Please help me. I am a current freshman, and I live in northeastern Pennsylvania. I go to a small public school. I am in the gifted program, but my school does not give funding for gifted enrichment classes. Do any of you know any opportunities that are helpful, like summer camps, online classes, boarding school, study abroad, etc.
Also, please let me know if you have had experience with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth. I might take the SAT in the fall/winter to qualify for it.
Thank you very much!
The Johns Hopkins program is probably the largest and most well known program. You can’t go wrong with it. For other programs, look at your local universities. They will usually have Saturday or summer programs in things like engineering/computer science/medicine. Private high schools will also often have good summer camps. College confidential has a summer program forum which may be of help. Generally the summer programs that have boarding have a deadline in December or January or February.
My older son did CTY in middle school, but not the programs designed for college students. They are well-organized, serious and a great way to meet other students with similar interests. You can also check out the various lists under “Programs” at Hoagies’ Gifted Education Page: http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/gifted_102.htm
Thank you very much. I was looking for residential summer camps. In my area, we do not have universities or private schools that offer camps.
Johns Hopkins CTY does offer residential summer programs on college campuses throughout the country. They are quite expensive. Their online classes cost around $1,000, the residential programs(usually ~ 3 weeks) around $4,500.
My S went to CTY for four years and loved it. (He had a scholarship that covered about half of the cost.) But you may be getting close to aging out by next summer, unless they’ve changed the structure. (There was a program for older kids, but I don’t know much about it.)
Look into TASP. I think they have added something for sophomores.
http://www.tellurideassociation.org/programs/high_school_students/tasp/tasp_timeline.html
Do you have any particular areas of interest? There are some specialized programs out there…
this wont help you now, but you might want to bookmark it for the future–its ridiculously cheap and probably not that far from you. i’d imagine it might vary from year to year, but if you are just looking for something interesting to do you might find something here. my guess would be that if you are eventually interested, that i’d register as soon as it opens up–it probably fills up insanely fast!
The answer depends on your budget. There are many kinds of summer opportunities offered for high school students, but most of them are pricey. It would help if you said more about your interests. There’s everything from math camps for kids super-interested in math competitions, to writing camps, to colleges which offer programs for high school students (usually upperclassmen) either to take their summer course offerings for college credits or something less ambitious. And there are a lot of other offerings, in the arts etc. Most of those are going to be rather expensive.
If your budget is zero to very limited, you might qualify for aid from some programs but most won’t have much aid to offer you. You will have to research this. But there are resources on the web, like MOOCs that are free. If you are into math, check out the Art of Problem solving site. If you are artistic or a writer, you may want to consider preparing something for the Scholastic competition. There are also many special programs for minority students if you qualify for that. Also find out if your state offers Governor’s schools.
Check out the summer programs forum, it might give you some ideas.
During the school year, there are a lot of academic-oriented activities which your school might offer, though it sounds like perhaps it doesn’t. Examples would include math team, literary magazine, debate, science olympiad (I think there is an "olympiad’ for every science but I don’t know much about it because our school doesn’t do much with them). Most of these require a certain amount of school support and a team of students, however. (Even at our large school, we can’t seem to get Olympiad participation off the ground.) If you are particularly interested in math competitions, you should try to arrange to take the AMC-10 this year, which isn’t a team event, but you do need to find a school–not necessarily your own–to take the test at. If your school doesn’t offer anything like this in your interest area, consider trying to start something.
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology has a great website that lists opportunities for gifted and talented students. It’ll provide you with a start:
For summer programs: https://www.tjhsst.edu/studentservices/career-center/summer.php
For academic competitions: https://www.tjhsst.edu/studentservices/career-center/academic-comps.php
If you’re into computer science, check out USACO. They have training modules and open contests.
http://www.usaco.org/index.php
Kac425, I was not aware that Misericordia had that. Misericordia is not that far from me, so I will definitely check that out.
Mathyone, thank you for that. I was thinking about participating in the Geography Olympiad and the Biology Olympiad next year. I can afford some of the expensive activities, but I will definitely look at some cheap activities. We have a Governor’s School, but it is only for rising seniors. We do have the AMC 10 at my school. I took the AMC 8 in eighth grade. I did not take the AMC 10 this year because I was sick during the testing date, but I will take it next year.
SlackerMomMD, I am not interested in computer science, which is one of the few academic things that I am terrible at, but thank you for the lists from Thomas Jefferson High School.
Thank you all for these great ideas.
There are lots of ways that smart kids can enrich their academic - and personal - lives. Set a personal challenge for yourself - like learning a foreign language you are interested in or developing an expertise at something you are fascinated by and then use library, on-line and other local resources to extend your education. Take a MOOC or two. If you like to write, then sign up for some writing classes on-line and set writing goals for yourself. Master a complicated piece of music or a new medium for your art work. Learn to cook Thai food. Does someone in your neighborhood have a skill or talent you admire and would like to learn? Ask for lessons. It’s all about challenging yourself and finding resources to support whatever your interests are.
I interview for one of the selective schools and the kids that I find most engaging are those who realized early that education is a gift you give yourself, not what someone else hands you. And they often have unusual interests that take them on journeys they never anticipated. You don’t need a lot of money for this - just self-motivation, the internet and a willingness to put yourself out there.