<p>Given that many of these posts are from a couple years ago, does anyone have current thoughts on the SIG Princeton program? We are considering sending our 7th grade child to the program, but would like some input from families who have had recent experience with the program. Thanks.</p>
<p>I believe that my son enjoyed his SIG program (UCLA) primarily because he could participate in three academic courses, one athletic (fencing) and one in the arts. He liked the range. I don’t recall that the work was especially challenging but he had a good time. He did a summer program every summer from grade school on and I’d say it was one of his favorites.
He is now a senior in college so that was many years ago, so I can’t comment on the current programs with SIG.
SSP (Summer Science Program) in Socorro was definitely the program he liked the best but that one is for high school students.</p>
<p>i did SIG vassar a few years ago multiple years in a row. the first two years were great but the last year when i was older did not seem to be worth the price. i believe it would probably vary depending on campus, but it was not the most organized nor best program out there for older kids.</p>
<p>JMFChicago - My son did the day SIG program this past summer and was disappointed. He took a Law, a Statistics and an Engineering class and they were not challenging enough. Most disappointing was the “recreational” time which for 7 / 8th graders consisted of hanging out in a lounge even when it was beautiful outside. We were going to do a residential program outside of Princeton next summer but we are doing CTY instead.</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with this program. My DD is 15 and I think she might be bored with SIG. Thank you.</p>
<p>CTY is John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth
here’s the site: [Johns</a> Hopkins Center for Talented Youth - A World Leader in Gifted Education](<a href=“http://cty.jhu.edu/]Johns”>http://cty.jhu.edu/)</p>
<p>I did SIG at Princeton last summer and had also been to CTY previously. I loved CTY and while I liked SIG well enough, it was a total waste of my parents’ money after CTY. Weak academically in comparison. I wish I had taken college credit courses instead at Brown or Columbia (or really anywhere) since those would have been much more useful.</p>
<p>we have the chance to attend the summer program at Emory this year. when i called and asked questions and also looked at the website, $2,000+ dollars does not seem worth what they are offering. i also asked if participating in the SIG would put the child in a special status for her future academic life and they said being a SIG member just opens you up to more resources, nothing like the National Junior Honor Society. i am doubting whether there is a need for this expense???</p>
<p>Hello! As a 3 year SIG veteran and a “gifted” individual myself (top 15 school, 99th percentile SAT, etc…), I wanted to contribute a little bit to this thread concerning SIG and its merits. I’ve worked at two campuses over the past three years, with vastly different experiences at each. Vassar provided a small, more tradition camp experience that was generally well organized and rewarding. SIG’s strict guidelines might make the camp boring for high school students who typically have more freedom at their HS, but for younger students, it has the potential to be a rewarding experience. At Yale, I had quite a few difficulties with the administration, the organization of the program, the teachers, and the overall quality of the program. From 2011 to 2012, 20 out of 300 campers returned to the program at Yale, which I think is an overall testament to its quality.</p>
<p>If I were sending my child to a program like SIG, I would have some issues with the quality of fellow students and the rigor of academics offered at the camp. While SIG is advertised as a gifted program, only a handful of students, in my opinion, can be considered “gifted” by traditional standards. The majority of students are slightly above average intelligence with the resources to attend fancy summer camps. The criteria to get into the program is quite loose (especially compared to competitors such as CTY), and as a result, many students are deemed gifted by two “letters of recommendation” from any teacher/counselor and allowed entry into the camp. As a result, the academics, which are tailored to fit all, are often unchallenging and leave many students bored. The teachers are a mixed bag as well. This year (2012), many of the teachers were last minute hires, hired off of craigslist during the last few days preceding camp and were not qualified to teach gifted students. While there were a handful of interesting, fulfilling classes, many left the students unsatisfied, feeling as if they hadn’t gained much from their 3 week academic program.</p>
<p>The camps can be disorganized as well. Many of activities which are planned do not reflect the camp’s $5500 3 week price tag, such as a trip to the mall/Yale museum instead of a more unique experience, such as visiting NYC or Boston. As a counselor, I was often not aware of timeline of activities until an hour before they began… it was difficult to properly run the events and give the campers with the experiences that they deserved.</p>
<p>I would love to say that all SIG programs are worth the hefty price tag and will provide an amazing experience for the students. However, the programs seem to utilise the names of the campuses (Berkeley, Yale, Princeton, Dartmouth…) to provide a mediocre program at an astronomical price point. Many of the students are not interested in academics, but use the schools as a way to build their resumes and help them get into these prestigious Ivy League schools. I would send my child to this camp with caution, only after doing heavy research and hearing positive first hand testimonials, as the quality of the camp is highly dependent on the campus and staff working at that campus. I would look into other programs, such as CTY, if your child is looking for a challenging, rewarding academic experience.</p>
<p>E</p>
<p>Btw if you have any personalized questions, feel free to shoot me an email! I’d be more than happy to talk about my experiences and the experiences of the 50~ campers I’ve had.</p>
<p>If your kid is really bright and has scores to quality, consider Davidson THINK if they want an academic challenge. My D (who can honestly be a little lazy in school) LOVED it the two summers she attended. No worries about lack of academic challenge there.</p>
<p>As a mother of two SIG “alumni” I also have a few comments. My youngest daughter (a rising junior) attended SIG Vassar ('09), SIG Princeton ('10), and SIG Yale ('11, and its first year). So, she was there at the end of 7th, 8th, and 9th grade. My son attended SIG Princeton ('09) and the organization’s first offering of an SAT/College program at Amherst in Summer of '10. This was just before his junior year. My children would likely share different perspectives, but here are mine. Both are ID’d as gifted by their public school GATE programs. </p>
