are applying as 12th graders and getting assessed at that age. Other students may have been accepted when they were merely 8th graders—no telling really if they are going to turn out to be good eggs or bad eggs as 12th graders, despite the rigorous application process. The PGs are being admitted at a later point when they are more developed, and the application process can help the school identify whether this is a student who will have a positive impact on the other students.
Mostly you will find mature, thoughtful people choosing to spend a year in a highly-supervised academic experience to improve their education when they could otherwise go ahead with their peers to the unbridled fun of college ;-).
As for the girls, I know of one who was a PG 25 years ago. She did not have a good experience. She was the only female PG that year. I think stereotypes play into this, but imagine a handful of athletic senior boys entering a school as PGs—their team accepts them readily, girls 9-12 may admire them, other boys tend to be a little less cliquey. Contrast this with being a PG girl. It’s outrageously stereotyping for me to suggest that girls are socially more cliquey, but it is a possibility that they don’t embrace this new girl as openly. Additionally, it is less common for older girls to date younger boys, so they probably do not experience that same type of adoration from their schoolmates that a PG boy might ;-). Overall, it may be harder to be accepted in that brief one year period. Hopefully this is all shifting. As girls sports have transformed over the years and girls also have more recruiting options, I would imagine there could be multiple female PGs in a year, providing more support, and hopefully they have a better experience than the girl I knew.
@EmptyNestSoon2 good post. I don’t understand why there are people who have an issue with recruiting at Ivies. These students, especially in non revenue sports, are highly qualified academically for admission. I believe the commitment it takes in a sport to be considered for recruitment makes it even more impressive that these student athletes also have stellar academics. Why wouldn’t elite schools be attracted to and target young students who have demonstrated this level of discipline, time management, dedication, and excellence?
@Empty nest - your last sentence can best be answered by the good folks on the College Rejections thread. Those fine attributes you stated are but a drop in the bucket. FWIW, there is something called the “AI” - it’s a type of Index that Ivies use for athletes. There are more experienced parents than I who can explain this to you. For some PG’s the year provides that opportunity to raise GPA, ACT/SAT, and athletic highlights - also being seen. If you are a kid from a less visible region, having a PG year may also give you opportunities to “be seen” by D1 and D3 coaches at target schools (especially in NE). This also increases your highlights portfolio. However, we do know 2 PG’s in one sport that already have college Commits but they are taking a year to bolster their academic preparedness.
I meant to refer to @ShanFerg3 post above about @EmptyNestSoon2, sorry about that and Happy Holidays!
I agree that athletic recruiting is not bad. Part of school spirit is going to a game where your team wins. Homecoming is part of the college experience and winning is fun. I lived with football players in college and they were smart people too. ?
@Golfgr8 Are you a parent of a student who has been recruited in a sport?
@ShanFerg3 - in the thick of it now and it is much more complicated than when I was a recruited athlete decades ago. Feel free to DM me.
@Golfgr8 I was just curious. My daughter was recruited for fencing. She’s a first year student currently.