<p>So. This summer... JHU CTY? Worth doing in high school?</p>
<p>YES. </p>
<p>CTY = <3.</p>
<p>i went for my freshman and sophomore summers so definitely worth doing. and you'll have the best three weeks of your life.</p>
<p>^Which classes did you take?</p>
<p>How many high school students actually go? I wouldn't want to be the only one in a sea of middle schoolers...</p>
<p>UGH I hated CTY.
Well, it was okay. It's just that they mauled you if you brought your textbooks outside of class, and were insanely dictatorial regarding rules and such. I'd probably have liked it better if I'd gone there more to have fun than to learn.</p>
<p>My DD loved her two summers there and in fact wrote her short Common App statement about the influence CTY had on her.</p>
<p>There may be different traditions/cultures on different campuses. She was at Dickinson taking psych and ethics.</p>
<p>C
T
Y
? ?? ??? ????</p>
<p>What is this CTY?</p>
<p>Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth summer camps.</p>
<p>It's especially good if you are planning to apply to JHU because on their supplement they have a place asking if you did anything they sponsored.</p>
<p>If you're passionately interested in a subject and would like to take a CTY (or similar Talent Search) course in it -- and can afford to do so -- it's worth it. S did a TIP and a CTY program, and enjoyed both. He would have done more, but we couldn't afford it.</p>
<p>Do NOT, however, do such programs to try to dress up your college applications. You won't enjoy the program, which includes about 6 hours of day of studying in various ways (many are quite creative) a particular subject. If this doesn't sound like your idea of fun, then find a summer activity -- a job, volunteer work, research, travel -- doing something that you would enjoy. That's what impresses top colleges: Pursuing your own interests with passion and creativity (Of course, this assumes that your interests aren't things like sleeping all day, cruising the malls or reading porno).</p>
<p>CTY = life changing experience</p>
<p>If you can, go to lancaster, its the best site.</p>
<p>Good fun classes to take:
Number Theory
Game Theory
History of Disease
Cognitive Psychology</p>
<p>Classes that will help most in terms of college:
Individually Paced Math Sequence (skips a grade level in math)
Fast Pace High school (chem/physics/bio) get to your APs earlier
Crafting the essay - self explanatory you will learn how to ace all your english classes</p>
<p>CTY is more of a social experience than an academic one. If you want to know what its going to be like living in a dorm, and on a hall, with a RA, than this is the place to go. Sure there are rules, but deal with them, because it is a safe trial environment, preparing you for when there are no rules in college.</p>
<p>So Is im debating if i should apply to CTY or Harvards SSP. My sister went to SSP @ harvard and said she loved it, and her bestfriend went to CTY and said she loved it..Im kind of torn</p>
<p>What are the people (teachers, students, etc.) there like?</p>
<p>Ooh, I remember the stuff I did with them in middle school. That was fun...</p>
<p>I moved, though, and they don't do quite as much with the Midwest. So I never really did any of their high school programs. Are they the 6-8 week sort?</p>
<p>(slightly off-topic ---->) If anyone is interested in a shorter program, I'd recommend William and Mary's National Institute of History and Democracy, which is a 3-week program focusing on early American history through the lens of the Virginia experience. It was INCREDIBLE (but a LOT of work).</p>
<p>
[quote]
So Is im debating if i should apply to CTY or Harvards SSP. My sister went to SSP @ harvard and said she loved it, and her bestfriend went to CTY and said she loved it..Im kind of torn
[/quote]
I've been to both.</p>
<p>Honestly, although SSP isn't the most competitive of programs, your classes are college-level and, if you're wise and look up your professors before you sign up like I did ;-), you could get really good teachers too. Also, SSP is really a lot more like college in terms of rules and stuff. You have tons of free time, most studying is independent, there's parties, you can wander off campus anytime you want, no curfew if you're a rising senior (and no lights out for anybody), there's an awesome and free gym, etc. The only disadvantages I can think of with SSP are that some of the students there aren't the brightest (since the acceptance rate is around 90%), and it has a $8000 price tag plus whatever you spend during your two-month stay (cut that in half if you do one-session, but one-session is no fun =P).</p>
<p>CTY is a great experience, and the total amount of time you spend in class will end up being pretty close to the time you spend on a single course during an entire school year (yes, I calculated it). There are a lot of great people at CTY, but also a lot of annoying middle-schoolers. The one thing that's awful about it are the rules. In fact, when I was at Carlisle we ended up making our own "95 Theses" in protest to the rules.</p>
<p>So ARE there a lot of high schoolers who go to CTY?</p>
<p>everyone is amazingly desparate at that camp....</p>
<p>What do you mean?</p>
<p>i went to cty the summer before 9th and 10th grade...took the fast paced high school physics which was actually really fun and i highly recommend the crafting the essay course. it makes HS english so much easier</p>
<p>i decided that that would be my last year of cty because i didn't want to feel too old among all the younger kids and i did the little kid cty at stanford when i was younger. but there were some kids who did it until they weren't allowed to do it (nevermores). i think the age limit is 16 or something...</p>