<p>I'm a 15-year-old that is currently on a gap year. I was supposed to be a high school junior in my school last August 2012, but I had to temporarily stop going to school because of financial problems. </p>
<p>During my gap year, a problem arose. My country changed it's educational system from a non K-12 program (where grade school and middle school were just grades 1-6 and high school was called 1st year to 4th year) to the K-12 program. </p>
<p>Now that my family is capable of sending me to school this coming August, my parents considered sending me to the United States for high school. Following US standards, I completed 8 grades, and from my understanding, 15-year-olds are supposed to be in the 9th or 10th grade. </p>
<p>Although I'm somewhat qualified to become a junior this coming August, I'm having second thoughts about entering as a junior. </p>
<p>I'm also interested in applying to an Ivy League college, but I feel a bit weird about my freshman and sophomore year grades. Plus, I heard that Ivy League colleges feel a little bit iffy about taking in students who went through a gap year. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts on this situation? Should I enter school this coming August as a high school freshman or a junior? And are "financial caused" gap years considered normal?</p>
<p>P.S, As I have posted and replied to CSIHSIS' response, I am not from the United States. In my country, which by the way, is a 3rd world country, public education is not as stabled as first world country systems. In 1 public school class in my country, there are about 75 students and they still have to pay for tuition.</p>
<p>And are “financial caused” gap years considered normal?</p>
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<p>No, because public school is free.</p>
<p>To clear things up, I am not from the United States. In my country, which by the way, is a 3rd world country, public education is not as stabled as first world country systems. In 1 public school class in my country, there are about 75 students and they still have to pay for tuition.</p>
<p>Why does it sound like your two options are going into 8th grade or 11th grade? I would start off as a 9th or 10th grader if I were you.</p>
<p>Also, this is advice a couple years ahead of time, don’t apply to ivy league schools jstu because they’re ‘ivy’- there’s plenty of awesome schools out their that aren’t in that football league.</p>
<p>Of course I’m aware that there are other awesome schools out there, but Ivy League or non-Ivy League, colleges would still prefer a student with terrific grades. </p>
<p>Thanks for your opinion!</p>
<p>If you are not sure of your skills it would probably be better to start as a freshman. Once you begin high school you could talk to a counselor about taking a class or two online or over the summer so that you could potentially graduate in three years (that way you won’t be older then your classmates if that is a concern for you).</p>
<p>Wow! I didn’t know that was possible. Well, I’m aware of the existence of online or summer classes, but I’ve never heard of ones that could serve as actual high school credit. I’ll definitely look into that more so that I could fully understand how those summer/online classes work.</p>
<p>Thank you for your opinion!</p>
<p>Just talk to your high school counselor once you know where you are going. Personally I am graduating with 6 extra credits through classes taken outside of school.</p>