<p>I just have to disagree with so much of this. CTY and CTD are quite prestigious and hold very high standards. Unlike many leadership programs and SIG which allow admissions based on very low standards or “nomination” CTY and CTD hold very high standards. In order to gain admission to CTY and I’m assuming CTD one must score above the average college bound senior on the SAT in 7th grade, that corresponds to the top 1% for that age. Just for reference, a sophomore who wanted to be accepted to CTY would need a 660 minimum CR and a 730M which is the 99%ile for the age and undoubtedly not an easy score to achieve. These are certainly much higher standards than say Columbia Summer Program or Vanderbilt PAVE. CTY was a life changing experience for me and was the first place I was truly intellectually challenged. I did not recieve a grade or difficult tests, but the students and instructors were what enabled me to learn to really think. While it may not be the very most prestigious in terms of programs such as RSI and TASP, I happen to know it is held in significantly higher regard than programs such as NYLF, CYLC, and SIG.</p>
<p>No. It’s not very good as far as I heard. CTY at johns hopkins is way much better. CTY is very expensive though (maybe EPGY is also? I dont’ know.) and CTY is selective. They have wonderful program and you have great peers.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the summer programs, but I’ve done long-distance learning programs with both EPGY and CTY. My ‘tutors’ were much more dedicated at CTY than at EPGY and the courses were just better in general (i.e. I learned more). That could be due to the nature of the courses, though—I did writing with CTY and math with EPGY, and it’s easier to give in-depth commentary to someone about a short story than about quadratic formulae. So I don’t know, but it seems that my opinion fits with the general consensus of most of the other people who’ve posted here.</p>
<p>(OT: I find it really sad that ‘formulae’ isn’t in Google Chrome’s dictionary.)</p>
<p>Hi many of you said that EPGY summer institute is very costly, but what about the financial aid? EPGY’s website said it does offer full/partial financial aid, doesn’t this solve the economic problem?</p>
<p>Even if it does solve the economic problem, it doesn’t solve the problem of prestige. I attended CTY, and was considering EPGY this year before reading this thread and doing a bit more research. Colleges put quite a bit of consideration into what you spent your high school summers doing. Expensive camps on college campuses just don’t cut it, unless you’re getting COLLEGE credit for whatever course you’re taking.</p>
<p>If you’ve already decided on a major, or a particular field of interest you want to develop yourself in, it may be better to find an internship or volunteer for the summer.</p>
<p>I don’t know, my sister did CTY and goes to Columbia. I can list 2 Harvards 2 Yales 1 MIT 3 Johns Hopkins and 2 Vassars off the top of my head for college attendance from CTY. While it may not be CTY that causes them to go to such great schools, it is a great way to learn and explore your passions.</p>
<p>EPGY isn’t bad, im taking it right now, and i have independent study at school, so I just dick around all day. Im still passing the class mind you.</p>
<p>^What course are you taking menchie?</p>
<p>I’m considering applying to EPGY math this upcoming summer but was strongly discouraged after reading the thread… Can anyone comment on the math programs specifically please? Thanks</p>
<p>How much do you need to pay?</p>
<p>idk, only it’s expensive. comparable with CTY but CTY is much more selective, harder to get in.</p>
<p>I went to EPGY last year and thought it was excellent. </p>
<p>The thing is, the quality varies with the subject. For instance, I did Quantum Mechanics, the hardest one, and I am still in awe and wonder. 
I feel like some of the others weren’t as hard or impressive. </p>
<p>What you need to do is look at the prerequisites and find the most challenging - then you will get your money’s worth.</p>
<p>You might want to also look at RSI if you are into the sciences.</p>
<p>Naturally you would, but RSI is a huge crapshoot. The best and the brighest can get rejected.</p>
<p>I got in to the EPGY summer program for economics and I was wondering if there was anyone who could provide some information for what it was like? I was hoping for specific information on the economics program</p>
<p>I took the economics class 2 year ago and thought it was good. We were taught by a former leihman brothers (sp?) guy and stanford grad who had only worked there for a year before they fell apart. It was a pretty good class. We would lecture in the morning and then do problem sets in the afternoon/ read our textbook and do problems related to that. I liked it more for the concepts than going into great detail (I am not entirely interested in economics but enjoy the ideas and concepts). We also read Freakonomics which I was half way through when I arrived at the camp w/out realizing it would be on of our books. We had to write our own paper at the end about our own freakonomics type report which I really enjoyed.</p>
<p>If you already have a background in economics it may not be the best but if you are merely interested and do not know to what level yet I would recommend it. There was one kid in our class who already worked for an investment bank and he enjoyed it more for the interaction with the teacher during lunch or after class.</p>
<p>What grade are you in? I hope all this helps.</p>
<p>Does EPGY Summer Institute selectively email to some freshmen to recruite or it distributes EPGY name to every highschooler? When would be better to attend it ? Freshmen, junior or senior?</p>
<p>I would say they send out a lot of mail although i didnt get stuff from them until this year despite attending before and after freshman year. (Im a junior now). As for when you attend its up to you and your interests. I personally decided that after my summer before sophomore year that I was done doing residential camps and wanted to do research the following summers (even though that didnt work out last summer) because thats more what I am interested in.</p>
<p>@ender94</p>
<p>I am a junior right now, I was just trying to figure out if it was really worth all of the money. Is it one of those things where colleges look at it and go WOW this kid went to EPGY or is there really no reaction? Did you feel like you learned a lot and had to work hard, or did a lot of the kids just goof off most of the time?</p>
<p>If you’re talking about Stanford EPGY, then I do feel like it helps a bit. I have a friend this year who attended and got into Stanford EA. He was very talented in other fields as well (for example, he was also a journalist for the Scholastic Young Journalists program), but I do feel like EPGY was the hook which tipped his application into the “accepted” pile. He also worked as an intern for the Stanford Daily while there, which may have contributed to his success, but overall I feel like the program helped him a lot in terms of Stanford admissions.</p>