At least if you ignore students ahead of their birth year or behind, as I have no idea how frequent either of those things is in the US.
A lot more people are held back then skip a grade, but both sets make up a pretty small minority of the student body, less than 10% IIRC but I'd take that value with a grain of salt, pretty much everyone who drops out has done so prior to the prom and a pretty heavy correlation probably exists between those who fail a grade and drop out.
Most places in the US have September first as the cutoff to turn five to enroll in kindergarten, though I swung in at 4 with a mid-September birthday and that's not too unusual. However, this changes the statistics, since by and large anyone with a birthday between april and september will be 17 at their prom, or about five months, 41% and a bit less since obviously some people with april birthdays will have them before the prom, so call it 38%, or 62% who will attend as 18 year olds, although in point of fact the birth rate in the US tends to be noticeably higher in July-September, peaking in September, but as that is over the break-date it probably averages out, more or less. The big drop though is that only one of the people attending has to be a senior, and they often bring juniors as dates and more rarely but not uncommonly people who graduated the previous year. If we guessed about 1-in-4 brought a junior as a date, that'd drop it to about 50% of attendees being 18. So probably about half, not a quarter, either way making it a significant problem since a big chunk of the attendees will be underage.
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
- Albert Einstein
King of Cairhien 20-7-2
Chancellor of the Landsraad, Archduke of Is'Mod
New Orleans hotelier offers to host prom cancelled in Mississippi
- 14/03/2010 01:29:40 AM
533 Views
Sort of seems opportunistic really
- 14/03/2010 02:00:54 AM
213 Views
Given the nature of the people involved, I highly doubt they're willing to go to NOLA.
- 14/03/2010 03:31:33 AM
205 Views
- 14/03/2010 03:31:33 AM
205 Views
Re: Given the nature of the people involved, I highly doubt they're willing to go to NOLA.
- 14/03/2010 04:13:18 AM
196 Views
- 14/03/2010 04:13:18 AM
196 Views
Aren't high-school graduands generally 18?
- 14/03/2010 10:34:20 AM
211 Views
Prom is in early April - so statistically, only about 25% of students will have turned 18...
- 14/03/2010 03:40:26 PM
172 Views
That's probably off by a good deal, closer to 50%
- 14/03/2010 04:48:07 PM
193 Views
Ah, yes, that would make a difference.
- 14/03/2010 04:56:19 PM
187 Views
School years by birth year? That's far too logical and orderly for an English-speaking country!
- 14/03/2010 11:10:27 PM
179 Views
It's pretty arbitrary, but you have to consider the ramifications at the college level
- 15/03/2010 12:05:28 AM
184 Views
What are the "noticeable difficulties" with having 17-year-olds on campus?
- 15/03/2010 08:19:24 AM
174 Views
Mostly, I can only think of problems relating to sex.
- 15/03/2010 12:38:06 PM
158 Views
What on earth have students' sex lives got to do with the college?
- 15/03/2010 12:52:03 PM
173 Views
I was just suggesting it as a possible reason, there's no need to get persnickity.
- 15/03/2010 05:45:43 PM
157 Views
I didn't mean to be persnickety. I was just trying to understand.
- 15/03/2010 08:39:20 PM
160 Views
Well, they aren't legal adults...
- 15/03/2010 01:05:33 PM
165 Views
Because it means you can't pass your test until long after you've started your "independent" life.
- 15/03/2010 08:44:33 PM
196 Views
Depends on the country, I would imagine.
- 15/03/2010 08:53:40 PM
161 Views
Ah, good to know. Not quite as nuts as I thought then, at least in Belgium
. *NM*
- 15/03/2010 10:42:51 PM
59 Views
. *NM*
- 15/03/2010 10:42:51 PM
59 Views
All countries I'm aware of have "driving age" mean the age you can take the test
- 15/03/2010 10:24:16 PM
175 Views
Huh, maybe I was wrongly assuming everywhere was like here.
- 15/03/2010 10:33:50 PM
211 Views
in the states
- 15/03/2010 10:44:11 PM
165 Views
Here they recently changed the system too, so I'm not sure on the details, but...
- 15/03/2010 10:55:13 PM
151 Views


*NM*