repeat 9th grade or move forward

@dert29

I’m going to give you my very frank opinion. Your son needs to adjust his attitude and reason for doing well in school. He simply should want to DO HIS BEST. There are plenty of colleges in this country who will welcome him regardless of his GPA or SAT score. Getting into “competitive” schools and BSMD programs should not be his passion.

Sorry, but even kids with perfect SAT scores and perfect GPAs don’t always get accepted to the schools that are tippy top. Some do…some don’t.

The BSMD programs all are highly competitive. Even with perfect scores, there is no guarantee he will get accepted to these programs.

Is this kid really that anxious about his grades right now? He adjusted, and has an upward trend. His grades could be just fine if he sets his mind to studying…and doing his best…and understanding that he will have good college options even IF he doesn’t get accepted to a “highly competitive school” (whatever that means) or a BSMD program.

My opinion…I would not uproot the family and movement back to the old school district. Your son is adjusting…and BTW, he will need to do that again as a college freshman.

And lastly, where I live, if he lives with an aunt, he would be paying tuition to attend the public HS there. Students only get free public education in the place where their parents, who are their legal guardians, reside. And YES the district WILL figure this out!

You say he has made friends now, and joined some activities. I think it’s time to look forward, and not backward. Stay in the new school…and move forward. The old school is yesterday’s news.

@dert29 It is not at ALL unreasonable to move an entering 9th grader out of state to be with his parents. Families do it all the time without issue.

Teens faulter because it’s difficult to be a teen. You actually have no reason to think 9th grade wasn’t always going to suck for him. It is a notoriously hard year for teens developmentally. Whose to say being away from family and being raised by an aunt wouldn’t have caused the same results? He just needs to own it and move on. He can write a great college essay on dealing with failure and overcoming his own adversities.

Stop with the restart 9th grade, it is not going to happen. No school worth attending is going to hold back a student who achieved their credits because he has a B average.

There are no redos. Even if you decide to Home school, he must still turn in the same teas riot to all of his colleges. Do you plan on lying through the whole college med school and licensing process thinking it won’t catch up with him? It will definitely he he will be able risk
If losing all he had accomplished. Focus on an Iowa d trend 10, 11 and first half senior year.

Thanks everyone for feedback. I think he is realizing the consequences of his actions. I saw the change in him in second half of second semester. Basically he confessed and started to turn his homework in. We never checked his grades and assumed he was getting A’s like he usually does. He was getting mostly A’s in his tests even the classes he failed in. Does that even make sense?

Yes, it makes sense. That’s not so unusual with smart kids. He learned the hard way that just because you ace tests doesn’t mean you can shirk homework.

@katliamom we were thinking there had to drugs, relationship issues or medical issue like seizures or something. We were baffled and have no idea how to explain it to any family members.

@dert29 why would you need to explain anything to family members?

Your son learned a valuable lesson…better now than when he was in college paying to attend.

If homework is part of the graded assignments…it MUST be turned in. He learned that lesson…hopefully.

This is nobody’s business but your son’s and his guidance counselor in figuring out next year’s schedule. OP- you need to develop some healthy boundaries for your kid’s sake. Discussing his grades with the rest of the family serves no purpose at all and can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy for your son. (Once he’s viewed as “the dumb one”, why should he bother trying at all?)

Do you want your son discussing your weight or how much cake you ate last night with extended family? I doubt it. High school is when you need to start modeling the kind of boundaries you will need to have with an adult child.

Do NOT have him take the LSAT in high school. LSAT scores are still valid for 5 years and will be reported to law schools if he applies within those 5 years.

If you want to show colleges how smart he is through a standardized test, there are SAT II’s and AP exams.

He took one AP test but will get results in july. He think he made at least 4. Lsat was idea english teacher proposed but that’s too far down the road to worry about. We perfer he focuses on this summer online course and getting mind set for 10th grade. He is applying for volunteer work in clinics or hospitals nearby for his ECs.

