How much difference does skipping a grade make?

<p>Early in my education I moved up a grade and as a result I'm a year younger than kids in my class. I am still very competitive academically and I don't see my age as a significant part of my identity. Will this make any impact on my chances of admission to Stanford? Do any grade-skippers who currently attend Stanford have any insight into this issue?</p>

<p>I don’t attend Stanford, but I would say most likely no: it won’t make a difference on your chances for admission.</p>

<p>That’s what I thought. I said basically what I wrote in this post (minus the bragging) in my “additional information” section, so it’s not like I’m banking on it.</p>

<p>Some applicants believe a grade skip will help them - that they are somehow seen as “smarter” - but I think they are mistaken, and a single year grade skip will generally have limited impact on the application.</p>

<p>In some cases kids who are more than a year or so younger than the typical applicant may get looked at more closely for evidence of maturity.</p>

<p>Grade skipping does not help an applicant. It doesn’t necessarily hurt an applicant unless he is significantly younger. Top universities will consider age if they think that the applicant is “too young” (16 when beginning college) and the maturity question mark may hold them back from accepting.</p>

<p>I don’t think having skipped a grade in elementary school made any difference for me in college admissions. (I didn’t go to Stanford, but I did go to Harvard.) I wouldn’t even have listed it as additional information (but if you’ve sent the application, it probably doesn’t matter one way or the other). The admissions committees will see your birth date; they’ll know you’re younger than your classmates. The precise details of how you came to be so young at the end of high school don’t really matter.</p>

<p>I do think, however, that it made a difference in my college-readiness that I did not detect when I was entering (or even finishing) college. I think I would have been better off if I had taken a gap year of some sort before beginning college. Unfortunately, that wasn’t as common a practice in 1981 as it is today–and especially not in the Square States, where I grew up and graduated from high school.</p>

<p>YMMV, of course.</p>

<p>Skipping in grade school makes no difference at all, since you have the same kind of high school transcript that everyone else has. (It may make a difference if you are an athlete who is less physically mature than expected for your grade level. But if you are an athlete good enough to be a Division I recruit, you have probably dealt with this issue, including even de-skipping in high school.) Skipping in high school is more of an issue, since it affects things like recommended courses, depth of involvement in ECs, and leadership roles.</p>

<p>It should not make any difference particular for early grade. There are kids who just missed the cutoff date and became the older one in class. Very often they can move up to the next grade easily. I know a few kids like that.</p>

<p>Thanks everybody. @Sikorsky - why do you say that you wish you took a gap year? I have briefly considered it but I still think that I’d prefer to power through my education while I’m ahead.</p>