<p>This is for anyone who has gone, is going, or is planning to go to a CTY summer program. I went in the summers of '00 and '01 and loved it.</p>
<p>My son went to CTY Lancaster second session 2004, after going to CTYI Dublin first session 2004. </p>
<p>You must be a college student, or done, by now, right, Martha? Do you still meet other CTY alumni from time to time?</p>
<p>I'm a rising high school senior--no, sadly I don't. I stayed in touch with several people for a year or two, but dropped off. I went to Chesterton, Maryland for both years. (I did it for 6th and 7th grades)</p>
<p>i WAS gonna go (got my packet & everything) but i ended up having to go 2 hawaii to learn ESSAY, so i emailed cty for like three months to get my $900 back.</p>
<p>CTY IS EXCELLENT. Kinda expensive, but what you get out of it is totally worth it. If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask.
cty.jhu.edu is their main website, where you can explore summer programs, distance programs (ranging from kindergarden to AP Calculus BC), and a lot of more info. </p>
<p>Maryland - 03, second session - Biotechnology
Lancaster - 05, second session - Selected Topics in Adv. Chem</p>
<p>I did CTY Algebra I and II (long-distance) in 03, my 8th grade year. Very accelerated. and actually covered the pre-calculus topics in my high school, and this was done before I even started high school.</p>
<p>I also did Crafting the Essay (long-distance) in 8th grade, loved the course. My writing skills were definently not .."up to par" before the course. Still talk to my teacher from time to time, she used 2 of my essays when I finished the course for future examples =)</p>
<p>This summer I'm doing Intensive Summer AP Physics, and it's really fast and covers a lot, but I'm looking forward to it . . Kinematics exam in 5 days, owch.</p>
<p>I took Probability and Game Theory- Skidmore 05'. It was awesome. No matter what course you take you will have a great experience.</p>
<p>I went, Lancaster 2004, Session 1. Nevertheless, it did not live up to my expectations. I took math (sequencing) which was basically buy a textbook and then sit in a quiet room seven hours a day to try and cram a year's worth of the subject into three weeks. It was probably a mistake on my behalf because I felt that getting a year ahead in math would be an advantage, but some of the kids there were the brightest math students in the nation, the future brilliant mathematicians. I was simply good at math (at my school). </p>
<p>The teacher I had was completely unsupportive. He was just a really smart guy who had something like a PhD from Hopkins and CTY was his summer job. But when a teacher teaches only gifted kids it's a breeze, because they don't need much help, and when they do it's usually because the textbook's explanation is flawed. On the other hand, when I went to him for help he became aggravated any time he needed to explain something more than once. He was naturally good at math so he could skip 5 steps in a problem and it seemed perfectly logical to him, but it would leave me clueless. I could tell that after a while if I didn't understand something he and his assistant would start sighing and rolling their eyes and laughing at me behind my back. He may have been brilliant but he made such a horrible teacher. </p>
<p>When I returned to school after that summer, I assumed that the reason I had such a hard time at CTY was because I wasn't smart enough to understand the curriculum. Yet, when I took the same subject at my school, I could understand it no problem! The class was taught by a teacher who taught all levels of math and not just the gifted/honors/ap classes. </p>
<p>In the end, I felt it was an utter waste of money. $3000 was spent on CTY and I got a lackluster teacher and a textbook. I was disgruntled and from then on was discouraged from a career in math. I probably could have simply bought the book and learned the subject for a lot less money. </p>
<p>Then again, perhaps it was because I chose the wrong class. I had a friend who attended the next year who absolutely loved it and attended CTY the next two years. However, I'm never attending CTY again, no matter how much she praises it and talks about how much fun she has there, because my personal experience still lingers.</p>
