<p>Hmmm..well CTY does require SAT scores of pretty young kids that are impressive. And,it works by grade not age, so you can get an 11 year old with SATs of around 1600 (combined,new scale) which is pretty impressive. CTY kids do go on to do very well - their rate of getting advanced degrees is higher than the rate of graduate students completing their degrees.And here are some more CTY stats from the website:
Two of the top 16 Scripps Spelling Bee winners, Nithya Vijayakumar of Canton, Michigan and Raymond Soriano of Laredo, Texas
Seven of USA Today’s 20 High School Academic Team members
Two of the top six Intel International Science & Engineering Fair awards
Seven out of 32 American recipients of the 2007 Rhodes Scholarship
Three of the top 10 finishers in the March 2007 Intel Science Talent Search
Since 2000, 33 CTY alumni have been named Rhodes scholars. Of this year’s crop, more than one mentioned CTY’s pivotal role in helping them achieve their goals.</p>
<p>You should put CTY on your applications if that's what you did in the summer. It's certainly better than not putting anything down. If the subject you took there fits in well with your other interests and achievements, it could certainly help you. If you're looking for a prestigious summer program to boost your resume, then I would agree that CTY is not the most prestigious, especially if you're talking about the summer after 10th or 11th grade. Most of the kids at CTY are younger than that.</p>
<p>CTY participants tend to be well above average intelligence because of the test score requirements. But test scores are the only requirement to enter the program - once you qualify, you can sign up for anything until they run out of spots. So it's not very selective compared to programs like TASP or RSI that reject technically qualified candidates in favor of the very best. Also, among highly competitive schools, the (vast?) majority of applicants qualified for CTY, because the applicant pools there are comprised of students who are well above average. So although CTY is an amazing program, it won't make your application stand out.</p>
<p>That said, reporting that you spent seven hours a day for three weeks studying college-level material during the summer certainly doesn't hurt your application. But if prestige is your number one criterion for a summer program, CTY isn't your best bet.</p>
<p>(Disclaimer: I went to CTY for three years and consider it my home :))</p>
<p>it's worth putting down on your application. but seriously, it's an amazing summer program (expensive though). forget about prestige, you'll probably gain enough from the experience to significantly help you get into college :D</p>
<p>Definitely put it on your application. Even non-selective programs like Harvard Summer School or Oxbridge are worth putting on your application because they show your commitment to academics and passion for whatever subject you took... I mean unless you don't like that subject... So if you're really interested in bioengineering or something, and you took CTY Biology and CTY Genetics and AP Chem and AP Bio and stuff in high school, colleges will see all that stuff as going together and showing your passion. But if you took like Crafting Fiction and you want to be a doctor, it's probably not that important (but still put it on).</p>
<p>1500 for a 7th grader is pretty good. It probably ensures a 2300+ in 11th grade.</p>
<p>I don’t see why you shouldn’t put it down on your college app. It’s still a relatively selective academic program and you are learning material that you normally wouldn’t touch during high school. As a CTYer myself, I personally find those three weeks at CTY to be some of the best weeks of my year. Literally. You meet so many amazing people that are just as interested in learning as you are and you are there to LEARN, with no pressure that usually comes from grades and tests. As cliche as this may sound, CTY has helped me become more open to new ideas and sparked my passion for learning. I’ve attended Baby CTY (which is the summer program for 5th and 6th graders) and went to the summer program every summer after qualifying again in 7th grade. I also think if you take courses that reflect your academic interests that you would want to pursue in college and beyond, it could benefit you. </p>
<p>Also, as a side note: I know a guy who got accepted into Harvard who wrote about CTY in every single one of his college app essays. So, it wouldn’t hurt… :P</p>