<p>Sounds like your son might want to go to the magnet high school, and then could take some summer courses (some for high school credit) that would complement or bolster his high school education. The Duke TIP summer course catalog could be helpful.</p>
<p>Don't recall now what state you are in, but Hopkins has a summer engineering course that allows participants to have some hands-on experiences, etc etc.</p>
<p>Since your son has already had alg 1, geometry and alg 2 upon 9th grade entrance, looks like he's perhaps going to have to attend the community college after 10th or 11th grades to get advanced math. </p>
<p>There are lots of cheap ways your son could supplement his high school courseload--for instance, joining a math school on-line that offers challenging math courses.</p>
<p>I would save the tuition and spend a little of it to provide challenging summer coursework, as well as online math work during the school months.</p>
<p>thanks ivydreamin.. he is qualified for cty as a 7th grader and plans to take more cty courses(he likes being away from home in a to him 'grown-up' environment and loves cty summer programs)
i am so relieved not to have to pay $85K over the next 4 years also and do not begrudge one penny of any summer/on-line/enrichment courses that i might snivel about if i had to work so much overtime (xmas/thanksgiving etc) to pay for high school also...
more money for his college.
can you take duke tip courses even if you are from maryland??</p>
<p>I agree with those who expressed some concern about a new program. But you could always try it and transfer if there are problems. That said, my kids attended top magnet programs in an otherwise very low-performing school. They were admitted to top colleges as are many of the top students who attend these programs. However, the fact is that the kids at our school don't get in at the same rate as kids from the top private school in our city. We may get a few kids into a school like Stanford in a given year while the top private school would get far more in. Not because the kids are necessarily smarter or more accomplished but because (I think) the relationship between a private school and a private college is of a different nature. They have lots of counselors who work hard to establish relationships, etc. We have one college counselor for 3,000 kids -- she is keeping her head above water just to get all the forms in. So there is a trade-off. On the other hand, colleges want to take some high-performing kids from urban or low-performing high schools. Two of my kids, who were involved in student government, wrote in their essays about the work they did trying to make a difference in a school plagued by problems, while explaining the academic rigor of their particular program.</p>
<p>i'm sure you are right.. there is no way for him to take even half of the excellent course offerings at cty... maybe i was thinking it would give him a broader viewpoint of kids and colleges etc going to another program.
it is nerve wracking to make these decisions that will affect his whole life and taht you can't get a 'do-over' on. i'm sure you all have been there!
maybe i should invest some money in a private college counselor since i know the public school counselor will not be familiar with (nor famillar to) the colleges for high performing students.
what do you think??</p>
<p>kayakmom, with all of the CTY campuses available you'll find your son will meet a very broad cross-section of students. While my D loved the campuses she was at during CTY, it is very different to experience CTY and experience the college (just my 2 cents there). After being at programs at JHU she was ready to apply there- until we attended an "official visit event". That killed any urge she had to apply. </p>
<p>Re: the private college counselor, I'm sure there are some great ones out there. For us, it didn't seem to be worth the financial investment. Just being on CC is a great source of information.</p>
<p>I agree with sabaray about the counselors. The private school ones are as overworked as the public ones. Remember, there might be thousands of students at a public school but they don't all use the services of the counselor. On the other hand, the private school ones have extremely demanding, paying a fortune parents vying for their attention. Friend from very respectable school ended up paying $3.5k to a "college adviser" service. These schools give you a false sense of security and you usually don't realize it until it is too late.</p>
<p>One thing that I have learned is that all coursework is not equal. Check out the texts to be used in the courses. Will the magnet have advanced texts? One of the advantages of some private schools is that the course work is much more comprehensive. There is chemistry, and then there is difficult chemistry.</p>
<p>I went to a half decent public high school in NYS. The regents chemistry and geometry are nothing like the courses at my D's school. I learned much less, sorry to say. I have checked on line texts and the local schools, and many of the texts are less comprehensive. Does that mean that the kids can't go to lehigh or wherever, absolutely not. What I do think can happen is that you can be a very bright accomplished public HS student and not have great preparation for engineering or pre med. </p>
<p>I went to a top college, and had done fabulously in HS, a real star. When I got there, it was so much harder than I ever imagined possible. Of course way back when there were no on line courses, and I knew zero people taking college courses at community college in HS. I think you should consider supplementing the magnet or public or whatever school with advanced work, if the level is not really too advanced.</p>
<p>At my D's school, 9th graders could theoretically take even precalc or AP calculus if qualified. I know this is not the case everywhere, just a FYI</p>