<p>I found this fascinating. It will be interesting to see how adcoms will handle this idea of private schools letting good students repeat a year to further improve their transcripts.</p>
<p>this is interesting
I had heard of students switching schools- to gain another year of maturity/experience= some schools are apparently set up for that.
But who is pushing this? Is it the top schools who want to increase their lists of students who got into top colleges?
Having one daughter who took a year off and another who is planning on it- I think a gap year is a great thing-but for a student who had an extremely successful high school education- why would they just want to extend high school?
It seems that a different sort of experience would be more benefical .</p>
<p>I wouldn't mind another year to take more classes and do more of the things I love. But repeating another year just to get into college? This is another sign of the crazy college-obsession sickness that has pervaded our society. Is getting into a top-rated college important enough to spend a year of your life for it?</p>
<p>Interesting. I know of one student at my son's HS who looked into going to another school. That school wanted him to re-soph. In the end, he did not change schools.</p>
<p>I would note that this has been going on for years. Many of the schools, including the one mentioned in the article, have a post-grad group to enable more maturity before going on to college. To me the real plus is that it reduces the stigmatization associated with staying back . . . though it is not broadcast.</p>
<p>I wonder how the admissions counselors look at something like this compared to a student who may have graduated early from HS because they got accelerated when they were young.</p>
<p>I know smart 4 year olds who can count and say their alphabet and do all those wonderous things who are encouraged into Kindergarten. Then sometime around sixth and seventh grade they are still interested in toys while classmates are headed to the dance. I don't think there is anything wrong with making a course correction that allows this child to repeat a grade so they are emotionally mature enough to get more out of high school. I question the wisdom of doing it just to allow for an addition set of AP courses, if that is what people are thinking.</p>
<p>In exploing this issue, don't overlook the role that elite prep schools play as athletic feeder schools to Ivy League and top Div III collegiate programs.</p>
<p>I know smart 4 year olds who can count and say their alphabet and do all those wonderous things who are encouraged into Kindergarten</p>
<p>In my daughters case- she had taught herself to read when she was 3- by the time she was in 1st grade- (she was reading through all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books -the public school K teacher advised us to find another program-)</p>
<p>I don't think that is that uncommon is it?
but the time to keep them out- to really make a difference- IMO would be to find another 5 year program- instead of putting them in with 28 other 5 year olds in kindergarten- but a program where these boys could get more positive attention- and some room to grow.</p>
<p>But if these students- who are spending a 2nd senior year in high school- are already getting straight As, that doesn't indicate that more academics are needed for them to be successful- but it seems that they another program would be more beneficial- perhaps not to top college admission- but for their development into an adult.</p>
<p>or is this just about getting into the colleges that will "validate" the tuition from K-12?</p>
<p>I think the article was saying this primarily happens at freshmen year, which to me could be a reflection of maturity issues, as well as academic needs. I sometimes ask parents, who does your child like to play with, kids her/his age, older kids or younger kids. If you have a twelve or thirteen year old going into high school and the like to spend most of their time with sixth and seventh graders...there could be an advantage to holding them a year.</p>
<p>One thought is that if they play a sport, some states will not let them be in a sport for five years. I don't know of any limitations on Speech and Debate.</p>
<p>I hadn't realized this sort of thing was going on so late in school. I usually see students held back before entering kindergarten for "maturity". It is interesting how the pendulum has swung on this issue - when I was a child students were encouraged to skip a grade if they were academically ready. I did skip kindergarten, and the emotional/social differences were quite acute in junior high and high school.</p>
<p>My son had to do a repeat junior year in order to enter his current prep boarding school. Entering as a senior would not have been a good idea, and was not really an option. He was not a young student to begin with, so he will be 19 1/2 when he graduates from high school in the spring. This has worked well for him athletically (yes, there are some meets in which he can not compete since he is a "5th year", but most he can) and academically. He has gained a lot of maturity and pursues some academic areas outside the range of his classes. HOWEVER, I am seeing some serious senioritis and he is really ready to be finished with high school! His school has about 23 PG students, and everyone of them is evaluated carefully for admission to make sure they will benefit in some way (in many cases it is for athletic development( from the extra year. At his school there is no repeating a grade if you are a good student and ready to move on. PG students do not come from the senior class at the school, but are students who have graduated from other schools.</p>
<p>Frankly, my daughter would probably benefit from a PG year. However, what kid voluntarily wants to do an extra year of school? And what parent wants to pay for it? Also, if Freshman are repeating a year aren't there social repercussions?</p>
<p>I started this thread and don't recall using that particular thread title, was it changed?</p>
<p>I can't imagine either of my kids actually agreeing to spend an extra year in high school --and I can't imagine a single benefit they could accrue that could not be better gotten from a University or learning on their own. As for strategizing all this to get into a college, wow! My older one IS at an Ivy but quite frankly, I think the value of that degree may be overrated --and I am convinced kids going to the state U can be just as smart and successful, even if they didn't have a parent finesse their college credentials and application. Doing the extra year of high school is not just expensive but at least for my kids would be a collossal waste of time and potential. They would be better off working a job or seeing the world. The more I understand about college admission and the strategizing required to ace it, the less I think those kids at the top schools are necessarily the most brilliant. No matter how smart you are --at 17 you are generally too young and unsophisticated to finesse those top college apps. As someone in a position to hire young people, I definitely would not assume someone who came from an Ivy school had the greater talent or skill. Not after all this. I would have to see what they could do. period.</p>
