This is the salient point in this discussion. Students who repeat ninth grade at the schools discussed on this board are not repeating material. They take assessments before entering and are placed in appropriate-level courses. They will graduate with the highest course levels they were able to consume from curriculums they were not able to outpace. Colleges do not see this practice at these schools in any negative way whatsoever; they know these schools intimately and are happy to accept their very well-prepared students. Remember, too, that these repeats are only competing against their peers, many of whom also repeated at that same school.
(I don’t know if @fretfulmother is aware that this forum is almost completely dedicated to boarding schools which may not compare well to the general pool of private schools.)
@ChoatieMom - you are right that I’m not very familiar with the boarding school forum on CC.
We may need to agree to disagree. All students who apply to college as HS seniors are competing based on a “high school record”. From what I have been told, elite colleges are unimpressed by someone taking five years to get whatever record they produce, and doubly so if this is hidden and then discovered.
Also, I fear that my post was misread - I did not say “4 years of math in 5 years” - I said “6 years of math in 5 years” - in other words, assume that you have a very good math student, who can move himself through the equivalent of a sixth year (e.g. Alg II, Geom, Precalc, Calc, Stats, DiffEq). This is more impressive to do in a regular four years of HS than if you get a reset 9th grade and do it in 5 years - even though both are “better” than a normal applicant might be.
I think it’s a case-by-case basis, but if the student is super advanced, or they get another year of sports development, I can’t think it would hurt them much. I think it probably helps, as long as the rationale is sound.
These highly selective BS maintain their reputations, not just with applicants but also with the colleges where they place them, by doing the best possible job of preparing their students so they will be compelling applicants. If asking them to repeat, or even accepting repeats, undermined that goal, it seems unlikely they’d persist in that practice.
Perhaps in a different tier of private schools it would be frowned upon (if it happens there, which @fretfulmother has indicated it does), but it doesn’t seem to be a problem for this group of boarding schools. Could be, as @ChoatieMom points out, we’re talking about 2 different things here.
BS requires a certain level of independence and maturity which a kid, regardless of academic prowess, may lack, and this no doubt plays into that decision of whether to admit them a year later. Colleges are then looking at the whole package, not just how far along in a math progression a kid is or how fast he’s done it.
Fwiw, there are a number of BS who don’t have many repeats - really depends on the school as well.
There is no “reset.” You’re assuming that the five-year student will not acquire an even higher level of math, say a seventh year equivalent like discrete math (assuming these students we’re talking about are even that interested in math) or that the non-repeat is starting in a lower level of math.
At BS, not all ninth graders are taking the same level of courses. For example, a repeat might have only completed geometry at the previous school when his/her non-repeat peer might be entering ninth grade in calculus (there are lots of those at BS). Or an incoming ninth-grader (repeat or no) might have completed Algebra II at the previous school, but is placed in the new school’s Algebra II course because the school has assessed that the student is not ready for pre-calc in their curriculum. All BS students start where their incoming skills place them and finish where their skills and interests take them and none are disadvantaged in the college application game. (And no BS student is able to hide repeat status and would have no incentive to do so.)
This may be why boarding schools mostly refer to grades using British terminology (9th grade = third form or “preps,” “lowers,” “uppers,” etc.), so it doesn’t appear so odd to have students from multiple forms in any given class. And most of the BS discussed here will be able to support and challenge a student as far as they are capable of going in any subject area, regardless of where they started.
@fretfulmother - We asked the AO at every school we toured (12 of them!) if they had a preference or recommendation in terms of repeating. Not one of them said that we should or shouldn’t repeat. They all said that it was up to us. So I really didn’t get the impression that they’re trying to get an extra year of tuition out of us. I do think that between PGs and kids repeating, it’s gotten out of hand in terms of how old these kids are.
CA (specifically the CIF) has a rule that you’re only allowed to compete athletically in a any given sport for 8 consecutive high school semesters. As a result, very few kids repeat at Cate & Thacher, and it shows (in a good way I think!) When we toured some of the larger East Coast schools that have PGs the difference was really obvious to me. DS didn’t seem to care, but he doesn’t play sports that typically recruit PGs.
I’d really like to see data on how the repeat/not repeat thing plays out with non-athletic campus leadership positions senior year. I wonder if you made a list of the top 10 or twenty “biggest” (however you want to define that) leadership roles at a particular school: newspaper editor, school president(s) (in the case of co-presidents). senior class president,yearbook editor, etc. and looked at a five year average of which kids earn those positions, would repeats be over-represented? If repeats make up 35% of the student body, I wonder if they make up 50%, 60%, or even more of the kids who fill those roles.** It is easy to arm-chair quarterback this one and say from our living rooms, “heck no! Every kid has equal access to those roles if they have the chops.” But this is an empirical question, and it would be valuable to understand how it plays out statistically.
**Of course, you’d probably want to look at what % of those roles are filled by 4 year vs. 3 year vs. 2 year students, since that probably has a large impact as well. But obviously, someone with access to the numbers could slice and dice it to get a sense of the impact.
I can only speak from personal experience, but 30 years ago, I didn’t need to report that I repeated 9th grade. Back then we didn’t use the common app, but those applications just asked where do you attend high school, what courses are you taking, etc.and they just expected to see 4 years and confirmation after graduation of completion. It wasn’t like grad school apps which ask to see your entire history from every institution one has attended.
It all depends on the student. (Note that my children did not choose to repeat, so I’m not defending our own choices.)
Many students choose to repeat 9th grade for athletic reasons. They (or their parents) want another year of growth before playing contact, team sports. If a league permits PGs, younger boys may never get to be leading athletes.
Of the remainder, quite a few students choose to repeat a grade, particularly if they are changing from a public school to a private school. As private school curricula are frequently a year ahead of public school curricula, they are not repeating material. Many elementary and private schools stress grammar to a greater degree than public schools.
Some of the students who choose to repeat a grade have been allowed to skip grades in previous schools. They are seeking to join students closer to their own age. And some students want to experience a full four years in the same high school. It can be very challenging to start in 10th or 11th grade, especially if a student wants to gain leadership positions in extracurricular activities.
I haven’t seen a disadvantage in terms of college admissions for students who repeat. However, I’ll also say that I haven’t seen an advantage for those students either, apart from the students who are recruited for athletics. And I would worry about a student being significantly older than his peers.
@bsalum Completely different than when we were applying to college. Now students are required to provide information on all schools attended for grades 9 - 12 and to provide transcripts for those schools.
@paveyourpath This is what I found on the 2013 Common App:
List all other secondary schools you have attended since 9th grade, including academic summer schools or enrichment programs hosted on a secondary school campus:
School Name, CEEB/ACT Code, Location (City, State/Province, ZIP/Postal Code, Country), Dates Attended (mm/yyyy)
Which 9th grade- the 1st 9th grade experience or the second 9th grade experience? If one chooses from the second 9th grade experience, and includes all summer coursework, I believe it would fulfill the request. I suppose the revised Common App might be more specific, but there looks to be wiggle room in interpretation here. I am certain many people in 2013 chose not to reveal their first experience with 9th grade. Having said that, depending on when one’s birthday is located in the calendar year, it might behoove one to be forthcoming…even perhaps write an essay about it.
