My son is currently in grade 8. I plan to send him to a private high school. Before that I am considering that he may do his 9th grade in his current school and then repeat his 9th grade in his new school.Although he is already doing very well in his studies but being summer born he is among the younger ones in his grade. By repeating his 9 the grade I feel that he will be in a stronger position academically and in terms of maturity. But would this decision affect his college application adversely later on.
Why is being born in summer a disadvantage? Are you international? People in the US usually consider holding back (repeating a year) when kids are still quite young, and if their birthdays are in November and December. Sometimes October too. For instance, my own son, born in mid December, was only four when he started his first year of school. He was quite a lot younger than the vast majority of the other kids, because the cutoff was December 31. It wasn’t a good situation for him and he was not ready, so he repeated his first year of school. But he wasn’t a teenager, which is very different.
It seems like you are thinking of gaming the system by sending your older, more mature child (who is already doing well in school) to a private school in order to give him an advantage in college admissions.
Why not have him repeat Grade 8 if you feel he needs to mature a bit. That seems better than putting him into high school, with all its stress and rigor, then pulling him out and making him do the same thing again the following year at a new school. New stress, new rigor, trying to make friends all over again as a high schooler, and so on, seems more traumatic than repeating grade 8 at the school he is already at.
There was a similar post a few days ago, and in regards to how extra years of high school grades are viewed, it seems that different colleges have different requirements about what grades they want to see. I personally think if he does well in his old school, then repeats the year at a private school, it might raise eyebrows. Why did this student repeat the year at a new school? This student was doing great, why didn’t the student just enroll in the 10th grade?
What does your son want to do? If he is immature and gets stressed, maybe repeating is a good idea. But I wonder why it has to be 9th grade.
It’s definitely a personal choice, I think, if he’s in good academic standing currently. It’s somewhat of a trend nowadays for some boys to repeat 9th or 10th grade for the purpose of going to prep school. Maturity is one advantage; the bigger one, in my opinion, is that, come senior year, he will be able to take more advanced classes than if he hadn’t repeated a year. So, no, if anything it might help his college apps. But then again, I’m certainly no expert here!
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If he has a 9-12 transcript from his, new private high school, that is what would go to colleges. Repeating 9th grade, or the grade level at which a student moves into a private (more typically, boarding) school, is quite common as a way to give the student time to adjust to the increased demands and challenges of the school.
As the parent of boys, I appreciate that late bloomers can really benefit from another year. If the student is okay with the idea, then there are not any downsides that I can think of.
@Lindagaf Different states have different cutoffs. Many states are now at around a Aug 31/Sept 1 cutoff, so a summer baby is the youngest.
As far as original question, I think it depends on the child. If he’s ready and at/above grade level, I don’t see the benefit to having him repeat. If there are issues, with maturity, grades, discipline, then I suppose it could be beneficial. Tough call, it really would be a case by case decision.