I am currently repeating 9th grade at a great prep school. However, I have been questioning my decision to repeat freshman year since I started. The thing is, I never really had a reason to repeat. I learned a lot and gained a lot of perspective my first freshman year at a competitive public high school. I was never behind socially, academically, or in sports.
I presented this issue to faculty at my current school, and now have the option to skip 10th grade, and enter in 11th grade next year. It would essentially be “skipping a grade” except really, just getting me back on track.
If I stayed in my current grade, by my senior year, and, come time to apply for college, I would be very ahead in terms of classes, and would have had access to a lot of experiences as well as leadership opportunities.
If I skip, I will have spent the traditional four years in high school, however having only spent three years at my prep school, would not have taken as many advanced classes or had as many leadership opportunities.
Repeating a grade is awful for me, because I’m the type of person who likes to feel productive and get things done and move forward. The though of finishing high school at the appropriate time sounds great to me. However, I am afraid that if I decide to skip 10th grade and graduate “early” (or on time), it is going to affect both my college admissions, as well as how I feel about my high school experience in general.
What are your opinions on this? It seems like a rather one-of-a-kind situation. How much will it affect my college chances? Is it worth staying a whole extra year in high school? What seems to be the best path here?
Have you met with the college counselor at your high school to review the implications of this choice?
Hi @worldmap,
Academically, I would definitely not consider an additional year a waste of time. Many academic/intellectual pursuits take years to hone. Writing, for example, is something that takes a lot of practice and using that tenth grade year gives you one more year to employ academic and creative writing skills, both of which will serve you very well later on in life. Something like writing, in my opinion, just takes practice. In addition, tenth grade teachers will likely hold you to a higher standard of academic performance, as you are no longer new on campus. In my experience, eleventh grade was REALLY challenging academically, so you might be better off not plunging head-first into that without the stepping stone of 10th grade to prepare you.
Also, since it will be your second year at the new school, you’ll be able to solidify friendships and make new friends with the confidence of having had one year under your belt. But at the same time, you will actually have a lot of time to put into your friendships. My friends told me they barely saw me in my 11th grade year because I had “my head buried in the books” almost all the time.
While there is the added expense of an additional year of boarding tuition, I would suggest you don’t skip, if your family can afford it financially. It will put a lot less stress on you as a student and I think it will make the college process much easier for you. Additionally, like you mention, you will have an extra year to pursue advanced classes which will serve you in the college admissions process and in exploring and finding academic and extracurriculars you love and excel at. There’s some things that just take time and personal growth. In my experience, an extra year of high school at a BS was invaluable as much for my growth in the classroom as it was outside the classroom. Having an extra year may help you to appreciate forums and opportunities your school offers that you just wouldn’t pay heed to if you didn’t have an extra year of life experience and BS experience under your belt.
I respect that you’ll make the right choice for you. To me, doing four years at your current boarding school (for a total of five years in HS) is not being unproductive in the slightest.
I would do the skip, especially if you will be higher side age-wise at graduation. If you are not looking forward to every month of the next years I suspect that you are going to feel very ready to graduate long before graduation day rolls around.