<p>Hello parents,
I just found out my daughter has not had the right kind of feed back/exercise through her English teacher. The teachers are on strike and want to provide the minimum amount of effort concerning grading and because of that she is not up to par, in my opinion. I've always wanted for her to take the CTY on line course "Crafting an essay", but somehow we've never get to it.
Here is my concern, If I sign up for her to take the SAT in 9th grade, will it go on her record. I know for 7th and 8th it does NOT count because it is in middle school, but for 9th does it count because it's technically high school. She desperately needs one-one tutoring. Her CAT is quite high so I think I can nominate her but worry about the permanent mark on her record if her SAT is low.
Any parents have gone through this in 9th grade?
Thanks</p>
<p>SusieQ, you can look at the CTY website and check out the list of tests that they accept. I don't think the SAT is the only one.</p>
<p>That's the course I teach--and have for many years. You can use many tests to get into the talent search, but she'll have to do the SAT to qualify for the CTY courses themselves. The qualifying scores for non-Summer-Program courses are not high, however. It shouldn't be a problem if she has another standardized test score that's high.</p>
<p>CTY only takes the SAT unfortunately. And, I think it will show up on the transcript that the college board sends. However, most admissions offices are going to see that she took it in 9th grade so I don't think they will hold it against her. Remember, also, that colleges only take the top scores so a low score in 9th grade shouldn't matter much in the scheme of things. By the way, if she gets a high enough score, you may want to think about sending her to the onsite crafting the essay class next summer - kids my son knew last year seemed to have gotten quite a bit out of it and must have talked up the class because he actually was thinking of taking it himself this year. (HE's hoping for Greek II as his first choice though!)</p>
<p>What is the cutoff for the SAT for CTY. I have a niece in 9th grade.</p>
<p>It depends on whether you want the distance ed course or the Summer Program. The distance ed required score is in the 500's for ninth-graders. Summer Program is in the 600's for ninth-graders. (Both are lower for people who test at lower ages.) For exact numbers, go to JHU's CTY site. (It also varies according to whether you're after math/science or writing/humanities.) Cost of the distance ed course is also much, much lower.</p>
<p>As the CTY parents here are telling you, you must use the SAT I as the qualifying test for getting into CTY programs. But that is not a worry. Everyone knows that a ninth grader will score lower than a high school junior on the SAT I; the first score is not important to your child's college application, at all. </p>
<p>If you would just like to get into a good distance learning program for writing, there is also a channel to get into EPGY's program, </p>
<p><a href="http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/english/secd.html%5B/url%5D">http://epgy.stanford.edu/courses/english/secd.html</a> </p>
<p>which has a different set of entry requirements from the CTY distance learning program. I've heard good things about both programs--I was just talking with parents who have kids in each of those programs last Friday morning. I will note about EPGY that its financial aid awards extend up into a much higher income range (= middle-class incomes) than the CTY financial aid. Both programs are good, but if you get one offered at full list price, and another offered at a substantial discount, you know which one to choose. </p>
<p>Current score cut-offs for JHU-CTY distance learning courses are on the Web </p>
<p><a href="http://cty.jhu.edu/cde/admissions.html%5B/url%5D">http://cty.jhu.edu/cde/admissions.html</a> </p>
<p>and they don't look insurmountably high. </p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>Check out Stanford's EPGY. A lot of the CTY course work originated at Stanford. The english page is:</p>
<p>Thanks for all the info. One question I have about the grade from these classes will it show up anywhere in the future?</p>
<p>My child took Crafting the Essay long distance via CTY in 8th grade. She had participated in the Talent Search, however, so took the SATs in grades 7 and 8. The evaluation for the course is a narrative, not a grade (though you may be able to request a grade). It does not show up anywhere. However, both that course, and my other daughter's CTY course in Calculus BC, were able to be put on our kids' transcripts because we requested it at our high school, but otherwise would not have been. My other D was able to get a grade for the math course too. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>My son had a specific letter grade for his JHU-CTY distance learning course in geometry, so perhaps there are some differences in the default grading of various courses offered by JHU-CTY distance learning. Grades obtained in ninth grade aren't a huge worry anyway--if your child works hard on the course, the worst possible grade is probably a B, and for college application grades later in time (that is, nearer to when one starts college) are much more significant.</p>
<p>I might sign her up for EGPY because there is no SAT required. Last year I sign D to take the SAT in Jan for CTY but unfortunately we move in middle of the month from the Bay Area to Southern Cal and that plan was scratched. I don't worry about grade but it represents one more place to get transcript from,multiply that to n colleges that would be some work involved/money. I want D to learn for the sake of learning and it will be in the summer when she gets more free time because right now she does not even have time to sleep. Any parent has experience with grade reporting from EGPY? Thanks ahead.</p>
<p>I went to two of the CTY summer programmes and also took the course "Crafting the Essay" (as well as another one) when I was in 8th or 9th grade. I highly recommend it, if not to gain some sort of credit, just for the experience.</p>
<p>D is taking "Crafting the Essay" right now (distance learning) from CTY, and we could not be more pleased both with quality of the teaching or with the amount she is learning. We strongly recommend the course. I agree with Carolyn, and do not think the 9th grade SAT is significant three years later during college admissions, unless it turns out to extraordinarily high, in which case many other things will be easier.</p>
