Repeat students— academic “red-shirting”?

<p>Parent- unfortunately I don’t have any info on Thacher. My child looked exclusively at NE schools. As far as how colleges view it, I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I believe I read somewhere that if a child repeats 9th grade and attends 9-12 at BS, colleges won’t even see a transcript from first 9th grade year. Transfers in later grades may need to show freshmen year grades from previous school. BS AOs told us that our child would not repeat courses they had already taken. While I haven’t been through the college process, I can’t imagine a college AO would frown upon a kid that repeated for academic or athletic reasons. Their purpose is to accept students that will be successful at their college/university and go onto be successful post graduation. I don’t think they r looking to punish a kid that took a different, more circuitous path to college. Nor do I think they have the time or interest in calculating when a child should have graduated based on birth year. States have different cut off dates for public schools and private schools also have different cut off dates and practices. Honestly, when our child asked to repeat, how it would be perceived by colleges wasnt even a concern.</p>

<p>@parentparent123</p>

<p>Sorry I missed your question. I don’t know if Thacher is more open to repeat than other BS’s. </p>

<p>My son repeated his 8th grade due to my job relocation. He went briefly to the international school in Asia and got back to US, repeated his 8th grade because of the curricular gap. My son was accepted at Thacher later. Hope this will help. </p>

<p>Just one clarification: if you repeat 9th grade, colleges don’t see the transcript from 9th grade at your old school. If you repeat 10th or 11th, they will (they want to see 4 years of grades). Again, they won’t look at it as a negative thing, but they will see the transcript from the old school.</p>

<p>^^I believe some colleges ask for ALL transcripts from ALL high schools you have attended regardless for which grade you attended a different school. For example, at Stanford:

although it also says

</p>

<p>Check on the requirements of colleges you are applying to. They may differ.</p>

<p>FYI, interesting article in The Atlantic about academic red-shirting in middle school to be more competitive in high school
<a href=“Your Kid's Brain Might Benefit From an Extra Year in Middle School - The Atlantic”>Your Kid's Brain Might Benefit From an Extra Year in Middle School - The Atlantic;

<p>I am starting as a repeat 9th grader at BS this fall, and honestly it never once occurred to me to do it because of the athletics, or to repeat in order to achieve higher marks with already dealt with courses…I did it because my birthday is late summer, I am international, I wanted to be a bit more mature, as I have always been the youngest of class, and though my school has a strong program, it is different, much more different than you could think. Education in the US is not what we are used to, and God forbid were I to begin as a 10th grader without that 9th grade English and Literature. </p>