<p>I know this thread is old but since my son just returned from the TIP program in Dallas, TX I thought I would weigh in on his experience. He is 13 and will be entering 8th grade in August. He is very social and not what anyone would consider a nerd even though he is a high achieving student. He plays football, wrestles and plays lacrosse and has many friends.</p>
<p>The course was taught by a 2nd year PhD student from GA. As others have mentioned the TIP program is for kids with serious academic interests only. The kids are in class 7 hours a day M-F and 3 hours on Sat. Make sure your child is up for that before you send him to this program. My son LOVED it but it is not for everyone.</p>
<p>As far as the social aspect is concerned the Duke program is pretty restrictive. There are lots of rules and students are not permitted to be unsupervised. My son was disappointed when he realized that he would not be able to run in the mornings before class but there was a counselor who stepped up to take the kids who wanted to run over to the track in the mornings. He liked the counselors a lot but he did complain about some of the rules. It was fine for my 13 year old but I can’t imagine a 17 year old junior wanting to be that restricted in their movements. Perhaps the rules are not as strict at the HS locations. My son was at a middle school location.</p>
<p>I think it was fabulous for my very social, high achieving son. I think that sometimes when he is with certain friends he suppresses his intellectual curiosity. When he is with his athletic friends there is an unspoken anti intellectualism. The Duke program allowed him to be an intellectual and meet new friends, some of them good athletes. Sometimes he feels as if he is the only athlete that is smart. This gave him a chance to meet others like him. </p>
<p>All in all he really enjoyed the experience. He wants to go back next year. It’s expensive so hopefully we will have the money to send him again.</p>
<p>There is another program our D just finished, called Satori, and located at Eastern WA U. She will be in 8th grade though she’s only 12 and loved the whole experience-the academics, the social aspect, the living on a campus, everything. It’s for “gifted” kids but you don’t have to test in or prove you’re gifted, so there’s a range of students. It’s also far less expensive than the more well-known programs.</p>
<p>Among D’s highlights: the Time Traveler’s Ball, the end of week dance, the class on modern journalism, the chance to befriend kids of all ages from a variety of locations. Her best buddies were the entire rising freshman class from a tiny town somewhere in WA. </p>
<p>The only downside I’ve heard about so far is that like most other such programs, it was not very diverse. She was one of only a handful of non-white kids and one of only two or three with any African American background. The great thing was that unlike our unpleasant experience in our district’s gifted program, no one at this camp seemed to care.</p>
<p>sseamom:</p>
<p>Your comment about diversity is interesting. I had not thought about diversity so I asked my son about it after I read your comment. He told me that the Duke program was mostly white kids but there were minorities there. He did tell me that when his room mate found out he was Jewish the first thing his room mate did was call his mother and tell her. </p>
<p>Luckily it rolled off my son’s back. He told me “I guess they don’t have Jews in Louisiana.”</p>
<p>Let me put in a plug for CTD at Northwestern. My 14 year old son, took ALgebra2/Trig at Northwestern this summer. We chose CTD because he was able to get High school credit for the class. The class was intense, but he loved the whole experience. He was housed with 13 and 14 year olds, and they had some freedom, but is was pretty structured. He said his class was great, and met kids, not only from the midwest, but also from Hong Kong, and India. He has already decided to go back next summer. He will be in an older group, and will have much more freedom to explore town, and on weekends.The kids he met were awesome, smart, funny and not nerdy. They were academic, but had all sorts of outside interests. The campus at Nortwestern was a perfect size for his initial “pre college” experience. Most of the friends he met, had been going to the program for the last 2-3 years. The only negative thing I can say, is that he came back wanting to go to boarding school because he loved the experience so much. Not that boarding school is a negative for most people, but it is not an option for us. As far as diversity, the program looked to be somewhat diverse. I would recommend it highly.</p>