Have any idea?
No idea but I’m sure there is more than a few.
There are a lot of kids who apply for IV Form ( 10th ) every year for the first time. They’re applying from JBSs and Private Day Schools that only go up to the 9th grade.
I know at our school, many international students come in at 10th because of where the break is in their own systems, so they are not re-applicants. It’s hard to say, and it probably varies as much by school as it does by year.
@PhotographerMom - I’ve heard that some 9th grade kids from JBS repeat 9th grade at BS. Do you know if this is common?
@bostonparent617 Hi, I am a student at a JBS who is newly admitted to andover’s lower middle(10th) grade class so I thought I could answer this question. It seems like among my friends, there are more students repeating ninth grade than directly proceeding into tenth. I am older than most of my classmates because I was from a public school in Asia and repeated a year already, so that was not a choice for me. But most of the kids in our jbs are on the younger side, so they do have the option to repeat. But I think the percentage varies a lot by each year and school.
It’s fairly common, @bostonparent617 for different reasons, but it mostly has to do with age. Some JBS parents will tell an AO that their child is open to repeating 9th, while some BSs will ask some JBS parents if they’re child is open to repeating 9th after they’ve already applied for 10th. Some JBS SS Placement Heads may also strongly suggest repeating 9th for certain schools, or for all schools for many different reasons - it really depends on the student.
Some legacy families might want four year status for their child, too. Again, it all depends… but I would say that most JBS kids sail into 10th.
Among my new 10th grader friends (including me) I’d say most of us had applied for the first time, maybe 70% were new applicants, 30% repeat applicants? That’s a very rough estimate, and that’s only for Exeter students.