New private school

[Anonymous]

My daughter is switching private schools. This is not in the DC area. The reason for the switch is due to the rigor of the previous school. She took placement tests for math and language and will need to repeat classes at the new school. She took Spanish II last year and her placement test at the new school puts her in Spanish II for this year. The new schools sequencing in history is different than her old school. She’s going into 11. New school puts 11th in APUSH. She did that last year. She is being placed in European History which her new school offers in 9th but she would have taken it in 11th at her old school. The math issue is that her old school taught Alg II and the new school teaches it as Alg II/Trig. She doesn’t have the trig. Old school covered it when they taught precalc.

So on her 11th grade transcript it will show she took a 9th grade history class as an 11th grade and had to repeat language and math.

For those of you that have changed schools, how have you handled this? Is this something I need to worry about? How will this be viewed by college admissions? Im wondering if I should just have her repeat 10th at the new school. I’d have to look at what the new school requires 10th graders to take.

[Anonymous]

From only a college admissions perspective, repeating 10th grade is a more difficult thing to explain than taking classes out of order because of changing schools. And making her spend an extra year of high school doesn't seem fair, in the absence of other problems.

[Anonymous]

Agree. Unless a D1 prospect level athlete, reclassing will be hard to explain.

[Anonymous]

Sequence differences is easy to explain. Don't sweat it.

[Anonymous]

Not D1 athlete. No extenuating issues. I’m happy to leave her in 11th. She would be upset to repeat 10th. I’m just wondering if this makes college admissions wonder what happened that she had to repeat 2 classes. She received As in both classes from the old school. Since the new school goes more in depth she just doesn’t have the same foundation as her new peers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Not D1 athlete. No extenuating issues. I’m happy to leave her in 11th. She would be upset to repeat 10th. I’m just wondering if this makes college admissions wonder what happened that she had to repeat 2 classes. She received As in both classes from the old school. Since the new school goes more in depth she just doesn’t have the same foundation as her new peers.

With all that is it really the best decision to switch schools? It will be hard socially also.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Not D1 athlete. No extenuating issues. I’m happy to leave her in 11th. She would be upset to repeat 10th. I’m just wondering if this makes college admissions wonder what happened that she had to repeat 2 classes. She received As in both classes from the old school. Since the new school goes more in depth she just doesn’t have the same foundation as her new peers.

With all that is it really the best decision to switch schools? It will be hard socially also.

The decision has already been made, contract signed, and tuition paid. That ship sailed. Placement results came out this week. This wasn’t something that was reviewed/discussed during the admission cycle. They saw her grades obviously but the actual content of the course was never discussed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From only a college admissions perspective, repeating 10th grade is a more difficult thing to explain than taking classes out of order because of changing schools. And making her spend an extra year of high school doesn't seem fair, in the absence of other problems.

Repeating tenth grade is a very common thing for students going into boarding schools. Obviously not apples to apples but it’s definitely an option that wouldn’t be too hard to explain away imo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From only a college admissions perspective, repeating 10th grade is a more difficult thing to explain than taking classes out of order because of changing schools. And making her spend an extra year of high school doesn't seem fair, in the absence of other problems.

Repeating tenth grade is a very common thing for students going into boarding schools. Obviously not apples to apples but it’s definitely an option that wouldn’t be too hard to explain away imo.

You’re more in point than you thought with your comment. Yes the transfer is to a boarding school. Maybe I should set up an appt with the dean of academics to discuss options. Thank you for the insight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:From only a college admissions perspective, repeating 10th grade is a more difficult thing to explain than taking classes out of order because of changing schools. And making her spend an extra year of high school doesn't seem fair, in the absence of other problems.

Repeating tenth grade is a very common thing for students going into boarding schools. Obviously not apples to apples but it’s definitely an option that wouldn’t be too hard to explain away imo.

You’re more in point than you thought with your comment. Yes the transfer is to a boarding school. Maybe I should set up an appt with the dean of academics to discuss options. Thank you for the insight.

