I am an international BS applicant’s parent. I am very curious about how many US domestic applicants are 9th graders applyting 9th grade BS. Thanks for any inputs.
hugely depends on the school
but the answer is just, a whole lot
you can go to a school profile, subtract [international applicants] number from [total applicants] (if they have both) and you’ll get answer.
But for some schools, eg from Choate website, they consider people who have US citizenship domestic applicants.
Thanks! Why US students choose to 9-9 instead of 8-9?
There are many reasons why students choose to repeat a year in boarding school:
*Young age of student
*Want to take higher-level classes by graduation (If they have already taken Biology and Geometry in 9th grade, when they do 9th grade again, they will be taking Chemistry and Algebra 2/Pre-Calculus, so they can then be far ahead by senior year and take advanced science and math classes).
*Sports - allowing for an extra year of growth/development (physically and in the sport itself)
I’m sure there are more. That’s what I can think of off the top of my head. My daughter is in 8th, applying for 9th and is young for her grade, but she did NOT want to wait a year to apply and then redo a year! 
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I think that there is a misunderstanding here. Most US students do not apply to BS to repeat grade 9.
Some BSs will recommend that a student applying for grade 10 apply instead for grade 9. That can be because there are more places available, but is often because the admissions team thinks that the student will benefit from the extra year, For example, the academic limitations of the school that the student currently attends may mean that the student would not be ready for the level of grade 9 in the BS; it could mean that the student’s personal maturity isn’t ready for BS; it could be that the student is very young for their grade, etc. The reasons will vary by the school and the student, but it is not particularly common to repeat grade 9.
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It is just what we are thinking whether repeating 9th grade. My son is young to his peers as well. Will young age be a negative aspect in this admission procss?
That is what I thought previously. But my friends told me there are quite a lot students in boarding middle school repeatting 9th grade when applying boarding high school. I really have no clue.
I think the age depends on the school and what kind of environment they have, etc. My daughter won’t turn 14 until right before she heads off this summer and her admissions results have been strong so far and no one has mentioned her age at all.
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At some schools, being younger may be an issue. At others, no. Most students enter BS at 9th and don’t repeat. But some enter at 10th or 11th and some repeat. Very individual. If you applied this cycle, you’ll have your answer soon enough and can then consider next steps.
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Good news for you. My son is in similar age. His birthday is in september, will turn 14 after this summer. The admisson results seems not so good so far. I am thinking the age aspect, haha. Try to find some excuse to comfort him.
Being young does give you the repeating option. But let the dust settle and see how everything ends up first. You are being helpful by supporting him now. Nos are hard at any age.
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Sure! thanks a lot!
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most do not apply as a repeat but i am surprised to see there are plenty of them (and last yr Hotchkiss indicated 40%+ of their student population is a repeat…to me that is a massive %)
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40%?!?! That is an enormous number.
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last yr friends toured a few of the elite schools - and one family with a very young applicant (who skipped a grade somewhere) was considering applying for 9th and would enter as a 13 yr old and the schools said straight up - apply to repeat (9th/10th) in the next few years
Most junior boarding school finishes at grade 9 so a lot of JBS graduates will repeat grade 9 for boarding HS. It seems to be a common trend now to repeat especially when applying to the elite BS HS because of the competition and limited spots for Grade 10.
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Hotchkiss is one of the schools that trends toward older kids, which makes young an issue. Admissions knows that many kids, especially boys, on the young side simply will be uncomfortably young in that environment so suggest repeating.
But this isn’t necessarily the case at many other schools either, so it really depends. It’s really important to remember that they aren’t admitting simply for academics but to be a 24/7 member of a community. If that is awkward socially or athletically or in any other way, it’s going to be rough on the kid.
My kid went to George, and repeats were less common, but the student body didn’t trend toward older. Probably because day students are less likely to reclass and no PG either.
At Exeter, 30% of the prep class were students that were repeating 9th grade.
Cognitive capacity and psychosocial maturity improves over time (Icenogle et al 2019) . Young adults learn to manage impulses, peer pressure and risk seeking well into mid 20s. This means kids in BS are still maturing psychologically and sometimes make wrong choices on campus just as any teenagers do.
Unlike day students, boarding students are subjected to disciplinary actions for any of these “wrong-doing” 24/7. Just living in a dorm and being a teenager may put you in trouble by breaking small rules, or even being in proximity of other kids breaking rules.
I don’t have statistics but I feel 10-20% of students receive some sort of disciplinary action over their life in BS? A few percent has some sort of history of disciplinary action on transcript? 1-3% of students get expelled or leave school every year?
This is something we didn’t hear at a day private school, and didn’t anticipate before we send our kids to BS. Now, I feel parents should send kids till they are older and more physiologically mature to shield them from peers’ troubles. There is no downside of being one year older when you are in college. I don’t even remember at what age I finished my terminal degree either.
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30% is decent chunk of the class (prep=9th?) which also means the % grows as you have repeat 10th and 11th graders added later on