<p>Wow was kind of everyone’s response. At the time, it was wrenching and horrible, though. We loved the whole family; it was awful to see everything fall apart in front of our eyes. And the kid wasn’t allowed to babysit anymore for the rest of high school, which was a bummer for us since our first child was about to be born.</p>
<p>I have to say the whole thing left me with something of a prejudice against CTY and similar programs. We did not let our kids take SATs in 7th grade.</p>
<p>Cults of that sort prey on kids who are away from home at any type of program, I don’t think CTY itself was the problem - get to know your kids, and you can prevent something similar from happening, or catch it early enough to do something about it.</p>
<p>As for benefits for college, I don’t think it has much direct benefit in the application process, but there are other less direct benefits. Most of the classes are not those available at your typical high school, though some are - and some of those may allow a student to progress more quickly through the HS curriculum and on to more advanced classes. Others provide enrichment that will result in improved scores on SAT and ACT. </p>
<p>For others, the benefit is simply the environment. If your HS doesn’t have a strong group of high achievers, your child might not know others “like them.” If your school doesn’t offer particularly rigorous classes, CTY can give your child the chance to see what such courses are like. In some cases, it also will clarify both what your child would like to study (again, they can try something they won’t get at school), and where they might like to attend. They also experience a different cross-section of the population, possibly more akin to the population they will interact with in college, if they end up at a highly selective school.</p>
<p>WOW is my response also. My son just got back from the Duke TIP program at Austin College in Dallas. He didn’t mention any satanic rituals. I think they played frisbee and capture the flag for entertainment.</p>
<p>My story happened in the Reagan Era; I wasn’t suggesting that Satanism is rife at talented-kid programs today, or that talented-kid programs are inherently Satanic. </p>
<p>I WAS suggesting that a bunch of really smart, really bored kids can easily come up with far worse things to do than curse out their teachers on Facebook.</p>
<p>EDIT: And speaking of Amish teens and Facebook . . . . <a href=“http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/408254_Amish-youth-hitchin--up-to-Facebook.html[/url]”>http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/408254_Amish-youth-hitchin--up-to-Facebook.html</a></p>
<p>We thought we were rebels at CTY when we dragged all our mattresses into the lounge so we could have stay up late and gossip and eat junk food.</p>
<p>DD is one of several kids at her HS who did CTY. The ones I know personally (family friends, went to same MS/ES, in same EC’s) used it as a way to gain credits, and although they made friends while in the class, none of them seem to have more than passing acquaintences from the experience. These kids don’t want their HS friends to even know thay had the CTY experience. They all seem to fit in well to the HS population, play varisty sports (sports are HUGE here), are involved in clubs, government, community service, are sociable and friendly to a wide range of their peers, and as a result are kept in the loop about school/team news and get invited to things. Yes, everyone knows they are the tops students at school, but they are known for more than just their grades and test scores.</p>
<p>I think I would be worried if DD was more involved with internet friends she knew for a few weeks than the kids she interacts with everyday.</p>
<p>*a lot of teenagers are unhappy in high school—sometimes it’s the level of academics offered at the high school, sometimes it’s the academic or not-so-academic environment in the high school, sometimes it’s the lack of social success/happiness in the high school environment, sometimes it is within the angsty teenager his or herself, who isn’t capable of being happy at that time in life.</p>
<p>Facebook for some is a release where they can vent to those who “understand” them freely.*</p>
<p>I agree with this. </p>
<p>My kid could have attended CTY but we never pursued it. However, she has friends of both types described by the OP - real life, and just “FB friends”. And in those sub-groups, there are kids who love school, hate school, are good students and bad students, are athletes, are bookworms, get along with their parents, don’t get along with their parents, etc., etc. I guess I think much of the described behavior is just pervasive in teens of all varieties.</p>
<p>
One year when my daughter was there, the rebellious act involved putting decoy Harry Potter books in the hall–because they weren’t supposed to stay up all night reading the new book that came out while they were there.</p>
<p>My D complained about the “strict” rules at Duke TIP, and maybe some rules seemed excessive, but I think their social events are relatively tame. I’ve looked at the Real CTY website, and some of what I’ve read (if it indeed really happened) seems inappropriate for 14-year olds.</p>
<p>Twomoose:</p>
<p>Was your D at Austin College? My son also felt the rules were excessive at TIP but he enjoyed the program immensely. He is 13 and was with middle school kids. He wasn’t crazy about his room mate but he still enjoyed the program and wants to go back next summer. </p>
