<p>My son attended CTY from the 7th grade until he aged out. Yes, it was expensive; for him, it was absolutely worth it. In middle school, he was a social misfit. At CTY, he made loads of friends. It also turns out he learned a lot–we did not really care about the academics, but when he started college (at UVA) it turned out he had already done a lot of undergraduate computer science and was able to accelerate quickly into upper-level and graduate-level coursework.</p>
<p>My son is in his second year of college, but still tight with many of the kids he met at CTY, who are now at good colleges and universities all over the country. They often visit one another over Christmas and spring breaks.</p>
<p>In our area too, middle schoolers took the test in a different room from the older kids. I think the proctor gave them longer breaks, their room was the last to come out.</p>
<p>I think they are doing the middle schoolers in different rooms in almost all places. Actually, it is the high schoolers who are intimidated and humbled seeing the 7th graders and their parents there before being released to go to the individual testing rooms. My kids and their friends would look at the online college search sites and see what schools their SAT scores would already make them competitive for as 12-yr-olds! I think there’s also a lot of comfort when it is time to take the SAT “for real” that they’ve had the practice of early SATs and PSATs…while never fun, taking the SAT was not a huge stressor for them when it counted.</p>
<p>My kids didn’t find taking the SAT intimidating at all. We stressed that it would not be on their permanent record and that while qualifying for CTY was a bonus, we could easily find other summer activities if they didn’t qualify. There were probably a dozen or so other middle schoolers taking the test with them, so they didn’t feel all alone there. They may well have been tested in separate rooms from the big kids, but it never came up.</p>
<p>Yes, this. My daughter first went to CTY after spending 7th grade in a classroom of kids who teased her for being the “smart one.” She ended up doing four years of CTY, two at Siena College (I think they closed that location), one in Madrid and one at Princeton – all good. Definitely very worthwhile.</p>
<p>OK, if they have a separate room for the little ones, that would be ok. I guess I should start posting in the SAT prep forum ( jk )</p>
<p>Even if this strains the budget, I really think we are going to give this a shot if she passes the test. For whatever reason, she is really hung up about appearing too smart in front of her friends at school. I picked her up today, and she told me she doesn’t want to go into the honors math class (Ms. 98th percentile). I think being around other bright kids would really give her an attitude adjustment.</p>
<p>S took the SAT in 7th Grade (for CTY) and I clearly remember that the middle schoolers were in a separate room.</p>
<p>We have done some family weekend programs and have enjoyed them immensely. They do a good job. S has not done any of the summer week long (or longer) programs as they are very expensive. He has 2 friends who have gone to the summer programs multiple times and both have enjoyed them.</p>
<p>CTY was life altering for my kids for different reasons (hey, different kids, different issues.)</p>
<p>I think it was transformative for one of them intellectually-- a chance to explore one subject, taught by a real superstar, work in teams where everyone carries his/her weight, carry on the discussion and arguments over lunch or into the evening. And the program is really well thought out- all homework is done in a study session, nobody is allowed to do school work in the dorm room, there is ample time for sports or fun activities and lots of structured socializing as well.</p>
<p>It was transformative socially for one of my other kids. Nobody was laughed at for being smart, or for reading books, or for caring about “geeky” things. Even the shy kids were encouraged to do things they’d never have done in their own schools (like perform in the talent shows). Even the awkward kids had friends; think of dozens of kids- some of whom were real loners at home- sobbing in the parking lot when it was time to leave. My kid would cry for at least an hour as we drove home.</p>
<p>I don’t doubt that you could provide some of these experiences on your own at less cost. But it was just amazing to watch the kids attitudes change as they spent time in a place where being smart was cool.</p>
<p>The staff was extraordinary. Truly wonderful teachers who could relate to kids on so many levels…</p>
<p>Anyway- worth exploring in my opinion. We are so thankful that a sympathetic math teacher at school suggested it to us- we had never heard of it, had never known anyone who had done it, immediately thought it must be some scam… but it was the highlight of my kids years from the first summer until they aged out.</p>
<p>My oldest, now a 5th year Ph.D student at U.Chicago, went to CTY as long as he could, until he “aged out.” As others have stated, it was a transformative experience. He found “his people” there. He took everything from Law & Politics to Psychology to Meteorology to several others. He qualified in both math and verbal, but he had more opportunities to advance in math in school than in the other types of courses. I recall him taking the SAT as a 7th grader and he was in a classroom with the older kids, but this was over a decade ago. He wasn’t the least bit nervous about it as I’ll bet he knew he would score better than most of them anyway! Don’t sell your daughter short-she may be perfectly fine taking the test in any setting!</p>
