Skipping a grade in high school. Pros and cons and friends..

I'm not sure about the maturity levels, to be honest. I knew some seniors that were way more immature than some sophs or jrs.

Also, every kid is an individual and age is not always of measure their abilities - socially, emotionally or academically and holding them back academically due to their perceived chronological age 'maturity' only could also have consequences.

I say it totally depends on the kid in question. For some, it's the right move. Others, maybe not.

Not high school, but I skipped a grade in elementary school. So in high school, I was 6-12 months younger than a lot of my friends. I graduated high school in the year I turned 17. I never noticed any issues between me and my older friends. Now, I did have some maturity issues my first semester in college, but I buckled down after that first semester. But high school, no, as mentioned above, everyones maturity level is different.

Where did the OP go?

It was suggested year after year for DS, up until his freshman year in college. He has a February birthday, so he was in the middle of the pack as far as chronicall age. He was mature in a lot of ways, but definitely socially immature. As far as friends, we are a military family and he was in a different school every year from pre k to 3rd grade, and 3 schools through HS.

Academically, he has been well ahead of his peers from about 18 months of age. At the kindergarten round up testing, he had met 95% of the objectives 6 months before he started k. I won’t lie, this did present its own set of challenges.

At the end of the day, we decided that it would be better for DS to be at the head of the pack rather than at the back Our thought process was that we wanted to raise a person who loved learning; the knowledge would then naturally follow. We did choose his schools pretty carefully. At each new school, I met with the principal or vp at enrollment and explained DS’s particular pros and cons. Most schools were eager to place him with experienced teachers willing to challenge him.

DS is now a college senior. Because of AP classes, he entered college one class short of sophomore status. However, he is still going for 4 years. He could have graduated last week credit wise, but doesn’t have all of his major classes done (electrical engineering.). He has taken the opportunity to study abroad, take a marketing class, and take some extra engineering classes.

Good luck with your choice. You really do need to look at it from each students perspective.

Sounds like a smart girl, why not continue on and load up on AP classes that will give her a leg up in college.

Both of my sister's boys skipped from 6th to 8th grade. They had been oldest in their classes. The first one barely hung on for his first semester of college, and didn't make it the second. The second one lasted three weeks and just came home. I personally think that many kids these days need just a bit longer to mature and become more worldly before they head off to college.

If your school offers AP classes, I would have her do that. My kids attend a school where AP classes are not available. Instead they can take classes through the local community college their junior and senior year if they want. If my daughter was in your situation, I'd probably have her take a year of community college classes. I would feel ok about sending my 18 year old kid to college with several college credits completed, but I wouldn't feel as good about sending my 17 year old off to college.

Don't do it. I skipped a grade in elementary school and it made me a year younger than everyone, which mattered to me a lot for all the reasons people have said above. I couldn't drive when my friends could, and graduated from high school at 17 and college at barely 21. I always felt kind of lost and behind the curve socially and emotionally. I honestly went to grad school in part just to get a couple more years of adulthood under my belt before heading out into the real world.

My sophomore DD has credits to graduate this year! I had to sign papers early on in the school year in case she chose to graduate. I was reluctant because there’s no way I could see her going off to college at 16. She hasn’t really had classes with her friends at all this year but they have managed to still hang out and remain friends. So my worry wouldn’t be about keeping her friends.

She chose to stay in school on her own and is taking full load of college classes next year thru the high school. She can still choose to graduate as a junior next year.

I was wondering along this line, if she has the credits then the classes she takes would be with upper level classes.  So basically she's not really taking classes with her friends anyhow?  Sounds like it's just a matter of what to call her class-wise.  

I know that some seniors take classes at local colleges to earn college credit while still in high school. Is a good way to challenge those who needed it.  If she wanted to graduate with her class maybe a couple college courses would let her do that while giving her a feel for college.  

I guess the real question for me would be how does she feel about going to college earlier?  I think if my kid was already taking classes that weren't with her friend group she wouldn't have much reason to want to stay the 4th year.  By the way my youngest makes the cutoff by 4 days.  Obviously she was always the absolute youngest of her class and often friends with the girls who were on the older side.  She's very smart and excelled in school.  She's completing her first year of college, lowest grade one B.  She did this while working almost full-time (her choice because she's crazy!)  At a couple months shy of 19, she's fairly mature the majority of the time.

You know your dd, what is your gut feeling on it?  That long with her feelings and you may have a pretty good answer.  Good luck!

It’s just going to depend on the kid. For every person that regrets graduating early or skipping a year there’s another person who enjoyed it. I didn’t technically skip a grade, but I was the youngest in my class and I spent part of my junior year and nearly all of my senior year taking classes at a nearby college. I graduated high school at 17 and started college with enough credits to be half way through my sophomore year of college. I loved it and am glad I did it. I went on to get my masters and then to law school- where again I was younger and often substantially younger than my classmates. But at 25 I had a bachelors degree with dual majors, a masters and a JD and had spent time studying in both Mexico and very briefly in Cuba

I see this happening more and more with our local high school kids. I taught several of them in 8th grade and they took online high school, junior college classes at night, took HS summer school, and many had taken algebra, geometry, and a foreign language by the time they entered 9th grade.  It is becoming more and more routine around here.

Getting AP classes and enrolling in the local junior college for part of the day will be way to enter college with credits, potentially graduating college early and saving thousands of dollars. So many are working the system to their advantage, a realization that we need to tailor schooling to the individual that is long overdue.

You know your child and can best decide. She certainly should be made aware of ALL of the options available to her as she moves through life.

I have a friend that I have known for 50+ years, went to school together.  She has an October birthday. She started school early so she was one of the youngest.  Then she graduated high school in three years.  Then she graduated college in three years.  Graduated college at age 19.  

Has a great job, married, kids, she is happy.  Everything worked out fine--or better than that.  

Depends on the kid.

Why the rush?

This is what I was going to say too. If there is a way she can earn college credits while still in high school, it will save you and her a lot of money if she can head off to college with a year’s worth of credits already under her belt. If it was my kid, I would do what I could to try to minimize her post secondary costs as much as possible. It’s never going to get any cheaper. 

Back in ancient times when I was in high school, dual enrollment wasn’t a thing. I took a full load of all AP classes and I was still bored and hated school. I would have LOVED to get the heck out of there a year early or be able to take college level courses somewhere else.