graduating high school late?

[Guest lehnsherr]

I'd like to graduate high school a year later than I normally would for a number of reasons. The 2013-14 school year is technically 10th grade for me but I'd really like to call it 9th grade and do high school for four more years. I'd either add the courses I've already done to this current years list, or just remove them from the transcript entirely. With this plan I'd barely be 19 when entering college. I'm fine with that, but would it hurt my chance of any scholarships? I think this would really help me academically and just generally be less stressful as a lot has been going on, but scholarships are very important to me and I don't want to do this if it's going to mess those up.

[Lori D.]

As long as you have not been officially registered as a specific year of high school with your state, educational cover school, or other organization, this should not be a problem. Be sure you double check with your area's homeschool laws to make sure there is nothing preventing this shift, and check for any formal paperwork that might be required to be filed.

 

Are you in sports and plan to complete at the college level, and are competitive for a sports scholarship? If so, then this is very likely NOT a good plan if you have already played for a high school team this past year, as it will count against your eligibility to play, both in high school and at the college level. Check out the very specific, structured regulations for high school sports from the NCAA if you plan to play at the college level.

 

Also, be aware that you will only be able to count the last 4 years of classes of high school on the transcript, so make sure that there are no critical classes needed to meet either high school graduation requirements, or college admission requirements that were done this past year (2012-2013), as those will go away (be counted as 8th grade).

 

And as far as admission to college and applying for scholarships, age should not be an issue -- colleges see 19yo freshmen all the time.

 

The only potential negative I see is that you may possibly have regrets about this time in 4 years, wishing you were heading to college and knowing you *could* have been going, but instead still having one more year of required high school credits to complete. If you are fortunately enough to live in an unregulated state or area, you may be able to keep your options open and not have to make a final decision until 3 years from now -- you could decide at that point whether this past year will be 8th grade or 9th grade, depending on whether you are ready at that time to graduate, or want/need another year of high school.

 

Other questions to consider as you decide:

- What support do you have from family? Do they have any thoughts to help you decide?

- Do you have a state or area homeschool organization that could provide any information or the pros and cons to help you in making this decision?

- Would this decision allow you to participate in any special programs or extracurriculars of interest -- or prevent you from participating?

 

BEST of luck as you form a new high school plan! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[levelopourdeux]

Thanks for the reply! My state doesn't have anything against it, and I'm not into sports or anything. The only extra curricular I do is Girl Scouts, and this wouldn't hurt that at all. I've never really had friends where we live now that I would be missing by staying another year either.

 

What worries me is what the national merit scholarship requirements say -

 

"Be enrolled full-time as a high school student progressing normally toward completion of high school and planning to enroll full-time in college in the fall following the completion of high school;"

 

It says progressing normally. Would that exclude me if I counted this previous year as 8th grade when it should technically be 9th? I really don't want to mess up my chances for that. Besides that, I've thought about this a lot and my family and I both agree it would be the best option.

[Gwen in VA]

We had ds2 repeat 8th grade, and there were no problems with the PSAT or anything related to college apps.

 

My older dd is "old" for her year and turned 19 a few days after starting college. Ds2, who repeated 8th grade, was 19 when he entered college. BOTH of them were surprised to find out how many other freshman were older than they were -- due to being held back or taking a gap year or entering kindergarten late or coming from a foreign country where more students enter at age 19 or whatever. Based on their experiences (which may be unusual -- the sample size is rather small!), I would guess that ~10% of entering college freshman are 19!

 

I know that entering at 199 sounds like a big deal, but it just doesn't matter.

 

As long as none of the issues that Lori raised in her excellent post (like athletics) are relevant to you, go for it! :-)

[Nscribe]

For the National Merit they are going to look at the PSAT you take in what you call 1tth grade.  As long as you take it only once calling it 11th grade and you graduate the following school year you should be ok on that issue.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I'd like to graduate high school a year later than I normally would for a number of reasons. The 2013-14 school year is technically 10th grade for me but I'd really like to call it 9th grade and do high school for four more years. I'd either add the courses I've already done to this current years list, or just remove them from the transcript entirely. With this plan I'd barely be 19 when entering college. I'm fine with that, but would it hurt my chance of any scholarships? I think this would really help me academically and just generally be less stressful as a lot has been going on, but scholarships are very important to me and I don't want to do this if it's going to mess those up.

  

 

Thanks for the reply! My state doesn't have anything against it, and I'm not into sports or anything. The only extra curricular I do is Girl Scouts, and this wouldn't hurt that at all. I've never really had friends where we live now that I would be missing by staying another year either.

What worries me is what the national merit scholarship requirements say -

"Be enrolled full-time as a high school student progressing normally toward completion of high school and planning to enroll full-time in college in the fall following the completion of high school;"

It says progressing normally. Would that exclude me if I counted this previous year as 8th grade when it should technically be 9th? I really don't want to mess up my chances for that. Besides that, I've thought about this a lot and my family and I both agree it would be the best option.

This is confusing. Is one of these posts on a parent's account?

[Catwoman]

This is confusing. Is one of these posts on a parent's account?

I was wondering the same thing.

 

I know that levelopourdeux has a dd in high school, but she has been quite adamant in other threads that her dd was already teaching herself advanced math, etc., and that she had started self-teaching in 9th grade and that she had already very capably taught herself pre-algebra, algebra 1, and algebra 2, so it would seem unlikely that she would need an extra year to complete high school.

 

But in another thread, she said that her dd was now in the 9th grade. :confused:

 

Whatever the case, I don't understand why the same person would be posting on two different accounts. Maybe she was signed in on one computer as herself and then used her mom's computer to post the second time?

 

I'm as confused as you are, Tibbie.