<p>I did CTY at Stanford: Intro to the Middle Ages summer of '99, CAA (one lower, my sat's missed by 10 pts) at UC Santa Cruz: Intro to Logic summer '00, got my sat's back up and did CTYI at Dublin City University: Irish Archaeology '01, CTYI DCU: Psychology '02, then I stopped. I don't keep in touch with anyone from the first two, though oddly occasionally I talk to the cousin of a kid who was in the next hall over from me from the second session. </p>
<p>CTYI was AMAZING. I still keep in regular contact with three people from the program, two of whom I went back and did the second class with. A group of us from the '01 session (5 of us in total, four girls and one guy) got together and spent New Years '02 in NYC, which was a blast, and one girl I stayed in awesome contact with even though we weren't really friends with her first session we're now BEST friends and even though she lives in PA and I in CA, we get together every summer at her beach condo and talk on the phone regularly. She is absolutly one of my best friends, and is my longest friend, and one of the only two friends I have who have met both my mom and my dad (mom in CA dad in NY). </p>
<p>I would HIGHLY reccomend CTY to anyone, especially CTYI as it's insanely fun to do a program like that in another country. If you do CTYI I uber uber reccomend the Irish archaeology class as you get to go on a lot of fieldtrips. It's also realllly nice to be in a learning environment that's not graded, as it's fun to learn for learnings sake. </p>
<p>Not everyone makes lifelong friends, but if you do they're amazing.</p>
<p>As to my age, I just finished my freshman year in College. It's a nice introduction to dorm living, as I knew what kind of "stuff" I needed, how to expect the food to be, and how to deal with showers and stuff. I would do all of them again in a heart beat.</p>
<p>Although my life didn't revolve around the 3 weeks every year when CTY was (as it was for many of my fellow CTYers) I sure had some of the best times of my life during CTY. I went to...</p>
<p>St Marys - Game Theory
St Marys - Intro to comp science
Carlisle - Cryptography
JHU - Investigations in Engineering</p>
<p>Honestly, I don't think I benefitted much in highschool from what I learned each summer as they were all pretty specific, but when I start college this coming summer I will probably be able to apply all that I learned and have a head-up.</p>
<p>I still keep in touch with about five or six CTYers pretty consistently and I'll be going to college with a former hall-mate and fellow CTYer from my first year. It's nuts. The kids there are crazy awesome. Smart, creative, hormonal, and full of energy pent up studying and not being nerds the whole year.</p>
<p>I cried halfway through my first session because I didn't want to go home ever hahah. Finally college starts soon!</p>
<p>I went to CTY at Carlisle. I wanted to go on a tour to Europe with the orchestra that I was in but my parents insisted that I go to cty. I have to say that that was probably the best decision they've made for me because I had the best 3 (? 4?) weeks of my life there. I took the biology course because I wanted to skip it in school. We learned a lot and basically zoomed through the course and tried to learn everything. Unfortunately, my school refused to give me credit for the course because at the time they had an "equality" policy where all the kids had to be at the same level. I've kept in touch with the people I met at CTY. My parents didn't/aren't letting me go to CTY again because they thought I had too much fun there. I think that everyone should be able to go to CTY once in their lifetime because it's an experience they will never forget.</p>
<p>I went to Johns Hopkins from seventh grade summer all the way to 10th grade summer, 99-02. I love CTY and like many alumni of the program, I consider it one of the best experiences of my life. Even today (rising junior in college) I still talk to people at it.</p>
