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Thank you. That’s all I do. Your words on the other hand are like a guide book, which could never be wrong and actually could be published and distributed as a parent/student handbook without any modifications. Now that’s my sarcasm. 
But hey no hard feelings. Having been on this board for this long, I know we are just the way we are.</p>
<p>No hard feelings 
I love to debate with people who can hold their own. It’s refreshing. Plus, I think others looking for guidance learn a lot from having multiple perspectives and opinions and sparring like grownups.</p>
<p>^^One thing though. You should stop throwing the “experience of a few decades” card around. Your user name says it all but you could also say it’s “experience of a few decades ago”. Regardless,we are on a discussion board, don’t accuse others of being “specluating” & “misguided” lightly. That’s not nice. But I agree you are an active contributor and a good source for textbook right answers to a variety of questions, which are valuable to many people who are new to the BS scene.</p>
<p>My child did repeat one class --Latin 1–and it was definitely warranted. She said that before Thanksgiving her prep school class had covered everything she did in the entire year in her old school. No way she was ready for Latin 2. She did have an advantage the first marking period, as it was review for her. After that it was a level playing field. Not sure that there was any other option that would have been “fair”–except making her take another language.</p>
<p>I haven’t commented on CC in a while, but think I’ll weigh in here. When one of our sons was in 8th grade, (an “A” student, good athlete, good SSATs) we were told by two HADES schools that “he interviewed young” and they would like to see him do 9th grade at his N-9 school and then reapply for 9th grade. He was waitlisted at those two schools (Schools A and B), and we understood that was a courtesy waitlist; they felt he was unready. We spoke about this issue with the two schools at which he was accepted: School C said they would take him either year if we decided to keep him home another year (though he would have to submit a new application). School D (well-known) seemed surprised and stated that their offer of admission was for this year only, and they felt he was absolutely ready to begin there. </p>
<p>So here was our dilemma. Was one of the first two schools (more competitive and high-pressured) a better fit and Son was just too young? Or were they not a good fit and the school that wanted him now a better fit?</p>
<p>Pay attention to what the AOs tell you. While you know your child best, they interview thousands of kids and see the admits on campus for the next four years; they generally have an excellent sense of how your child right now will fit into their school with his peers.</p>
<p>Of course, one can never know what would have happened, but Son is now a senior and with the benefit of hindsight, here’s what I think. </p>
<p>We sent him to School D and he had a difficult first year (which I believe he would have had at any school, any year, given his nature and past history with transitions) and had settled in by the end of the year. The school is a wonderful school and has done much for him. BUT, and this is a big but, he seems again completely unready for managing the college admissions process. </p>
<p>In retrospect, I wish we had given him two ninth grade years. Or with even more hindsight, two kindergarten years. It doesn’t mean we would have sent him to a different school, but it does mean we would have reevaluated all the schools with an additional year of maturity under his belt. And honestly, I have spoken to many parents who had their children repeat and not a single one regrets it. Whereas I know many parents who wish they had given their child (usually boys but not always) that extra year. </p>
<p>I recognize, of course, that this can end up being one more way well-to-do parents are able to provide their children with additional advantage (one HADES school I know states that 35+% of their incoming students are repeats), but unfortunately that has to be addressed at the school and societal level, not the family level. We as parents are responsible for ensuring the well-being of the child in our care, and if 1 in 3 students is a repeat at a particular school, a parent has to consider this very carefully before sending a child who is already young for his age.</p>
<p>@quenn: Thanks so much for your thoughtful story. That pretty much wraps up this thread for me.</p>
<p>Oh good grief, @DAndrew. I don’t base it on what happened when I was going to school in the dark ages because that was a different era. Lincoln was still President then. It pretty much based on being active for (yes decades) and logging in a lot of hours with current and prospective students and their parents. </p>
<p>What I do is try to counter when someone takes a limited amount of conjecture and spins it into an absolute based on stereotypes, rumors, or isolated instances. Live abhors a vacuum, but it also demands a balance. </p>
<p>For parents and students - it’s pretty much caveat emptor.</p>
<p>Folks, I think this one is flogged but good. Re: caveat emptor, hopefully this thread will inform some prospective families who might not have known otherwise that both the PG phenomenon and the repeat phenomenon WILL impact their BS experience in some way. We had this conversation specifically with our DS during the revisit period, because he choose between 2 small BS without PGs where (even with some repeaters) he might have eventually expected to be a 3 sport varsity athlete, and 2 larger BS where he’ll be lucky to play varsity in 1. For our family, and our kid, academic and social fit trumped athletic considerations, so he went in knowing this dynamic would be in play. The only class where academic repeat enters is in his first year language class, where he is legitimately starting from ground zero, and finds himself next to kids who had 3 years (of, admittedly, probably spotty) training prior to starting in this intro class. But, as another poster pointed out, while he’ll need some additional tutoring to get up to speed, I expect by the end of the year he’ll be fine.</p>