I can’t imagine why this student would ever take the LSAT unless he wants to go to LAW SCHOOL. The OP stated the kid wants to go to medical school (BSMD programs are medical school…right).

Total waste of time to take the LSAT.

I think you all need an adjustment in your thinking. You and your kid seem focused on competitive colleges and programs. Forget that for now. Love the kid on the couch.

It just isn’t his decision.

You think your son was on drugs or having seizures but you’re concerned about whether he can get into law school 7 years from now? I think you need to take a step back and think of the kid on the couch.

Is he young for his grade? If so it may not be bad to repeat 9th grade so he can get readjusted.

Be careful on the online remediation courses, could raise red flags with adcoms. In general adcoms don’t like online classes esp for core courses so make sure your son explains some of this.

@theloniusmonk Thank you, only 2 classes are for remediation but other online classes in summer are non-core electives to pull up his GPA. After 1st semster GPA was 2.1 but after second semster and summer classes, he is planning for 3.1 accumulative GPA for his 9th grade. Either he pulls his GPA up or repeats the 9th grade.

But you are missing the point that the 3.1 gpa (or the 2.1, or somewhere between) isn’t going away. If he repeats 9th grade, he goes in with a 2.1-3.1 gpa. Some (most) schools will use that as part of his hs gpa. Many schools won’t let him repeat a course he’s already taken (say Spanish 1 or Algebra). Even if you home school him, you need to report the grades he got this year. I don’t know if you have to include the grades in his gpa, but you do have to report them.

If he goes back to the original town, he’ll be with kids a year younger. His former friends will all be sophomores.

It looks like you are encouraging him to repeat 9th grade. Please don’t do that. That shouldn’t even be an option on the table. So he is taking classes all summer. When is he going to take a break. You will have a burnt out kid by the time he gets to his junior and senior year of high school when his grades will matter the most. All this planning for BS/MD programs and law school is too early. This is the age where he should be exposed to a variety of things to discover his own interests. Let him be a 9th grader. It’s his time to transition to high school and work on developing good study habits. He may have had straight A’s before but the work will get more challenging and he needs to develop those good habits to take on challenging school work. He needs to learn to pay attention to details like homework because everything counts. You want a child who has a balanced life with a healthy mind and body so that they can focus on academics and the social aspects of being a high school student.

He has the capability to do well but this is sounding like an unhealthy obsession of getting into a competitive college. Remember it is not just about grades and good test scores. It’s about being a student that is able to balance his academic work with his genuine personal hobbies and interests. Enjoy the four years of high school and don’t make it all about his future career. His perspective and interests is going to change as he grows and matures. By the time he is a senior he will be a completely different person. This is not a race. Let him enjoy the journey.

@dert29 Many colleges will recalculate GPA based on only the 4 core and sometimes foreign language. They are wise to kids taking fluff classes to bump up GPA. They also will look at unweighted GPA. The best thing you can do for him now is to make sure he has realistic goals about college. Read some of the threads of the “competitive” schools. Lots of applicants have perfect scores and 4.0 unweighted GPAs and tons of volunteer hours and they still get rejected to top schools. Sometimes you can do everything right and you don’t get in.

Colleges like seeing an upward trend. In his case it might be a significant one. He can explain what happened in an essay or the school counselor can also address it, when he applies to college. You aren’t doing him any favors by letting him repeat a grade. He isn’t young for his grade and while moving is a huge change, many kids deal with tough situations in their lives and they still pull it together. For a smart kid to fail, that takes a lot of intentional “work”. He was trying to not do well. Make sure you address that, so that it doesn’t happen again.

Our high school doesn’t count any classes not taken in the high school towards the GPA. If you haven’t, I would make sure of that. I don’t see any reason to keep him back or to move him back. He rebounded, he has friends and has adjusted. Move on. Especially when there is no guarantee at any of these colleges, regardless of how great his stats are.