<p>Don't know any kids who repreated freshman year and the few students I know who repeated soph or junior yrs transferred from RTCs. </p>
<p>The few PGs I know are in a different boat. Upon advise of their respective guidance counselors, the students applied to several colleges and boarding schools. The students (and parents) viewed the 2nd (or 3rd ) tier colleges to which they were admitted as as an ace-in-the-hole and enrolled in their respective PG programs hoping to secure admission to a "better" college the second time around. The strategy proved successful, very expensive (boarding sch tuition 32K) and, therefore, as the OP indicated, not available to most families.</p>
<p>I agree with your post (#13) above, cloverdale. As much as she loved it, no way would my daughter have spent an extra year in high school. In fact, I'm quite sure she would have been fine graduating HS at 16. </p>
<p>nyc: What in the world do RTCs (I can imagine, but I'm sure I'm wrong) and PGs (post graduates?) stand for?</p>
<p>How do you know that most of these repeats are not summer birthday boys that have always been almost a full year younger than the other boys in there classup until now?. Go back and check out how many boys are held back when they are 5 or 6. They have an advantage all the way through school not only with academics but sports and social status. When they transfer to a boarding school, already being young could be the kiss of death in such a competetive environment. I have known 2 boys that did it and it is working out well for them and they are not the oldest in their class by any means.</p>
<p>A lot of kids leave our public school for private prep schools in 9th or 10th grade. Many of the prep schools insist on the kids repeating a grade. Why? The private schools push kids really hard. They start languages younger, algebra is always 8th grade not 9th, etc. So to get on the same track as kids who have been going to really tough, selective private schools since kindergarten, other kids often have to repeat to be playing on a level playing field with their classmates. It looks better to do it as a freshman than to stay for a post-grad year, although some do that, too.</p>
<p>My S graduated from a theoretically good public high school in June. He could be at college right this minute. He is at prep school as a Post Graduate student instead and will be attending college next fall. </p>
<p>He entered kindergarten on our public system's schedule, at 4 years and 11 months but was a year younger than many of his classmates all the way through and graduated at 17. He would have started college at 17.</p>
<p>Instead HE CHOSE to attend prep school. It's a transition year. He is living away from home, in a dorm, but with restrictions such as signing in and out, no cars, evening study hall, enforced lights out, etc. We already see a more mature student, one who will be ready for the rigors of the Ivy school he is committed to. </p>
<p>He is a recruited athlete (this does not mean a scholarship athlete -- few $$$ available in his sport) and the PG year did make a difference in the quality of the schools recruiting him. A big difference ... if he entered this fall his school would have been ranked 25th in the nation. He's recruited by a school ranked in the top 5 or 6. And a quantum leap in academics too.</p>
<p>As the parental bill-paying unit -- yes it's an expensive option. On the other hand ... there are a lot of kids that don't go through college in four years. I see this as an insurance policy on the next four years. He'll take some APs, develop his skills in weaker academic areas, and just become a more mature young man, more ready for college.</p>
<p>Oh yes -- the coaches and the admissions people like this option. It was highly encouraged by every coach he spoke to in 2004-5 and highly valued by the more recent coaches that he spoke with in the summer of 2005.</p>
<p>the above post by cnp55 sums up the strategy being used for this ...repeat 9th grade-take post grad year(at least for athletes)...Interesting that every Coach recommended it,level of college their child was recruited for went up.I guess its another strategy used by those that can afford it,as the OP stated.</p>
<p>
[quote]
How do you know that most of these repeats are not summer birthday boys that have always been almost a full year younger than the other boys in there classup until now?
[/quote]
Our older son started school at the appropriate age for our district at the time, with a summer birthday. This wasn't a problem until we moved to the midwest, where he was often one of the youngest kids in his class -- there were quite a few boys in the grade below him who were actually older than him. He graduated HS at 17 and turned 18 just before college. He is at a very challenging college now and I can tell you that he was ready both emotionally and academically for that challenge. There's no way he would have considered another year of HS -- he was ready for college by his senior year. I think that the 'readiness' issue typically evens out by the late teens, and that there can be other problems associated with being the oldest kid in the class, for those kids who were held back for athletic reasons. </p>
<p>I don't think there's anything wrong with parents making decisions that they think are best for their child, including doing a PG year or repeating kindergarten or first grade. In some cases, though, I think it's part of the "Ivy mania" that has taken over this country. I know of a young man who is my college freshman's age, who is currently a junior at a selective boarding school. He must be very bright, to have been accepted at this HS, but I can't imagine that he needed to wait until 19 or 20 to go to college. It strikes me as a little bit of gamesmanship, and I think that adcoms should consider this possibility when looking at these students for admissions. The playing field is definitely not even in college admissions, but I think this is one area where adcoms can look at a student's achievements in context. They should definitely have very high standards for a kid who's had this kind of opportunity.</p>