<p>When I heard there was a "summer programs" forum i was hoping to find a thread on this here. I went in summers 2001, '02 and '03 to carlisle second session (and CLI civic leadership in baltimore in '03 as well) and absolutely loved it. The program is great, and the students are incredible. I have kept in touch with many of my friends from there, and it's amazing the places they've gone. I'm a rising sophomore at cornell now, and there are very few of my friends and aquaintences from there who HAVEN'T ended up at an Ivy, elite LAC, top USNEWS top 20, etc. It's pretty unreal when you think about it.</p>
<p>There are all kinds of students there, ranging from introverts to really outgoing socialites, so it's not a place where anybody really has to worry socially. I remember complaining to my mom that I was going to "nerd camp" before my first year, but I loved my first summer of it, and to this day my friends and I still affectionately call it "nerd camp." The talent ranges beyond just academic ability. I've seen great comedians, fabulous musicians, an amazing juggling act., you name it. </p>
<p>My friends and I still visit now and then today, talk frequently on AIM, see each other at ivy league matches sometimes, etc. It's also great to meet other alumni. "nerd camp" comes up in conversation about high school summers quite easily, and once in a while you find someone else who has gone. Almost every alumnus i've met has had a similar experience to mine, and I have to say I'm not suprised.</p>
<p>In fact, from facebook, this is where all my CTY friends are, by quantity and alphabetical order:
(the ones in bold AREN'T top a USNEWS top 30 U or LAC)
Cornell 5x
Harvard 5x
Northwestern 2x
still in HS 2x
Boston College (40)
UC Santa Barbara (45)
U Chicago
Columbia
Gettysburg (stabbed someone in HS and was suspended multiple times) (47)
Lehigh (32)
Manhattan College (Masters)
UPenn
Princeton
Stanford
Stevens (7yr. med) (71 in national Us)
Towson (Masters) (42)
Vassar
Wake Forest
U Washington (45)
Yale</p>
<p>I didn't leave anyone with a "bad" school out or anything, that's the whole list...pretty amazing, huh? Even with the stabby kid, only one is out of the top 50, and she turned town an acceptance from Cornell (I was pised at her haha). Some people probably fell through the cracks though...</p>
<p>JHU 04 session 1 Neurosci :-)</p>
<p>those were an amazing 3 weeks</p>
<p>hehe, me and my friends still affectionately call it nerd camp too!</p>
<p>CTY Lancaster
05 Number Theory - 2nd
04 Math Logic - 2nd
03 Game Theory - 2nd
02 Math seq - 2nd</p>
<p>The place is great! definitely a life changing experience. If you have the means and the qualifications you should attend. I know of two acceptances of friends, Yale and Caltech.</p>
<p>oh yeah about schools. . . the ones I know of: Dickinson, Upenn, Columbia, Georgetown, U of Maryland, a bunch of people at Trinity in Ireland. That's all I really kept in touch with.</p>
<p>I've had wonderful experiences with CTY! I went for five sessions, one of which was at "Baby CTY."</p>
<p>I took FPHS Biology, a necessary evil to take Genetics (horrible teacher, wonderful TA). Genetics was the pre-requisite for Genomics (one of the newest classes offered, but also considered to be one of the two most difficult (with the other being Engineering, of course)). I then took Selected Topics in Advanced Chemistry, which was very challenging but educational.</p>
<p>The social atmosphere at CTY is unparalled - you meet other nerds just like you!</p>
<p>[[And I assume that everyone knows about the "Nerd Camp" documentary...]]</p>
<p>one time at nerd camp... :P
02 Mount Holyoke2- Inductive and Deductive Reasoning
03 Chestertown1- Model United Nations
04 Johns Hopkins2- Ethics
05 Skidmore2- Logic:Principles of Reasoning
06 Lancaster1- Crafting the Essay</p>
<p>i keep in close touch with 1 or 2 from each year, but im/facebook several others from time to time. and then my friends from cty introduce me to their friends from cty and then it's one giant family :)</p>
<p>is the Nerd Camp documentary out?</p>
<p>also, 09xoxo, i probably know you. i was at Skidmore 05 session 2</p>
<p>01 Mount Holyoke Session 1 - Examining the Evidence
02 Mount Holyoke Session 2 - something about Drama
03 Siena Session 2 - Logic: Principles of Reasoning
04 Siena Session 2 - Math Logic
05 Skidmore Session 2 - Cognitive Psychology
06 Skidmore Session 2 - Mathematical Modeling</p>
<p>i hang out once a month with local CTY friends, and send lots of love to facebook every day for allowing me to keep in touch with the rest</p>