<p>Blossom is spot on about the organization at the CTY sites. The kids do their homework in a group classroom under the watchful eye of the T.A., who invariably is going to be a kid who is majoring in the Classics at Williams, for example. My son and his group actually violated CTY policy and sneaked their books back to their rooms so that they could continue to study and discuss the material. :D</p>
<p>It has been about 3 years, but my D was NOT given the SAT in a separate room (and she registered through a talent search, and took it two different years in middle school). She didn’t care at all (although we ran into a friend of her older sister’s at the test, who was quite surprised to see her). They did not get any additional time on breaks, etc. So you can’t count on that. But until I read about it in this thread, it never occurred to me that it was any issue.</p>
<p>Both daughters went to CTY. The older just aged out and the younger has 2 years left to go. Life changing isn’t strong enough to describe their experience. All of my older daughter’s close friends are from CTY. It has been expensive but totally worth it in terms of building her confidence and giving her a place that she calls home.</p>
<p>In reading over the posts, I should add to mine that my daughter attended CTY day programs after 3rd and 5th grades, so she was a bit younger than some of the other posters’ kids.</p>
<p>When my D. took the SAT in 7th grade (age 11) and 8th grade (age 12), she was sitting in a classroom just like a HS student. It’s not an issue though. the first time she was tense. second time she wasn’t. Did well. </p>
<p>Is it unusual to take it both in 7th & 8th grades?
My D took it in 7th at the university alongside her friend who was in 6th grade, they were so little standing in line with the high school kids- but they did fine.
D was mainly taking it to keep her friend company- she was in private school & didn’t really need the enrichment of CTY, but her friend qualified for the early entrance program at the university.</p>
This reminds me that one of the summers my D was there, the new Harry Potter book came out, and most of the kids rushed out and bought it. The RAs didn’t want them staying up all night reading it, so they had to put the book out in the hall at lights out. So what the kids did was make a decoy book by putting the new dustjacket on an old book and putting that out in the hallway.</p>
I don’t know if it is unusual. The first time D. took the SAT, she did well in CR but poorly in math. We wanted to see how much her math improved in 8th grade, since she didn’t start taking algebra until 8th grade. It improved by 140 pts.</p>
<p>D is a bit high strung and this whole SAT in a room full of high schoolers would be outside of her comfort zone. But maybe I’m just overthinking it.</p>
<p>I’m digging through the rubble of my son’s room to find one of his old SAT prep books. I think I need a hazmat team. (I haven’t been in there since he left for school at the end of August. Big mistake. )</p>
<p>AFAIK, my S took the SAT in the same room as HS kids. We had to take him to another HS, too. It didn’t seem to affect him. (This was almost 10 years ago, though.)</p>
<p>Your D sounds as if she might deliberately tank the SAT in order to not stand out, whether she takes it with other middle-schoolers or not. I don’t know exactly how she/you can overcome this, though. It sounds to me as if the culture in her school does not support smart kids, or at least not smart girls. A peer group that does can be invaluable. My S was lucky in that he had a solid group of very bright, well-rounded friends who also did sports and music seriously, and were very secure. They weren’t at the top of the “popular/jock/professional hottie” adolescent social structure, but they were respected, especially as their cohort grew older. Perhaps if your D can be convinced that CTY would offer her an opportunity to explore intellectually OUTSIDE of her school’s social structure, she would see the possibilities and feel more emboldened to try to excel. </p>
<p>I haven’t read it, but doesn’t the book “Reviving Ophelia” deal with this to some degree?</p>
<p>@martina, maybe you are overthinking. I was very worried when my D. took the SAT the first time. She was 11 then. I waited outside the classroom, which was proved to be totally unnecessary. So after 2 hours I left. The second time she did it, I dropped her off at the HS, went back home and picked her up after about 4 hours, not a problem.</p>
<p>I think you can prep her for the test psychologically by telling her that the high school students will be intimidated by her, that she looks older than she is anyway, that really, everybody will be focused on their own problems, etc. Tell her what to say if anybody asks her why she’s there: “Oh, it’s just for some summer program.”</p>
jk )</p>
Don’t sell your daughter short-she may be perfectly fine taking the test in any setting!</p>
)</p>