<p>It's me again. So I know this isn't technically an actual prep school, but enough of you have mentioned it enough to know what it is. So, I have a couple of questions to ask you.</p>
<p>First, how does it work? I know you take the SATs, but then what?</p>
<p>Can I register now, after I've taken my SATs?</p>
<p>Is this essentially more like an online high school, or is it more of something you can use to supplement classes? </p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>If you met the minimum score, you can go ahead and sign up for a class. The classes are available for credit. In my experience they are a straight up replacement for a class offered by your current school. Very high quality! </p>
<p>[CTY</a> Online Student links](<a href=“http://ctyjhu.org/online/courseaccess/]CTY”>http://ctyjhu.org/online/courseaccess/)</p>
<p>My observation is that CTY course quality can be quite variable. Even the same course taught by different instructors can vary greatly. We have had mixed luck with CTY in my family. My child once took a writing class with an instructor who took weeks to provide feedback, which was minimal and more of a “good job!” pat on the back than anything constructive. A friend’s child took the same course with another instructor and absolutely raved about how satisfied they were. The student had a lot of interaction with his teacher and used suggestions to really improve his work. </p>
<p>For the amount of money they charge, all courses should be top notch.</p>
<p>Personally I think online works best classes that would normally be considered lecture-oriented. I’d recommend CTY for math and science based on our family’s experience.</p>
<p>All right-Thanks! Does anyone know if their Arabic classes are good?</p>
<p>Not sure. Have you considered a product like Rosetta Stone? If you just want to try and aren’t concerned about credit, that may be an option.</p>
<p>Since you are in high school, you might also want to think about CTD out of Northwestern University. </p>
<p>My kids have done both CTY and CTD. We’ve been satisfied with both but the two programs serve different purposes. CTD’s honors courses last a year rather than the three months or a semester that CTY’s usually last. CTD’s honors writing and English courses have many more assignments than do the CTY writing courses which are more narrowly focused. For example, CTY offers a course in fiction and another in poetry while CTD offers a year-long course in Creative Writing. </p>
<p>In our family we still use CTY as a supplement, particularly during the summer, but when one of the kids had to be “homeschooled” for a year of high school, CTD made far more sense. </p>
<p>Also, CTD tends to be a better “bargain” at least in the English and writing courses–many more assignments and thus more teacher feedback for the same money.</p>
<p>I had no idea about CTD-sounds awesome. Will definately check it out. I just learned fro freshman year, my school does not offer any social studies classes to freshman, so I want to take a class in social studies-maybe economics?</p>
<p>Does taking these online classes strengthen college applications?</p>
<p>Circle: If you are interested in Arabic, you might look at the summer programs offered by Startalk. They have various programs around the country for studying Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.</p>
<p>Startalk sounds pretty good! I will definitely check it out for next summer!</p>