<p>My daughter thoroughly enjoyed the program at Vassar following 7th grade. It was her first away camp and she loved meeting new kids. She enjoyed the classes, taking a combination of academic classes, fencing (which she took for 3 years), and photography. She was so enthusiastic about SIG that she begged to go to Princeton with a bunch of her friends from the Vassar program. Some students she loved chose to return to Vassar, but a group wanted to try Princeton in summer '10. </p>
<p>I’m not certain what happened at Princeton with the program that summer, except that she became very ill, needing medical attention, but none was gotten for her. This went on for a week, unknown to me, until she called me seven days out with a high fever. It was in the early evening at Princeton and I insisted she get me her counselor. it took some amount of effort for me to get from a counselor to the SIG nurse, who gave me the run around saying “she’s not sick”, to finally the ER where she was diagnosed with bronchitis and put on antibiotics. I was furious with the lack of attention and care she had received during the week-long illness and that it took my forceful intervention to get the SIG people to take action. She also reported the food at Princeton was the worst she had ever had anywhere. </p>
<p>Note about my son’s experience at Princeton: about a B. He liked the classes and the kids and the activities. Nothing absolutely earth shaking, but he did enjoy it. </p>
<p>Nevertheless, in spite of going from an A at Vassar to a C at Princeton, my daughter asked to go to the new Yale program in '11 at the end of 9th grade. The entire summer devolved into “girl issues” that the counselors could not ever deal with, and my daughter became the target of mean girls. She could not leave Yale fast enough and i was devastated at the waste of her time, first of all, and my money, second.</p>
<p>By the end, she said she would never attend SIG again. Period. This summer, '12, she attended an actual university program–not one merely held at a university such as the SIG programs–and graded it A+. She has received 3 college credits for the course. She met serious students who were kind and she just returned, happy and centered. </p>
<p>Now, to my son’s experience of SIG’s high priced college preparation program. The first year it was “bought” by SIG, it was held at Amherst in Summer '10. My son characterized the SAT prep classes as adequately taught, but not with a curriculum such as those taught by Princeton Review, etc., where you learn tips. (In the fall he attended a different prep class and said that the one-day boot camp was better than the 3 week preparation at Amherst.) He said the highlight of the program was visiting the campuses on the East Coast–and this fall he will be attending one of them that he visited on that very trip. So, we could conclude from that alone that this made the program worthwhile. Now, for the big problem. Unlike SIG’s other, highly structured, highly monitored program, this one had no activities nearly every evening for three weeks. Teenagers will then make their own activities when there are none and when there is no supervision. The counselors would disappear in the evenings. Some of the kids would get a drunk to buy them booze; others who had driven to the camp had drugs; sexual activity of varying degrees was common. Smoking, no problemo. Yes, this is all true. The final breaking point, which happened on the last night, was a student getting alcohol poisoning. He had to be taken to the hospital. Fortunately he lived. My son called me from the camp on this last day following the student who had alcohol poisoning, having endured this all summer quietly (he’s a serious student who does not drink, smoke, or do drugs), and said, “Mom, don’t ever send my sister to this camp.” Needless to say, we did not. It’s important to point out that his little sister, my daughter, was at the SIG Princeton camp at the same time that this Lord of the Flies camp was going on. </p>
<p>I called the executive director of SIG following this fiasco and told her everything. In fairness to SIG, they did implement completely different protocols for the following summer with stricter behavioral policies, better supervision, and evening activities for the SAT prep camp. I know this because my daughter was at the Yale camp that following summer and she reported increased strictness over even the previous Princeton camp. (Reminder: none of the older SIG camps my children had attended at Vassar or Princeton had ever been a problem with safety; it was only this one Amherst SAT prep camp in '10.) </p>
<p>So in summary, since SIG fixed the SAT Prep camp supervision problem, your child will be safe at a SIG camp. Safety should be a principal concern and NOT one I see any parent asking about on this forum. Academics are important as a secondary concern. My children would grade them overall as B’s. Some classes were A’s, some were B’s, some were C’s. Consider them some form of enrichment. As for the venues, remember your kid is NOT attending that university or college–she is living on that campus and attending classes run by the SIG people. Each one has a different flavor. My daughter liked Vassar best. As for social issues, it seemed the counselors’ skills were uneven to deal with “mean girls.” My daughter suffered terribly last summer at SIG Yale and the repercussions spilled into her sophomore year, unfortunately. Overall, I would say SIG is most appropriate for middle school children and at the most, rising 9th grade, but even that is iffy. I do not recommend their SAT prep at all, even with increased security. The prep part was just not adequate two summers ago and my son had to retake with a better course. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions. By high school, I would consider programs that are actual academic experiences–even taking community college courses are superior options. I’ve spent a boat load of money sending my children to SIG programs, so I definitely have a lot of information.</p>
<p>I think it is worth noting that the post from Laress on 8/2/12 is written by a disgruntled former employee who has made an inaccurate post, and it should not be relied upon as either the truth, SIG policy, or any kind of an authentic evaluation of the programs. It is also insulting to the hundreds of excellent staff members who work diligently and passionately each year to provide the best possible programs for the students they serve with dedication.</p>
<p>The post from Laress on 8/2/12 is completely FALSE. I did worked for SIG UC berkeley this summer , and it’s an outstanding program. The staff ( residential and academic) are dedicated people with great experience. Please do not rely on Larsen post , but get your information straight from the source at [Summer</a> Institute for the Gifted](<a href=“http://www.giftedstudy.org%5DSummer”>http://www.giftedstudy.org)
SIG is a leader in gifted study and my experience working was one the best !!!</p>