Age at graduation

[asta]

Kid "missed the cut-off" for entering school (we have only homeschooled since 5th grade), so he will be a solid 19 the first semester of his freshman year at uni. And that is IF he goes straight from 12th class into uni. If he takes a glide year to do some of the stuff he wants to do with dad, he'll be 20.

 

Does this matter? Does it "look bad"? Are unis accustomed to seeing kids who missed the cut-off due to their birth date w/o looking at them as if they failed a grade somewhere along the line?

 

 

a

[creekland]

Does this matter? Does it "look bad"? Are unis accustomed to seeing kids who missed the cut-off due to their birth date w/o looking at them as if they failed a grade somewhere along the line?

 

 

a

 

No, no, and yes respectively. Not only are they used to kids who missed the cut off date, there are also several parents who delay their children a year (from starting, not failing) simply due to choice.

 

While the majority of students at our ps are the "traditional age" (and yours fits in here as traditional goes from cut off to cut off), I'd say about 4 or 5% are even a year later - not due to failing.

[LatinTea]

Another year of maturity never hurt anyone! :D

[Gwen in VA]

My oldest has an early September birthday, so even though she graduated at the "regular" time, she turned 19 before classes started her freshman year of college.

 

She thought she would be the oldest freshman around. Absolutely not! At her college, most of the international students start college at 19 or 20 and graduate when they are 23 or even 24. But even among the American students, she has been surprised at how many enter college at 19.

[Beth in OH]

In the suburban ps world of delaying kindergarten entrance, I've known kids who turn 19 as early as February of their senior year. Not unusual at all.

[Julie in MN]

My oldest wasn't homeschooled, but he was 20 when he started college. I waited for Kindergarten (not suburban :001_smile: ), and then he joined the Army Reserves which delayed things an extra year.

 

The only precaution we took was that when he was accepted to the college at 19, he then asked if his status could be held for that extra year.

 

On the other hand, this may be ancient history, but I never wanted to go to college until about a year after high school, so I never applied or even tested until then. I wouldn't recommend testing after a year of never looking at a textbook, so I'd try to do that during high school. I mean, I did fine on the testing but it was a strain :tongue_smilie: But anyways, I never felt anyone questioned my age. I did go to a large university with students of all ages, although of course most were right out of high school.

 

There are also a few scholarships that are specific about age -- both those for high school seniors heading straight to college and those for folks who had some time in between hs and college -- if that is a concern. (However, I'm not a big fan of scholarships anyways, unless you are wealthy, because in my son's case they never added up to more than the grant offered, and so they ended up just canceling out his grant, dollar-for-dollar and sometimes more.)

 

Julie

[asta]

Thanks guys. This was really starting to unnerve me.

 

 

a

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

Just adding that it's very common where I live for parents not to start their children in K (both in ps and homeschool) until they are 6 so many graduate when they are 19 or almost 19.

[mcconnellboys]

It's very common today, especially for boys. Many private schools actually want to hold boys back because older boys generally do better on ACTS/SATS in high school. It's probably better for him, anyway. He'll be more mature.....