Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy Grade skipping and sports

I don't expect dd to be an olympic swimmer, I hope she would continue through high school and swim in college (D1 or D2). She just aged up on her swim team so when she was the oldest in her age group she was consistently in the top 5 and winning occasionally. Now that she's the youngest in her age group she's in the middle of the pack so it shows to me age does matter. This is a year round swim team and goes by age. It's not just about swimming, what if she decides to do another sport?

The STEM school doesn't have a high school swim team but they have an agreement with a nearby high school that the STEM kids can join that high school's teams.

Last year was the only year dd was happy and that was her first year in the self contained GT class and was a mix of 2nd/3rd graders so she was with older kids. She's tall for her age and was the 2nd tallest out of the whole class and some parents thought she was a 3rd grader. So she would fit right in with a grade older I think.

That said her strength is math, her writing is on grade level or a little above but not anything spectacular (PRI 151, VCI 124) so she's not an all around strong student working years above grade level in all areas (just math).

Although I don't advise avoiding a grade skip because of sports, it should be remembered that there are both implicit and direct sports scholarships. For the direct sports scholarships that most people think of, some or all of tuition and living expenses are paid in return for playing on the team.

Some prestigious schools with need-blind admissions offer big implicit sports scholarships for students not from rich families. For example, Harvard says

A student from a family earning $65K who gets into Harvard because she is a good athlete in addition to being a good student is better off than a comparable student without the sports hook who does not get in.

Bostonian, over how many years is parental income considered for the calculation?

The short answer is yes, especially if your DD is asking for a skip and is not concerned about the sports angle.

Our DD is a pretty good swimmer for her age, but 10 years from now I expect her satisfaction will be tied to how well she is doing in med school. Swim will be what she does for exercise.

Sorry if that was too blunt, but I would err on the side of academics - if she tears a rotator cuff, she can still be a scientist.

Best of luck,
--S.F.

I believe only current income is considered directly, although assets other than home equity and retirement accounts are also considered. The Harvard Net Price Calculator is at https://college.harvard.edu/financial-aid/net-price-calculator .

I wouldn't hold back a kid just for sports or because maybe they will get a scholarship many years down the line. That puts a lot of pressure on the kids to stay in this particular sport. Children change and grow and they become interested in other things. I would do what is best for your child NOW.

Also keep in mind that in swimming as other sports age does matter a lot when you 10. But age matters less as you age and by 16-18 it's stops mattering as much. Until H.S. you daughter will swim against age peers. This will only be an issue when she hits high school.

We were in a somewhat comparable situation this year. DS8, in third grade, could have skipped directly into fifth grade in a congregated gifted program - heavily STEM focused, too.

He decided he didn't want to, which was the crucial factor - however other factors came into play for me to decide not to override DS wishes (I do that all the time, he is often too anxious to pick what I know will be the right thing for him):

He is really weak in sports - so weak I'd be seriously worried about his somewhat tenuous social confidence if he were any weaker in comparison to his classmates. He was entered early with a birthday weeks after the cutoff, but as there is no red shirting in that school he's the youngest only by a few weeks up to a year - and STILL struggles to get Cs. I shudder to think how he'd struggle at the age of 8, in fifth grade, in a new school, possibly with red shirted boys in his class. He is tall and thin, moves a lot, swims, bikes, does martial arts, but is very very uncoordinated and physically anxious. Do grades in sports count? They did to me when I was a kid, and to everyone else.
So while I m not worried about actually competing in athletics, I m worried about competing socially, as it were. And I think he might really care about being competitive for academic competitions, or in band, or orchestra, or fine arts. (Which may affect his college options where we live, though athletics won't.) And while he is advanced in LA as well, he's just not as "out there" as he is in science and math (where he's been coasting along happily in fourth grade this year already anyway. Don't know what well do next year when he is in fourth and would have to go to middle school for math but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it).
And he has complained about being the youngest in class already, at the same time as complaining about the rest of the class being SO slow.
So like you, I have hopes that fifth grade in the gifted STEM program might finally, finally be able to offer him that sweet spot of being with age peers (they usually have a number of skipped kids and the occasional double skipped kid as well as grade level kids so he'll be smack bang in the middle) AND being academically appropriately placed.
As I said, athletics won't affect his college options, the most important considerations for us were social vs academic fit now.
I wouldn't plan for what could happen when she's 17.

I have a dd who will enter 6th grade in the fall who is a talented all-around athlete but currently heavily invested in competing in one sport, at which she excels. Although her sport doesn't move up children specifically by age (instead by competition level), she is a kid who enjoys competing at a high level rather than acing everything at an easier level. I wouldn't for *one minute* use sports as a reason to not grade-skip a student who was academically needing it.

