John Hopkin's CTY Talent Search
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Anonymous
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It was recommended that we sign our daughter up for this program to take the SAT or ACT. We are looking into the program, but I was hoping that someone here had some personal experiences with it.
It appears that we are just paying them to facilitate the taking of the SAT or ACT, and that if she is qualified, we can pay a ton of money for her to go to camp in the summer. Is that about it? In searching the internet, all I seem to find are parents who want their kids to go to College early, or to an Ivy League school. If we don't have any interest in early college (beyond classes that she could take through the high school), and in her young 6th grade mind, Ivy's aren't even a consideration (she has sworn since she was in 1st grade that she was going to go to the US Air Force Academy like her Daddy, but those decisions are still far off for her) what will she get out of the test? Thoughts? I understand it won't HURT her to take the test, as the scores aren't reported when she is older, but I guess my question is why do it? Thanks! |
Anonymous
| Helped DS get several HS scholarship offers + bragging rights. |
Anonymous
| In my opinion, your kid won't get much out of taking the SATs in 7th grade. I think that JHU tracks kids to see how they develop/improve over time. You do get the option of taking classes through the program. I was able to take accelerated math classes one year which opened up my schedule for another language, but I had to travel to Dupont circle on Saturday mornings, and I could have easily taken the same class at community college for a lot less. |
Anonymous
| OP, if you do a search for CTY on DCUM you will find many earlier discussions about what is offered. If after you read the discussions you don't think you would be interested in enrolling in the camp or taking the online courses, then yes, you probably don't need to bother taking the test. |
Anonymous
| Had my kid do that and attend the program. Nope, didn't get into any of the Ivies, Ok, so he only applied to two. But he's still attending a great college now - CMU. |
Anonymous
| I absolutely loved the camp. So much so that I saved my money from my part-time job to pay for another year. |
Anonymous
| Don't listen to the sour grapes. CTY is very prestigious. Can't hurt to try and will possibly help a great deal! |
Anonymous
| I actually took the SAT when I was in 6th or 7th grade through the CTY, and I actually did well enough that I won a scholarship to take a local college class for free. This was 15 years ago so I don't remember all the details. Anyway, what I think it really did for me was de-mystify the SAT. I did well enough as a 6th grader to attend college, so when I took it again in high school I was not nervous and did very, very well and could go to any college I wanted. |
Anonymous
It's basically for anyone willing to pay a bunch of money for the camps, very prestigious 
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Anonymous
Hey idiot, you wouldn't qualify even if you paid...hah ha |
Anonymous
How can paying to take a standardized test be prestigious? Is that like the Who's Who thing where you pay to be identified as special? Is your kid going to put it on a resume or college application?! If you want your 7th grader to spend a Saturday taking the SAT's, more power to you. There is no downside, as far as I can tell, but just know what you are paying for and don't think that it is going to help your kid. Smart is smart, and if your middle school kid got picked for CTY because of high test scores on other tests, your kid is going to be just as smart whether they take the SATs or not. |
Anonymous
You know that you don't just have to take the test, but you have to get a good score too, right? |
Anonymous
for pre-7th grade, the SCAT, it's pretty easy. After that, getting an acceptable score on the SAT or ACT is a little harder. Must say, Duke requires higher scores for its TIP program - not sure if kids from DC, Md. & Va. are allowed in that one though. |
Anonymous
Who said "taking a standardized test is prestigious"?? CTY is prestigious (and if you don't think so, you don't really know too much). Your argument sounds like Tea Party double talk 
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Anonymous
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My child received the "identification" letter in 3rd grade. I paid the registration fee for the program ($30-40 IIRC) but never got around to registering him for the testing portion. Six years later we still get their mailings and catalogs. I imagine they would "allow" us to register him for any of the programs since he's in the system. Just FYI.
That said, I've never actually tried to enroll him in any of the offerings. |