<p>I think you may have on rose colored glasses if you think folks don’t take whatever advantage they can to get the highest grades for the best chance at the Ivy’s. My son worked with two other preps in an intro physics course on a lab assignment a few years ago. Turns out both already took physics before coming to Exeter. Also, although both were in an Alg 2 course, they both had calculus before coming to Exeter. My son was blown away as the two classmates first solved the physics problem using calculus, then backed into the brute force algebra solution for the lab report. On a different level, roommate who had algebra before Exeter took the intro / lowest level math course as a prep. Spent 5 minutes on math homework every night and aced every test, while my son struggled every night with an hour of math homework. Think the world is a little more dog eat dog than you think, whether you are looking at athletics or academics. To be honest, the experience was tough for my son. Didn’t matter how hard he worked, the playing field just wasn’t level. He walked away from that experience a bit discouraged. However, as an earlier poster pointed out, things tend to even themselves out by Upper year. Think he takes pride in the things he has achieved through hard work, and has less respect for the kids that succeeded by beating the system. We’ll see how fair the world is when colleges start looking at GPA’s on applications next year.</p>
<p>
Who is doing that??? You are unbelievable. Who said “I suppose (at least I hope) it is not widespread” and who said repeaters “DO NOT” repeat? You are the one who tends to give absolute - again “textbook right” answers, which frankly are useless to people who have had a few years of BS experience, but as I said they are useful for those who are new to it, so carry on but let people have their dicussions without the distraction of your ridiculous accusations please.</p>
<p>Back to topic, I think to be fair to the school there’s no easy way on this matter. One thing they could do is to apply weighted GPA to encourage students to take the risk of taking harder courses, but I understand their reluctance as it could drive the student body to focus purely on academics (legitimate concern?), which is not to the best interest of the school as a commuity that needs more than just students who are striving for best GPA.</p>
<p>I went through the current class of my child’s HADES BS class. (equivalent of junior year). The breakdown of birth years is as follows:
1993 - 6
1994 - 67
1995 - 76
1996 - 3
It seems as though roughly half the class is a repeat. As I was going through the Facebook, it did not look like the majority were athletes. Just as many girls as boys were repeats or in 6 cases double repeats</p>
<p>Colleges can see that students are repeating, so they will simply take that into consideration as they observe a student’s grades compared with their class. I am considering applying as a repeating sophomore not to get ahead, but because I don’t want to be completely overwhelmed coming in to a much harder school AND junior year. It’s too much stress. Also, I don’t want to be an outsider coming in so late. So no, not every student is trying to “get ahead”. Everybody has their reasons, mine being that I want the full experience not just a snippet of stressful years.</p>
<p>@exeter123 I am surprised Exeter did not put more controls on this. I have sons at 2 different prep schools and in both cases, the schools have reviewed past records and entrance tests and TOLD us which classes they needed to take. There was no option even to repeat a class already taken.</p>
<p>In the public system, juniors would have birth dates from September of 1994 through the end of August of 1995. Thus, one can’t assume a child born in 1994 is a repeat–you’d have to know the month for that. </p>
<p>Exeter123, thank you for the eyewitness report. I am also surprised Exeter didn’t find the proper placement for the students. I wish your son good luck in the hunt for colleges.</p>
<p>“Colleges can see that students are repeating, so they will simply take that into consideration”</p>
<p>I don’t know that colleges can tell a kid is repeating. It’s not like they see middle school grades then notice that grade 9 appears twice.</p>
<p>It’s mandatory that you list any high school you attended. So, when they see two high school listed and four years attended at one, they are going to question it.</p>
<p>I just realized my last post made no sense:</p>
<p>“It’s not like they see middle school grades then notice that grade 9 appears twice”</p>
<p>DS’s previous school was K-12.</p>
<p>The repeat question comes up regularly and I’d be remiss if I didn’t put in my regular link to one of the earlier threads on it which contains an interesting (and now old, but probably not terribly dated) NYT article on the subject:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/4075470-post2.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/4075470-post2.html</a></p>
<p>@DyerMaker, thanks for the illuminating NYT article. The article may be old, but it certainly is still relevant.</p>
<p>from the article:
“Families are talking about their plan of attack for education”
→ Scary how Darwinian some parents make this.</p>
<p>“Mike Hirschfeld, admissions director at St. Paul’s”
→ LOL, his name really is Hirschfeld? He’s working at the wrong BS.</p>
<p>He’s now the Rector of SPS.</p>