<p>I never looked at any websites for my son, he just looked at the brochures once they started coming in. He liked the Duke classes much more than any other program but I did not look outside of the programs that sent us brochures. One of the lacrosse fathers was involved in the TIP program and he raved about how great the program was. Since my son was interested in it and I have great respect for his opinion we didn’t look further.</p>
<p>In recent years at least, the rules have been pretty strict at CTY–so much so that many kids (including my D) stopped returning before they aged out, even though they loved it otherwise, because the rules made it more geared toward younger kids.</p>
<p>D did Summer@Brown this summer and loved it…thinking to try CTY next year maybe. Thanks for the Real CTY site :)</p>
<p>Both D and S could have gone to CTY, but D never did want to. We had friends that sent both their kids at the same time that she would have gone, but it wasn’t for her.</p>
<p>S on the other hand, went a couple of years ago and loved it. Went back again last year and made some good friends. These kids don’t live on facebook, but they do keep in touch on fb. They have met a couple of other times, outside of CTY. And they made plans this year to go back together as a group and take a class they were all interested in. From what I am hearing from S, they are thoroughly enjoying themselves - the camp is going by too fast according to him</p>
<p>H was just commenting the other day that he doesn’t know if S actually picked up any significant academic advantage by going to CTY, but he thinks the intangibles are way out there. He thinks S became more of a self assured, mature person by going to CTY.</p>
<p>S went to CTY for four years, and loved it. He still keeps in touch with some CTY friends via FB–he just graduated from college–but he’s never been a huge FB participant. He also was a 3-season athlete in school and a musician and had friends in HS, so he did have other outlets. Nevertheless, CTY was something very special to him. He did not take CTY courses for the sake of getting credits or accelerating, but for pure intellectual stimulation: he took mostly philosophy courses, which were not available at the HS. (Where else would a middle school kid read and discuss Nietzche, Kant, and Aristotle? 
)He chose to write about CTY as the activity that meant the most to him on his college applications, but I have no idea whether it “helped” him or not. (Maybe at the U of C. )</p>
<p>D1 was a 7 year CTY (younger CTY+older), D2 is finishing her 5th (younger CTY+older). For both of them it is an opportunity to learn some things they would not find in their high school. As I mentioned earlier for D1, CTY was invaluable for finding a peer group unlike anything that existed in her high school. </p>
<p>I have nothing but positive things to say about their CTY experience.</p>
<p>Well, D. came back from CTY lan. two weeks ago with another CTY summer and PCTYD. Everyone who has children in CTY lan. site should know what I’m talking about. In several years we will be able to tell what all these have done to her. But for now, she has nothing but great comments to say about CTY. H. and I have mixed feelings, as do many other (current) CTY parents I know.</p>
<p>PCTYD is the worst. My favorite PCTYD line was “if don’t unpack then it means its not over” as we fought about her stack of unpacked clothes and other stuff stacked in the living room.</p>
<p>My oldest went to CTY for 6 years and it was life-changing for him, seeing himself with a peer group for the first time. Their act of rebellion? Sneaking books out of the classroom so that they could continue to work on projects when they were supposed to be relaxing.
Learning a year’s worth of high school material in three weeks was right up his alley. Oh, and by the way, he has never had any interest at all in Facebook. Doesn’t have an account. He’s in his mid-20’s now.</p>
<p>My daughter was at CTY Lan last year and enjoyed it. She really liked the class and made friends, but she thought the traditions were a little silly and was not into that part of the experience at all. But she had no problem finding like-minded friends who were more conventional (for lack of a better word). Her roommate, on the other hand, was very gung-ho. It wasn’t that they didn’t get along, but that they didn’t have that much in common. I think she learned a lot about compromise and communal living. </p>
<p>She enjoyed the atmosphere and relative freedom this year at Summer@Brown much more and felt it was a good “practice run” to see what college would really be like.</p>
<p>“She enjoyed the atmosphere and relative freedom this year at Summer@Brown much more and felt it was a good “practice run” to see what college would really be like.”</p>
<p>Our girls’ experiences were the same. DD’s both went to college run summer programs between junior and senior years and really liked the experience more, specifically because it was a dry run of what real college life would be. Both also met people there that were more like themselves - regular kids who just happen to be academically talented. They has a lot of fun AND got a great experience.</p>
<p>DD2 has already found a potential roommate for college through her summer experience (her program was at the school she is most interested in attending), so her mind has been put at ease about being OOS and having to make all new friends next year.</p>