I am a junior girl at public school. Summer birthday so younger for my grade. Very physically immature too - I have had lots of issues with growth and have needed treatment for that. Overall very behind my peers and look like I’m in 7th or 8th grade. These growth issues are resolving but have caused lots of injuries in my sport, running (cross country and track). I’ve been out for many many months total, missing up to whole seasons in a row.
I’m applying to private schools, just say schools, not boarding schools. Obviously I would repeat 11th grade. Would this have any effect on getting into an Ivy League? Any effect on sports recruiting or general admissions? Would admissions officers look down on it?
If it’s right for you to repeat 11th grade and I’d focus more on academic reasons, than do so.
Getting into highly rejective schools is - beyond difficult so don’t make any decisions to help with that. If you’re a recruitable athlete but haven’t performed, maybe a post grad year could be an option?
To answer your question, I don’t think a 5th year of HS will hurt your chances - but if your grades are already strong, it may not help. And I wouldn’t make any decisions with an eye on one of 8 schools. They may not even be the right schools for you. What do you know about them besides they share an athletic conference?
At some private high schools, up to 30% of new students reclass. This obviously has zero impact on admissions and every AO is familiar with the concept.
Whether you should target Ivy universities is another question.
Repeating 11th grade when entering a private school happens. You won’t be the only one. I don’t think you should even think about what this will or won’t do regarding Ivy admissions. Actually…free advice…don’t just have elite colleges on your list when the time comes.
Ok. Thanks. My grades are very strong but I am just very behind my peers physically and have spent a lot of time injured as a result. So reclassing would help me catch up a little physically (no way I look even close to a senior next year!) and hopefully put down some fast times.
I’m focused on a specific Ivy League because my parents went there, I have been visiting since I was a kid and love it, I know the xc/track coach well, and my brother now goes there. It’s also close to home which is what I prefer.
But I have another question — what classes would I take? I’m taking APUSH, AP bio, AP Eng Lang, Differential Calculus (highest track), Spanish 4, and an elective. If I repeat junior year, what classes am I even supposed to do? Am I just supposed to do the same classes I’d take if I were a senior? What about when I am a senior in 26 instead of 25, will I have run out of classes? Would colleges kind of not like seeing like 17 APs on my transcript?
That’s a question that needs to wait until you are actually accepted. I’m assuming the schools you are targeting all offer advanced math. Your language course, should you choose to continue, with be based on placement test results. Your English course will be one of the options available to your grade. Your other courses are chosen with the advisor to ensure graduation requirements are met. In no instance, if you’ve mastered the master al,will you be repeating a class already taken.
I agree with @tsbna44. Do not do this in the hope of getting into an Ivy League or similarly highly ranked university. Do what is right for you.
If you do what is right for you, then you can have faith that things will work out. I do not think that this will harm your application to universities.
If you Google “applying sideways MIT admissions” it will take you to a blog that is worth reading. The point of the blog as I understand it is what @tsbna44 and I are saying: Do what is right for you and in the end this will help your chances at highly ranked schools, or at least at a school that turns out to be a good fit for you.
Do you want to spend an extra year in high school? It sounds like academically you have no need for this. How would it feel to know your old friends were moving on to college while you still had a year of high school left?
Some people end up staying on the smaller side and young looking, would a year really change much in that regard?
I also worry that with so many previous injuries/missed time, your chances of competing at a recruitable level are iffy even if the growth issues are considered “resolving” (not even resolved).
So I guess overall I would consider carefully how you would feel if this does not work out as you hope…if you are tired of high school and ready to move on by your 5th year and now can’t, if you don’t make the times you need, if you don’t get in to your dream school.
Would you then wish you had made a different choice?
If athletic recruiting is the only way for you to achieve your dream school goal and an additional year is the only way to make that viable, then your proposed reclass year strategy seems sound. Whether that will work the way you intend is the million dollar question.
My perspective is probably biased because I have seen 3 different friends of D24 get sidelined from their sport due to injuries, and several more who were mentally done with high school by senior year and are happy to have moved on to the next stage of their lives.
I wish you the best as you make this decision, it’s a biggie.
If you aren’t competitive for recruitment now, why would you be 1 year from now? What if you get hurt again? How close are your times to typically recruited athletes now?
No where on a college application does it ask for height, weight, and appearance. Your grades matter, not what you look like.
It sounds like maybe a very well planned gap year would be better for you.
It wouldn’t affect me too much to leave my friends and watch them move on without me. I have friends at my current school but everyone else has a closer friend they prefer. I’m never the first option. I did gymnastics for 20 hours a week in elementary and was never free. Meanwhile, everyone else built friend groups through school sports I wasn’t on. So I’m not too attached to my current school.
I am already at a recruitable level for schools like Hamilton, Bowdoin, Colby, Middlebury but they aren’t good and I want to be way better. I also don’t want to go to that type of school. The reason believe that I can drop my two mile time by a minute (what is needed for Ivy attention) is because my current time is run off of only cross training, no running. If I can keep my fitness up on the bike while injured and get some consistency in running, I think I can do it. I need a chance to reach my potential without hurting myself and I think I can.
And, I haven’t made it through an indoor track season without getting hurt and have never done an outdoor season because I’ve been hurt from indoor. Colleges will see this and be wondering why I can’t just run normally. I think I need to get full seasons down before I get any attention, even from the schools I’m already good enough/better than.
My parents and I have thought about how I would feel if it doesn’t work out and we’ve decided that it still has benefits anyway. Even if the running doesn’t work for recruiting, I love the sport and just time back would be worth it.
Overall, I’m not doing this solely for academics. I only have a fine social situation, I am young, and I am immature. So if athletics don’t work, maybe three other things will be helped.
Sorry, I didn’t mean Middlebury!! I was actually thinking about how that school was a good NESCAC while typing that sentence and sometimes when you think something and you’re typing you type it idk. Excuse that I know Middlebury is good.
And yes I’m referring to their teams not academics.
Based on this info, I would suggest don’t repeat a grade for athletic recruitment purpose. If you want to spend an extra year in high school, do it. Beware of too many sports injuries, they will cause you a lot of problems when you’re my age.
I think that you honestly have to evaluate your situation. You need to have injury free season and drop a minute off your 2 mile time just to have a shot at being recruited.
And you think you are going to be recruitable for top track and field schools? Even with an extra year you are going to be going up against kids who have had 4 years of indoor AND outdoor times. You are banking on a “maybe” or “I might be able to do it.”
I don’t see you getting into the Ivy you want based on athletics. You say you know the coach well. If the coach hasnt offered you a spot, you aren’t going to get one.
Your parents AND your brother all went to the same school. I get that you want to go there. Its close and you would be a legacy. Apply academically and take your shot.