Holton Arms entry year?
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Anonymous
| My DD is at the moment in a very good private that goes up to 8th grade. We are interested in Holton Arms as a posible school for her after her current school. Would it be easier to apply to enter at 6th grade or in 9th grade. DD is happy in her current school so I am inclined to let her stay until 8th grade but worry about about the chances for that particular school. Any thoughts? |
Anonymous
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Both entry levels are hard. In 6th grade you are competing with the very smart public school kids looking for a change. In 8th you are looking at very smart and very rich private school kids looking for a new school, as well as smart public school kids looking for a private high school.
But many of the kids coming from other schools have a hard time at Holton in 9th grade. There is a lot of prep in 7/8th to get them ready and having a core set of friends to depend on helps too. Not to mention 6th grade is still lower school at Holton. I would want to move then. Much less of a stressful transition. |
Anonymous
Oh and if you don't get in, you can try again in 7th. |
Anonymous
Nonsense. I know many girls who transition at 9th grade with no issues whatsoever. |
Anonymous
PP, you may know many girls with no issues (cool), but that doesn't mean there aren't many girls who have transition issues. No reason to be so dismissive. OP, regarding entry year, barring the PP who seems to know only girls with no issues, there seems to be consistent thought that Holton tends to ramp up in difficulty going into 9th. The thing I would think about is that the earlier your DD makes the transition, the sooner she can start becoming involved in the community and getting to know friends at the new school. I'm sure Holton makes a concerted effort to make incoming girls feel welcome and get the support they need, but the earlier you are there, the earlier you start to do that. |
Anonymous
| Many posters on here talk about the "ramp up" at Holton in tenth grade, but fwiw our next door neighbors' daughter (we know the family and the girl very well) is a tenth grader at Holton and she hasn't experienced a crushing work load. Of course she gets a good deal of work but that would be the case in tenth grade anywhere - for example her parents say it doesn't seem to be any different than the workloads of the numerous Whitman high schoolers in the neighborhood. She is very happy at Holton and continues with a high time commitment an outside activity, and has great friends! |
Anonymous
| Ten-year parent here and I would let her stay at her current school through 8th, especially if she's happy. I've seen girls have more of a challenge entering middle school than high school. In my DD's class, new girls have always been welcome and the friend groups seem to be a mix of girls who started at different years. Agree with earlier poster that 6th is not always an easy year also, not just strong public applicants but also legacy girls enter that year. |
Anonymous
| If she is happy at her K-8, stay. All K-8 schools ramp up anyway in middle school, so no difference in rigor with Holton. She will be well prepared for Holton. |
Anonymous
| Many thanks for all replies, interesting perspectives. |
Anonymous
| DD applied for Holton last year for 9th and were wait listed. We declined because it was our fourth choice and we got into two of the top three. Apparently, the word was it was extremely competitive last year there. We didn't really have any connections and didn't really care enough to use what we had. It was a nice school but DD didn't want an all girls school. Both all female schools were 4th and 5th choice but applied for options. |
Anonymous
| My girls both started in middle school and I liked that they had time to adjust before 9th. Holton is tough academically and the focus in middle school is on learning to advocate for yourself, which is important. I also love the two year focus on just 7th and 8th grade. Just our experience. |
Anonymous
| A classmate from my public high school transferred there in 10th and was fine. |
pbraverman
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There is a lot of value to finishing something, and your daughter will likely reap a lot of benefit from being "queen of the hill" in eighth grade at her K-8. That's very hard for a middle schooler to get in a K-12 school. (I've worked in both.) She'll also have the thrill of graduation, a rite of passage and an achievement at a critical time for kids, i.e., early adolescence. Perhaps the strongest reason to stay is that grades 7 and 8 are the years in which almost all kids (especially girls) experience enormous growth in self-awareness. That's not merely incidental; a child who is strongly self-aware is much better equipped to participate in the process of selecting her school than a younger child is. In my last year in a school, a family was in exactly the same position you're in. I encouraged them to consider the advantages of staying, and they decided their daughter would. She finished last year, and the family told me they (and she) were thrilled they finished the process, and how eagerly she dove into the high school search process. The girl was offered a spot at every school to which she applied, and she's now old enough to apply that success to her college search in four years. I can't even count how many families told me that their college searches were unremarkable because their kids felt so confident as a result of their high school search experience. A sixth-grader is very unlikely to transfer her experience in the same way six years later — both because she's not as self-aware, and because it's a longer time between events. There are reasons to apply in grade 6, but I think the case is stronger to wait — ESPECIALLY if she's happy where she is. In my experience, there are seldom, if ever, advantages in terms of numbers in the admission pools. Your experience, of course, may differ. Good luck! Peter _____________________ Disclaimer: The anonymity here makes me uncomfortable; it's easy to be uninformed, personal, or simply mean-spirited if people don't identify themselves. For that reason, I have an account so you know whose words you're reading. I have more than 20 years' experience as a teacher and administrator in independent schools, and I hope I can be helpful to some folks. If you don't like something I've said, you're in good company — there's a long line of past students ahead of you.  If you want to chat further, please feel free to contact me offline: peter <at> arcpd <dot> com
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Anonymous
Thanks a lot for this great advice. It really makes sense and you are right, the benefits she will get for being "queen of the hill" as you said will be with her for a long time and will give her confidence for the years ahead. It is rare to find such sincere and well intencioned advice here, so again, many thanks! I think you convinced me to stay. |
pbraverman
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You're welcome, and you're very kind; thanks. I assume it was clear that my posting had nothing to do with Holton, a school where I've been many, many times. On the contrary, I admire their approach and I've often counseled girls to apply. If your daughter ends up there for high school, I have every confidence that she'll have a wonderful four years. Peter |