My High School Dilemma

Hey, I’m a junior in high school and my school experience was a little different. Let me
explain.

I graduated middle school in USA (8th grade) then I moved to Asia for two years and had to repeat the 8th grade because I switched to the Cambridge Curriculum and I was really behind since their curriculum was harder than what I was used to. Note: I suffer from depression and anxiety which got significantly worse along with my grades, because my parents sort of forced me to be there.

So, fast forward two year later I came back to the US and now I’m a year behind everyone my age. So I start going into the 10th grade instead of 11th. I was upset that I would graduate a year later but I was fine since I figured I have a little while before worrying about SATs and college admissions. But after speaking to my guidance counselor she told me according to my birth date and age she had to place me in 11th grade. So now I’m a junior and I’m completely lost.

Right now I’m making up credits from the years I was in Asia and I have 9 classes a day right now. I haven’t been able to take AP classes because I’m already so behind. The rest of the kids have around 6 or 7 classes a day.

I really thought I would have more time and I’m trying to look on the bright side of things but the fact is: I have no idea when to start studying for SATs or what I should be doing and I also might have to go to summer school to make up some classes. So my question really is…what can I do now? It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to go to school somewhere such as UCLA or NYU but with all the things going on right now I feel like I won’t really stand out when I apply to schools even though I’m going to try my best this year I don’t know how colleges will see that.

I’ve also thought about applying to community college and then transferring to a four year college afterwords. But I’m really uncertain what I should head towards or look forward to. Any advice would be very helpful. I’m just really anxious about everything going on right now. Thanks for any advice anyone may have.

Did your parents talk to the guidance counselor? It go over her head to the administration? It is early in the year. I’d ask them to help you to get placed back into 10th grade.

I agree, I would get your parents involved. IMO you would be best placed in 10th grade – it seems unreasonable to have you so overloaded. Many students drop back a grade below their age for various reasons.

You and your parents need to verify what the state regulations are about placing students, and what the school district regulations are. In some schools, guidance counselors are absolutely obligated to place students with international records by age. Even when they aren’t required to do that, they still can be under tremendous pressure from state funding agencies to graduate students with their age cohort whenever possible. All that said, in most states, schools are obligated to allow students to remain enrolled until they complete the full state graduation requirements or the end of the school year in which they turn 21. Please note that meeting the full state graduation requirement means just that, and nothing extra like AP or honors courses.

If you are carrying an academic overload relative to other students at your high achool, you need to find out why the school chose that option instead of requiring summer school, or arranging for you to finish up a semester or year later. You also need to find out which of your foreign classes transferred and as what. There may be other ways of interpreting those records that could result in better scheduling for you at your current high school.

Students aren’t placed in school by their birth dates. There are plenty of 16 year old sophomores and plenty of 15 year old juniors. Kids are retained in 2nd and 3rd grades and aren’t put in the next grade when they get to high school because they are 15.

You need to be in the right grade based on your schooling, not age. It’s unlikely you are ready for AP classes. Don’t worry about that.

Check if there is any restrictions on how old you can be when you graduate? Like in our state you can be in HS up to age 20.

Wow Hogwarts this does sound troubling. I agree with the other posters: you require some advocacy from the adults in your life. The school district should be able to confirm the rules involved. Good luck and keep us posted!