I’m PP. FWIW I repeated tenth when I went to boarding school and was happier for it. I repeated my math and history courses and felt far more confident for it. I’d recommend it to anyone considering. It never came up at all during college admissions season as I mentioned earlier, got into my first choice ED.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is also leaving for boarding school as a 11th grader. She is also taking classes out of sequence in both math and science. She didn't do so great on her math placement test so she will also be taking Geometry with 10th graders. That being said, I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure college admission offices have seen this before with kids switching schools mid HS.

We did consider having her repeat 10th grade. The reason being is that she is very young for her class. But my daughter DID NOT want to add another year of HS!

Good luck. I hope both our daughters love their new schools!

[Anonymous]

I'm assuming you can afford the extra year of private/boarding school without it compromising college savings but something to consider.

Also something to consider: does your DD want to hold back a year?

I think it would be easier for her to explain to prospective colleges that she moved to a boarding school and there were a few classes that shuffled due to that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is also leaving for boarding school as a 11th grader. She is also taking classes out of sequence in both math and science. She didn't do so great on her math placement test so she will also be taking Geometry with 10th graders. That being said, I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure college admission offices have seen this before with kids switching schools mid HS.

We did consider having her repeat 10th grade. The reason being is that she is very young for her class. But my daughter DID NOT want to add another year of HS!

Good luck. I hope both our daughters love their new schools!

OP here—-my daughter has an August bday so she’s always been one of the youngest in her grade. I suspect that she doesn’t want to add a year of HS but she does want to go into engineering in college. What I don’t know is how much it would hurt her options if she applies without calculus.

I’ve already spoken with the math chair and Precalc in summer school next year is not an option.

Best of luck to your daughter. I hope she loves her school and the experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
OP here—-[…] What I don’t know is how much it would hurt her options if she applies without calculus.

Many engineering schools will not consider any applicant without at least 1 year of HS calculus. A few engineering schools will make a few exceptions, but there are very good academic reasons not to make such exceptions. Story below explains why.

In my Engineering School, at the start of the first day of “Calculus 1 for Engineers”, which covered Differential Calculus, the professor asked how many students had not had a full year of high school calculus. Then, 3 of the 45 students raised their hands. He told them they could get through the course, but that they would need to work much harder than other students and they should plan to come to his office hours when they got stuck.

All 3 students struggled, as the university course pacing for both Calc 1 & Calc 2 (differential & integral) assumed that all students already had studied/learned Calculus in HS. One of those 3 graduated in 4 years with a BS Engineering, after camping out at office hours, but not with the best GPA. One student transferred after 2nd semester to the liberal arts school of the same university. One student just disappeared after 2nd year of Engineering School, probably failed out or transferred elsewhere.

Would-be students in Engineering really need at least 1 year of HS Calculus to have a good chance at (1) getting accepted in Engineering, but more importantly (2) graduating with an engineering degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My daughter is also leaving for boarding school as a 11th grader. She is also taking classes out of sequence in both math and science. She didn't do so great on her math placement test so she will also be taking Geometry with 10th graders. That being said, I'm not too worried about it. I'm sure college admission offices have seen this before with kids switching schools mid HS.

We did consider having her repeat 10th grade. The reason being is that she is very young for her class. But my daughter DID NOT want to add another year of HS!

Good luck. I hope both our daughters love their new schools!

OP here—-my daughter has an August bday so she’s always been one of the youngest in her grade. I suspect that she doesn’t want to add a year of HS but she does want to go into engineering in college. What I don’t know is how much it would hurt her options if she applies without calculus.

I’ve already spoken with the math chair and Precalc in summer school next year is not an option.

Best of luck to your daughter. I hope she loves her school and the experience.

I think even back in my day, most students who want to go into Engineering or the hard sciences would have had some Calc in high school. I assume that applies today as well. I would speak to the academic dean or math chair at your daughter's new school to see if anything can be done to fast track her, if she's serious about pursuing engineering and a more advanced math track is something she is motivated to do. They need to know this is her goal. Even if your school doesn't offer it, there are summer online courses offered through other places that she could take that could help her catch up in math and pass the assessment into the next course. There is CTY, AOPS, and even Khan, which is free, could be useful.