<p>momof2inca:</p>
<p>Chicago has great math and physics departments: that's the attraction. My S knows some grads of the math department who are very impressive. I've met graduates from other departments who are also impressive and said they were very happy there.</p>
<p>Pateint - </p>
<p>Yes, I remember Loma Prieta, but I was referring specfically to earthquakes in San Diego - where the San Andreas fault is more than 75 miles to the east. In the Bay Area it goes right through the middle of the bay. We have lesser faults here that can and do cause some damage but nothing compared to what the wildfires have done.</p>
<p>Coureur--Oh, I get it. I thought you were in Los Angeles which has certainly had its share of large ones with damage. I grew up in Carlsbad, I remember a bit of shaking but nothing major. </p>
<p>Marite--that sounds SO Stanford: yoga in the library ;). The way the fault runs (so jagged), nearly adjacent areas saw widely different degrees of damage. In our house, I lost one glass jar, that was it. But Stanford itself was quite badly damaged, due in part of course to the fact that many of the buildings were not seismically sound. But now when I go to the Cantor Arts Center, which is stunning, I always remember that it was the earthquake that caused that beautiful building to rise from the shaken remains of the old art museum.</p>
<p>Funny thing is that aside from the threat of earthquakes (and yes, it is true as Coureur says, the fires), our natural climate seems so mild. My daughters are terrified of thunder and lightning because it is so rare!</p>
<p>CTYMomteacher: How did your son find Lancaster compared to St. Mary's? My son loved his experience at St. Mary's last year but the class he really wants to take (Greek II) is going to be offered only at Lancaster this coming summer. He is not sure what Lancaster would be like as he loved the beautiful campus at St. Mary's. How do the two compare in terms of dorms, activities, etc.? We've done a drive by Franklin & Marshall and it certainly isn't as "pretty" as St. Mary's.</p>
<p>For mine, Lancaster was FAR superior to St. Mary's. For one thing, there are many CTY traditions at Lan--few at SM because the site has been in use for only a few years. (It was used long ago but only recently begun as a Summer Program site again.) The rules are stricter at SM--younger students tend to go there. For my son that was really not appropriate as he was older and more mature by his second year. He was much happier at Lancaster where he didn't find himslef cast in the role of a sort of "mini-RA" as he ended up there his second year at SM with a troublesome, very young student. But that may have been a very rare experience. I guess the choice depends on your child's age and, of course, whether he or she can expect to get the course at the top of her or his list!</p>
<p>Thanks CTYMom - That was what I thought. I will get him to consider Lancaster. Another question: Do you know anything at all about the CTY program in Ireland?</p>
<p>No, I'm afraid not. It's an affiliated program, not really run by or staffed by the same people. I could easily find out about it for you, though, if you like. How would you contact me privately?</p>
<p>CtyMomTeacher...</p>
<p>Both my kids did the JHU CTY Talent Search.</p>
<p>My oldest daughter (currently first year student at Brown) was in same situation as your son in math last year senior year of HS. She had accelerated in math so took our highest level course, which is AP Calculus, in junior year. As she excels at math and wanted to continue, she did CTY's long distance course in AP Calc BC last year. It went well. She never had contact with her tutor/instructor until the final exam, only because she seemed to understand the lessons independently. Actually her AP score from this has benefitted her at Brown in terms of placing out of some courses and into a course she wanted to take. </p>
<p>My younger D took a CTY long distance writing tutorial, Crafting the Essay (the one equivalent to freshman college writing) in 8th grade and I thought it was very good. </p>
<p>Both these courses went on my kids' transcripts. My kids never did the CTY summer programs (which sound excellent) because they already attended summer programs that were not academic and would never have given those up. I have interviewed candidates for admission to college who have attended CTY summer programs and loved them. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>my daughter did CTY but it was when she was in middle school we never thought of putting it on transcripts.
She volunteered all ( every)summer with ponies so never considered an academic program.
Her sister is starting the same pony program this fall and when I commented to my oldest that they no longer are requiring volunteers to work afternoons two days a week as well as weekends she said" they didn't require it when I was there either, I just wanted to do it" !!! ( after years of rearranging our schedules so she could do the program, I thought those hours were required!) ;-p</p>
<p>wow mom2inca, im a junior in highschool and normally I think people post stupid posts. But, your posts about different colleges gave me a nice hearty feeling, its the type of writing students should express on their essays. Anyaways Chicago is a very nice campus (i live in chicago. The conversations you hold are always intellectual and entertaining. The university has a slogan, I think it applies to the business department "Where the fun comes to die" cause its very challenging. However, the math department/science are subperb, I have been tutored with a top professor there since age 5 and I have to say they are down to earth and brilliant.</p>
<p>Momof2inca: Thanks for your impressions of Yale; we'll be visiting there tomorrow and D will be interviewing on Tuesday morning (and then we have to drive quickly back home to vote). She used to love Yale but she has concerns, and your impressions of the school mirrored her concerns.</p>
<p>Interesting, Soozie--my son is doing the same thing with math-Calc BC distance because he did AB his junior year, though we're just using the software and foregoing the JHUCTY letterhead because he, too, made no use of the CTY tutor when he did Precalc through CTY. And the course your younger daughter took is the one I teach. It's pretty much the same when it's taught at the Summer program (I did that for two summers, too, in Baltimore, but it just wasn't worth being away from my only child for so long). The course is just more intense at the Summer Program, for obvious reasons.</p>
<p>Glad to hear they liked it all so much.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity--we've had some of the same reservations about using CTY courses in apps, but since our son actually used his Precalc distance course for high school credit, that sort of opened the door for the whole series of five he did. It can't hurt. </p>
<p>nosx--perhaps you should consider that we might have concerns other than yours before you call what most of us have to say stupid. You might someday share some of the same concerns and not even realize that yet.</p>
<p>I feel very ignorant but I want to know so I'll ask: what is CTY? I can't figure out what it stands for - maybe I've been out of the country too long!</p>
<p>CTY is the Center for Talented Youth associated with Johns Hopkins University. Their mission is to identify and track gifted and talented kids and to challenge them with summer and distance learning courses throughout the year. Here is their homepage:
<a href="http://www.jhu.edu/gifted/%5B/url%5D">http://www.jhu.edu/gifted/</a></p>
<p>Aha - thanks, achat, for enlightening me. It sounds like yet another thing I wish I'd known about earlier - might have helped with those super reaches....</p>