<p>My older daughter is a 7th grader and scored very high on the standardized math test she took last year. Her school is recommending she looks into the CTY program.</p>
<p>I've searched for threads, but found nothing recent. From what I see, this may be a good thing, but an expensive program?</p>
<p>We have had concerns with her in terms of possibly having non verbal learning disabilities. She is doing well this year in school, and we thought maybe she would do well to be exposed to other bright kids who might 'think outside the box' like her.</p>
<p>Any advice or experiences you can share?</p>
<p>(maybe I should be posting this in a different forum?)</p>
<p>My son did the CTY summer program for the last 4 years and loved it. He made very good friends there that he keeps in touch with all year round. It is expensive, but not any more than other residential summer programs if you can afford it.</p>
<p>Both my sons are in CTY. Older son did summer programs 5th, 6th & 7th grade summers. Younger son has only done day programs. Even without the programs, just the experience of taking the SAT is worth while.</p>
<p>Agree with Longhaul that the experience of taking the SAT is worthwhile although I remember taking my little 6th grader into a big high school one Saturday morning - quite the experience. He ultimately took two CTY courses in high school and enjoyed both immensely. Do not think expensive compared to many other programs. Lots available online too - both CTY and EPGY (Stanford).</p>
<p>My kids enjoyed scaring the big kids by taking the SAT with them. Both kids qualified, but only the older one wanted to do CTY. He loved it - he took Probability and Game Theory, Cryptography, and Fast Paced Chemistry (the least interesting of the three - he took it because his high school schedule had gotten screwed up and it put him back on track.) They do have scholarships, though I don’t know what it takes to qualify.</p>
<p>We are definitely going to bring her for the testing. They offer an alternative to the SAT, has anyone done that?</p>
<p>I don’t think we’d qualify for scholarship money, but money is tight with son in college, etc.</p>
<p>Something like this sounds like it would be really positive for her. She see like a fish out of water much of the time, and plays down her intelligence to her friends.</p>
<p>CTY is a good experience, and yes, expensive. The testing is very worthwhile. You can also see if your school district participates with them if they will pay for any or all of the cost of the courses. Some do.</p>
<p>Another CTY cheerleader here. Both Ds (now 22 and 20) went to CTY for multiple years (at the time we lived in PA)…life changing for both… To have an environment where they find that it is “safe” and perfectly “normal” to be with kids who share their interests (and who aren’t struggling to win spots on the popularity ladder) is an awesome experience, even if it is only 3 weeks of a summer. In my kids’ case, it gave them hope that there were lots of people of people in the world who enjoyed learning for learning’s sake, and who enjoyed life beyond the petty high school popularity games… and a place where they truly fit in… and they both remain friends with people they knew in CTY several years ago. It also made the transition to college easier…they were old pros on living in dorms, etc.!!!</p>
<p>Both my kids got in, but for one reason or another (schedule conflicts, bad financial timing, etc) , never got around to participating. I really regret this, especially since we live in a suburb of Baltimore and could have easily attended anything we wanted at JHU. </p>
<p>D, a 12th grader, still gets mail and emails. We ooh and aah over the offerings. But, at this point, have given up on taking part. :(</p>
<p>Yes to all of the positives cited above. My S went to CTY for four years, until he aged out, and loved every minute of it, both academically and socially. Those three weeks were definitely the highlight of his year, and he was not lacking for intellectually-inclined friends at some. He took philosophy courses most of the time, something that is not offered in HS. He remains in touch with CTY friends–he’s a senior in college–and I agree that the opportunity to live with a roommate is also valuable. CTY does a great job of managing the young kids in its care; for example, rooming kids taking the same course on the same hallway with the same RA, so that they have an instant social group.</p>
<p>We also received a roughly 50% scholarship all four years, but our income was unfortunately very low at the time.</p>
<p>I can’t say too many positive things about CTY.</p>
<p>My daughter (now 21) participated in two of the day programs at Garrison Forest school outside Baltimore. The kids we car-pooled with seemed to enjoy their programs more than DD did, but it may have been partly personality–my daughter never gushed about anything much. The day programs are not all created equal, so do ask about who teaches each class and how long they have been doing it. My daughter had one first-year teacher and the other who was in her first or second year.</p>
<p>CTY did offer a very nice college search program at the Hopkins campus, which was the most useful CTY expereince. It also has a nice magazine that highlights some good things happening with CTY kids and things they are interested in.</p>
<p>My daughter also did a three-week Latin program through the Joseph Baldwin Academy at Truman University and she liked it the best of all the summer programs. It is not as well known, but it was taught by a college professor who seemed genuinely interested in working with these super bright kids. Latin was also useful in language study.</p>
<p>I would add that we never had my daughter sign up for anything that was offered by the schools because we did not her to be any farther ahead than she already was.</p>
<p>Both D and S qualified for the CTY programs. D was never interested in going to the summer courses. S has been for the past two years and loved it. He definitely wants to go back next year.</p>
<p>S is now in 8th grade - We were too late to sign him up for the SAT last year (I was going to register him online, but apparently, this is not possible for kids under 13!), so he did the CTY equivalent test. Not a big deal, qualified really easily. No prep, no fuss. Just went in and took the test, qualified for both the verbal and math sections.</p>
<p>In terms of taking the SAT vs. the alternative test- one advantage of taking the SAT is that, should you need to “prove” to your kid’s school that he/she is capable of high-level work, the SAT is a test they absolutely can’t argue with, since they use it themselves. A kid who scores higher than the average high school senior (the benchmark for getting into CTY’s highest programs) is clearly head and shoulders above almost all 7th graders.</p>
<p>When DS took the SAT, we were living in a very rural district…his scores spoke very loudly that he needed to be stretched.</p>
<p>I think we will sign her up for the CTY equivalent test. I can see her being imtimidated taking a test with high scool kids :)</p>
<p>I like the idea of the different and unusual course offerings. She tested well in math, but she is a voracious reader and is very creative. This would give her an outlet to try things outside her normal experience. Plus she is taking an intensive French class this year and really liking it, so maybe languages would be another idea.</p>
<p>edit for pghmom: At this point I don’t think she needs to prove she is underworked. She works below her potential and tries to conform, if anything. Also we suspect non verbal learning disablilities, which has caused problems in some subject areas. She is in a Catholic school, which was great for her initially as it was rigorous in the early grades, but the approach they take in the middle school is not optimal for her.</p>
<p>Particularly if you sign up for the SAT through your talent search organization, they arrange for the middle school kids to take the test apart from high school students, sometimes at a separate site. An alternate test (unless it’s the ACT, which many of the Talent Searches use) won’t give you nearly as much info as the SAT. Plus, your kid can’t qualify for SET without the SAT. What’s the point?</p>
I really regret this, especially since we live in a suburb of Baltimore and could have easily attended anything we wanted at JHU. </p>