<p>My youngest son is in 8th grade. Last summer he attended the Duke TIP program. He enjoyed the Duke program. However, this summer he has some commitments to some lacrosse events that take up the entire month of June and JV football starts in July. He can miss some of the football but not three weeks.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there are other programs that are of a shorter duration?</p>
<p>Yes, I mentioned it in the other thread on 8th grade summer programs. It’s called Satori, and it’s for gifted kids aged 12-18, housed at Eastern WA University, They are very familiar with picking kids at and dropping them off at the airport. It is one week long, in late July. The 2013 schedule, application, etc., will be up soon. </p>
<p>Kids have a choice of several classes for each block, for a total of 3, plus afternoon activities such as swimming or skating. It was about $700 last year total. D loved it so much she has offered to help pay her own way, though that won’t be necessary.</p>
<p>Thank you. That one sounds very interesting. I will show it to S to see if he is interested in any of the class offerings. One of the things that struck me is that the website seemed very “west coast” zen. My son is a more typical high strung east coast kid. Do you see any problem there? Are the kids from a wide geographic area or are they all from WA?</p>
<p>Concordia Language Villages have a lot of two week programs.</p>
<p>[Concordia</a> Language Villages - Concordia Language Villages](<a href=“http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/]Concordia”>http://www.concordialanguagevillages.org/newsite/) </p>
<p>My kids did a couple of different lanugages/locations/length of programs, PM me if you have questions.</p>
<p>Thank you intparent. S is interested in history, English language, political science, and writing. He barely tolerates his Spanish class in school!</p>
<p>We were concerned about the Zen thing too, but D said there were kids from all kinds of backgrounds and locations. Lots of repeaters but new kids welcomed. The class choices are similar year to year so he can get a good idea of options even now. The staff is also really great at responding to questions once the office opens I think in March. Feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Well… it would help improve his Spanish grades if he has issues there. My D2 hates French, but got her only As ever in French the two years after she went to French camp. 
And she did enjoy camp; if they are not “credit villages”, then it is really just mostly speaking immersion with all the typical summer camp activities.</p>
<p>Sseamom: We showed him the website and he didn’t care for the idea of taking 3 different things a day. The thing he really liked about Duke TIP is that he got to study one thing, in depth. </p>
<p>Intparent: He gets good grades in Spanish, but he really doesn’t like it. He takes what he needs in school and that is it.</p>
<p>Do either of you know anything about the Vanderbilt U program? It looks good and is only a week long. It’s also in TN which is great because I need to take my other son to see some schools in TN. They have some classes he is interested in taking. The Civil War In Real Life real life excited him as did American Utopias.</p>
<p>Brown has a **huge **summer program. [Summer@Brown</a> - Pre-College Programs at Brown University | Brown University](<a href=“http://brown.edu/ce/pre-college/]Summer@Brown”>Pre-College Program | Brown University)
B.U. has one too but most offerings are for sophomores and above - [Summer</a> Programs for High School Students | Boston University Summer Term](<a href=“http://www.bu.edu/summer/high-school-programs/]Summer”>High School Pre-College Summer Programs | Boston University Summer Term)
Ditto for Tufts</p>
<p>Not sure if this is the type of writing he is interested in, but American U has a two-week session in the School of Communications where he could take scriptwriting and/or journalism.</p>
<p>[Courses</a> | Discover the World of Communication | American University School of Communication](<a href=“http://www.american.edu/soc/discover/course-description.cfm]Courses”>http://www.american.edu/soc/discover/course-description.cfm)</p>
<p>LeadAmerica programs - may be more expensive than the others, but lots of locations/topics and less than 2-3 weeks</p>
<p>Thank you all for your feedback.</p>
<p>Beantown girl: The Brown program has very limited offerings for current 8th graders. Only the SPARK program is geared towards current 8th grades and S is not science oriented. The BU program is not for current 8th graders and neither is Tufts.</p>
<p>Waitingforivy: The LeadAmerica programs for middle school students are very limited.</p>
<p>Deskpotato: I don’t know if he would be interested in that sort of writing but the course offerings are interesting. I am going to show him that one. It is especially interesting because he has to be in Maryland for lacrosse on June 30. It would save me a plane ticket. If he goes to the Vanderbilt program he has to fly from Nashville to Baltimore. If he is in Washington DC I could go up to Baltimore early and get him.</p>
<p>" S is interested in history, English language, political science, and writing. He barely tolerates his Spanish class in school! " - I’m just gonna throw this out there. It seems like summer programs can be good to nurture existing passions. But i also seems they could be a good way to expand into other areas too. Good luck!</p>
<p>Many of the state schools have 1 week courses for kids in grade 9-12. It’s usually focused on local kids and most aren’t residential in nature. My youngest attended a CTY course last summer but will be attending either an Arizona State or University of Arizona 1 week course to explore some interests. It’s a lot cheaper, fits her needs better this summer, and she’s happier that her social life won’t be interrupted for 3 or more weeks this summer. LOL</p>
<p>Colorado_mom: It’s fine to expand into other areas if a student is interested in other areas but S in clear that he barely tolerates his foreign language class. My other kids really liked Spanish class but the little one does not. IMO there is no reason to push Spanish over other subjects.</p>
<p>CatNPhx: I think he wants a residential experience where the students are at a certain level. He really enjoyed the experience at Duke where he wasn’t the smartest kid in the room. </p>
<p>Thank you to all who responded. I think he wants to go with the Vanderbilt program. He wants to go to Nashville. He wants an academic experience with really smart peers and he wants something shorter than 3 weeks. Vanderbilt has some classes that were really interesting to him. </p>
<p>It is interesting to me because neither of my other children were ever interested in academic camps in the summer. My oldest was a sports camp kid. My middle was a music camp kid. Only the little one is really engaged by intellectual camps. He is my “high need” kid. He knows what he wants and he is very persistent in finding exactly what he wants. The classes he ranked for Vanderbilt are:</p>
<ol>
<li>American Utopias</li>
<li>The Unseen Civil War</li>
<li>Writing Short Stories</li>
</ol>
<p>Vanderbilt sounds good. There are a lot of good ideas over on the Summer Programs section of this forum as well.
[Summer</a> Programs - College Confidential](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/index8.html]Summer”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/summer-programs/index8.html)</p>
<p>university of northern colorado summer enrichment program, wilderness first responder program</p>
<p>rockymtnhigh: I don’t think my son would do well in any sort of wilderness camp. He is definitely not an outdoorsy kind of kid. He likes sports and he likes to swim and go to the beach but in 14 years he has NEVER asked to go camping or anything like that. He likes his creature comforts.</p>
<p>[MS</a> & HS Institutes](<a href=“http://www.kopernik.org/summer-programs/summer-science-institute/]MS”>http://www.kopernik.org/summer-programs/summer-science-institute/)</p>
<p>These programs are at Kopernik Institute, an observatory in Vestal, upstate NY, about 3 hours from NYC.</p>
<p>Residential students in these programs stay on campus at Binghamton University, a flagship NY public university. My daughter went for 2 weeks last summer and the summer before and really enjoyed it. The observatory stuff starts at 4 p.m. so they have lots of activities on campus.</p>
<p>One week summer program at U of Iowa.</p>
<p>[Junior</a> Scholars Institute (JSI) / Belin-Blank Center Summer Programs](<a href=“http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/students/summer/programs/6-8/jsi/]Junior”>http://www.education.uiowa.edu/belinblank/students/summer/programs/6-8/jsi/)</p>