Although you're seeing a difference with moving up a level in swimming now, I wonder how large that difference really would be once your dd is in high school, or if it would even be relevant at all. What I've seen with my dd and other kids I know who compete in individual sports, the true standouts come as a combination of innate talent combined with years of practice. The high school teams don't necessarily draw kids who have been competing since grade school or the most talented kids in the sport. I don't know how swimming works where you are, but in my dd's sport some of the most talented kids don't even compete on their high school teams because it takes time away from the competitive league that leads (ultimately for the top kids) to the Olympics. The stand-out athletes still get college scholarships even though they aren't on their high school teams. I also suspect (from the collegiate sports tournaments I've seen) that the kids who get the scholarships for individual sports are truly the kids who have that combination of innate talent plus history of time invested in the sport to achieve to a certain level. Will skipping ahead one year in swimming make a difference? I don't know because I don't know anything about swimming, but... fwiw... in my dd's sport... the only time that type of a skip might make an obvious difference is in the early levels of competition, kinda like a certain number of kids can learn to read "early" if they are exposed to reading lessons, and they might look "gifted" because not every child has learned to read yet, when really they are just early achievers due to exposure. By the time kids get up into middle-elementary school those "gifted" readers aren't looking like stand-outs anymore, but the truly highly gifted kids have learned how to read and are taking off. Same thing seems to happen with individual sports (or at least it does in my little corner of the world lol). By high school, success is much more about ability and time devoted to the sport than it is about actual age.

OTOH, for my dd - I'd much rather put my focus on working toward academic scholarships so that she's prepped to go to the schools that offer an advangage in whatever field of study she ultimately chooses. I went to a great STEM program. Our university had several competitive sports. They weren't Olympic-league teams, because the top swimmers, for instance, who had a shot at the huge scholarships, went to university at a place that had a nationally competitive team and college was all about swimming and they got some type of degree as a sideline, but the degree programs at those schools weren't necessarily anywhere near as highly respected as getting a degree at a school with an academic reputation. In return, most of the competitive athletes at our school got really nice scholarships - without having to be at the very very pinnacle of their sport.

The other thing about making a plan now for a sports scholarship later - what if your child has a career-ending injury between now and the end of high school? I sure hope she doesn't, but it can happen. What if she gets tired of competitive sports in general? Decides she wants to spend her free time volunteering?

So no, I wouldn't worry about the sports and instead focus on the academics.


It also probably made a difference that she was actually in a GT class - no matter which grade it was. That's been our kids' experience even if they were in the same grade level - just being with kids who "get it" quicker than the average in the typical class made a *huge* difference in their educational experience. Soooooo. that's one thing I'd look at re the STEM school - the differentiation sounds great. What about the student body? Is it primarily motivated or GT kids, or is it an assortment of different types of needs/backgrounds?


I wouldn't worry about the height. Honestly, I think we think about height too much when thinking will our kids fit in. Personality plays a larger role, imo.


That's still a strong VCI, so even if LA isn't her strong point, I wouldn't use that as a reason not to skip, especially if it's not a gifted-all-around program but is a school that differentiates.

Good luck with your decision!

polarbear

If your DD wants to go to the STEM program and it is a good fit, I would not make her stay where she is because of swimming. If I were in her shoes, I'd be rather resentful if I was held back because of swimming.

On the other hand, I do know a family that decided against acceleration because of the child's exceptional athletic abilities and he did end up receiving a full athletic college scholarship.

Have you spoken to her coach about the possible consequences?

Since she can go to the STEM school the following year, and that school would be a good fit, I don't think I would go for the skip. The adults I know who were grade skipped (especially those who had multiple skips) all seem to regret that they "missed out" on something. For some it involved the social aspects of school, for other it was sports, etc. The stuff like sports, academic competitions, music competitions, and prom only come along once. You do them while you are in school or they don't happen (except perhaps for a select few).

Yes, if you get injured you can still become a scientist. However, you can still be a scientist if you don't grade skip. But you can never go back and try out for the basketball team or all-state orchestra. You don't get a second chance at PSAT/NMSQT.

My concern would be that years later as an adult, my kid would say, "If you hadn't grade-skipped me, I could have ." I don't think a nine year old kid can see the potential consequences. Heck, my 17 year old can't see why we recommend she do certain things to improve her chances at getting into the college of her choice. And my 19 year old now says she wishes she had done certain things in HS...the very things we recommended she do.