<p>EPGY grades are rigorous; do not anticipate easy "A" kind of grading. Of course our experience is for advanced Calculus, not writing, so there may be some differences, but this opinion is supported generally by what I've heard and read elsewhere.</p>
<p>We generally selected to use EPGY for Science/Math, and CTY for humanities, but that was just the reaction of our two kids. Both programs are excellent.</p>
<p>Susie, my daughter did Crafting the Essay for the experience as well, not the credit. And we did not have to get a "transcript" from CTY sent to colleges at all. Rather, we showed her final evaluation to her school and they put it on her transcript this spring (three years since she took it) as she is a college applicant. They just listed it under 8th grade and gave her a P for pass. Truthfully, she did NOT need the credit but we just wanted to add it on as another English course she has done. She had enough English credits to graduate anyway. She happens to be graduating high school a year early and we felt it did not hurt to document this additional writing course which is considered on a college level. </p>
<p>My other D took AP Calculus BC through CTY in her senior year because through math acceleration had taken the highest math course offered at our HS (AP Calculus) in 11th grade and wanted to continue in math. She took the option to get a grade for the course. She showed the final grade report to our high school and they listed this math course (mentioning CTY/Johns Hopkins) on her senior year transcript for credit and the grade. She did not need the credit either but wanted it to appear on her transcript so colleges could see that she continued to challenge herself (out of pure choice as she is a good math student and may be going into a field that uses math) in her senior year when she had exhausted the offerings of our HS's curriculum. </p>
<p>I share this so you can see that NO transcript from CTY was needed on college applications (though you could attach a report if you wanted I suppose) but you can also show the report to your HS and see if they will list the course right on the HS transcript. Our HS did for both our girls. They listed it as a CTY JHU course, not one offered "in house". </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>Sorry.. I have not followed the the full thread so apologies if somoone already noted this. I assume you are worried about SAT going on permenant record for college admissions. Don't be. Colleges only look at the highest single score (in places like UC Berkeley) and highest composite score (i.e. highest verbal and highest math ever, even if taken at different times). So 9th grade SAT is not going to get any attention in future.</p>
<p>The idea of asking a school to include the CTY classes on the transcript is very interesting. I'm assuming you are all talking about the distance classes, not the CTY summer program. My son is doing Latin in high school and will hopefully have completed Greek I and Greek II at the CTY summer program - is it worth it to ask his school to list these on his transcript or should he ask his GC and teachers to mention it as part of a recommendation?</p>
<p>CTY site says: "PSAT and ACT scores may be submitted in lieu of SAT scores"</p>
<p>I know that the Talent Search program at Midwest recommends 9-graders to tale ACT rather than SAT exactly because you don't have to show the 9-grade ACT to the universities.</p>
<p>Don't know if it is easy to take ACT in California, though...</p>
<p>Ah, they must have chanced the rules since my son applied to CTY two years ago. Then, you could ONLY use the SAT, not the PSAT (I know because he had been scheduled to take the PSAT for another talent search and CTY insisted he needed the SAT scores).</p>
<p>If the PSAT is an acceptable substitution now, then the original poster's problem is solved - PSATs taken before 11th grade are not sent to colleges, I believe.</p>
<p>Carolyn,
You COULD ask to have those summer courses on the transcript but I am not positive if I would do that (not that it is negative or anything). In the case of a summer course, I would list that as summer experiences. In my kids' cases, these were academic courses during the regular school year. The math course was important to have on the transcript, I think, to show she (my older D) took math senior year as she had exhausted the high school math curriculum so sought out a further challenge and to continue learning math. She did the long distance course one period per day right at school (though WE paid for it unfortunately, lol). She scheduled herself for math basically. The dept. head signed off on the credit once the CTY report came and it is listed as indep. study via CTY long distance. </p>
<p>For the writing course, it was in 8th grade and it is not like she (younger D) needed to show any English or needed any credits...she was taking 8th grade English but also took two English courses at the high school, primarily all 12th graders, in Shakespeare and in Creative Writing. The idea of taking the Johns Hopkins' Crafting the Essay course had more to do with finding enriching academic accommodations for her learning needs that year. But now that she is an early graduate and indeed, she has six high school classes taken in middle school on her high school transcript, we felt why not ALSO list the JHU course she took, not that she needs the credits as she is considered to have four years of HS English but it was a higher level writing course to add on given she has not been in school the normal amt. of years. It is not a make or break thing. She was given credit for it, even if not needed. She worked on this course for a period each day in her schedule. I think had it been a summer course, however, I would have listed it as a summer experience. In my daughter's case, she has written up a statement on early graduation and why she has chosen that and in terms of explaining the academic piece, she has outlined the various accommodations along the way such as acceleration and long distance learning and what not. Her GC has mentioned it as well. Your GC or your son can mention the summer academic experience even if it is not on a transcript. Usually summer academic stuff is not on the regular transcript. A long distance course worked on during the school day during the school year, perhaps even taking the place of a HS course (ie., my D's math CTY course) might make sense to put on the HS transcript. Your child's resume, however, will outline summer experiences and he should surely put down taking the CTY courses.
Susan</p>