What is the Johns Hopkins CTY program?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone else have a problem with the name? I know a lot of very talented kids that wouldn't be accepted into CTY-- wrong kind of talent. I guess Center for Scantron Adept Youth doesn't have the same ring to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else have a problem with the name? I know a lot of very talented kids that wouldn't be accepted into CTY-- wrong kind of talent. I guess Center for Scantron Adept Youth doesn't have the same ring to it.

"Gifted and talented" is pretty standard terminology, and while a standardized test is not the best way of measuring human worth, the cutoff for qualifying is not tremendously high, so I have a hard time imagining that "a lot of very talented kids" whose talents are the sort CTY accommodates aren't qualifying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, the application process is costly and time-consuming IMO. Application fee is $37 and THEN you have to sign up with Prometric for $55 for the SCAT (my DC took it the summer between 2nd & 3rd grades). All of their programs are expensive, even the one-day family programs that are open to everyone. You must have deep pockets and a highly motivated child to do any of the online programs let alone the camps.
The reason we did it is because we thought it would provide a great opportunity for some additional enrichment. I should have checked the price tag!

I was disappointed in the program although to be fair we never signed uo for anything. All the programs seemed too expensive and to be blunt it seemed like it was great if your kid was really nerdy and had nothing else to do. We skipped it for our son who is probably the smartest of our 3 kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, the application process is costly and time-consuming IMO. Application fee is $37 and THEN you have to sign up with Prometric for $55 for the SCAT (my DC took it the summer between 2nd & 3rd grades). All of their programs are expensive, even the one-day family programs that are open to everyone. You must have deep pockets and a highly motivated child to do any of the online programs let alone the camps.
The reason we did it is because we thought it would provide a great opportunity for some additional enrichment. I should have checked the price tag!

I was disappointed in the program although to be fair we never signed uo for anything. All the programs seemed too expensive and to be blunt it seemed like it was great if your kid was really nerdy and had nothing else to do. We skipped it for our son who is probably the smartest of our 3 kids.

LOL! True. Like my kid needs to be encouraged to be more nerdy: Math olympiad, chess club, THIS... But even geeks need an outlet and it's very educational. Sigh. 8)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, the application process is costly and time-consuming IMO. Application fee is $37 and THEN you have to sign up with Prometric for $55 for the SCAT (my DC took it the summer between 2nd & 3rd grades). All of their programs are expensive, even the one-day family programs that are open to everyone. You must have deep pockets and a highly motivated child to do any of the online programs let alone the camps.
The reason we did it is because we thought it would provide a great opportunity for some additional enrichment. I should have checked the price tag!

I was disappointed in the program although to be fair we never signed uo for anything. All the programs seemed too expensive and to be blunt it seemed like it was great if your kid was really nerdy and had nothing else to do. We skipped it for our son who is probably the smartest of our 3 kids.

It was great for my DS (I posted earlier describing him) as he could easily take their online courses while staying enrolled in a regular school and matriculating with his peer group. It seemed to be split between kids that were similar to him and the Asperger's or other SN kids that had extraordinary academic ability but poor social skills.

[Anonymous]

I did it years ago during the summers when I was 12 through 15 years old. I have no recent experience so it might have changed.
I loved it. It was extremely important to me. I stayed in college dorms and took classes for 3 to 6 weeks each summer. I took classes in creative writing, history, etc.
What was important to me was that I was able to hang out with kids my age who were also extremely intellectually curious and this was not seen as "nerdy" at all since we were all like that.
Maybe adults would have looked at us and said we had "poor social skills." But when I was that age, I did not perceive it like that. What I felt was that my social skills were just fine but that a lot of the other kids at my middle/high school were cruel jerks a lot of the time. It was a great relief to be away from that.
The classes were taught by the kind of people who might be adjuncts at universities and to me they seemed wonderfully cool and interesting and non-authoritarian, since they did not have to spend a lot of time trying to keep a class under control. I wanted to be like them.
Going away to CTY gave me a taste of what life would be like when I was older and lived away from home and didn't have to be in an institutional school setting where I was either picked on or mostly a loner....and it was heaven. I feel lucky that my parents could afford it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did it years ago during the summers when I was 12 through 15 years old. I have no recent experience so it might have changed.
I loved it. It was extremely important to me. I stayed in college dorms and took classes for 3 to 6 weeks each summer. I took classes in creative writing, history, etc.
What was important to me was that I was able to hang out with kids my age who were also extremely intellectually curious and this was not seen as "nerdy" at all since we were all like that.
Maybe adults would have looked at us and said we had "poor social skills." But when I was that age, I did not perceive it like that. What I felt was that my social skills were just fine but that a lot of the other kids at my middle/high school were cruel jerks a lot of the time. It was a great relief to be away from that.
The classes were taught by the kind of people who might be adjuncts at universities and to me they seemed wonderfully cool and interesting and non-authoritarian, since they did not have to spend a lot of time trying to keep a class under control. I wanted to be like them.
Going away to CTY gave me a taste of what life would be like when I was older and lived away from home and didn't have to be in an institutional school setting where I was either picked on or mostly a loner....and it was heaven. I feel lucky that my parents could afford it.

I'm so happy you had that experience. We couldn't afford it and it was a sore spot for me for a long time, but now I'm just grateful these resources exist for anyone. I think private programs have moved the bar slightly for public ones - I just wish we funded GTE adequately in this country.

[Anonymous]

What are the benefits for a 3rd grader? Is it more practice of higher level math and languages? From all these posts I don't quite get the advantages beside extra material. Does this benefit in long term to get into good colleges or course credits?

[Anonymous]

Would it offer any benefit for a young girl who has plenty of friends and whose parents are nerds and more than happy to teach her lots of advanced material?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would it offer any benefit for a young girl who has plenty of friends and whose parents are nerds and more than happy to teach her lots of advanced material?

That was me, and I absolutely loved it. What 15:27 said was right on. It was a wonderful experience, and it made going to college not an issue at all, as it was just like going over the summer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Would it offer any benefit for a young girl who has plenty of friends and whose parents are nerds and more than happy to teach her lots of advanced material?

That was me, and I absolutely loved it. What 15:27 said was right on. It was a wonderful experience, and it made going to college not an issue at all, as it was just like going over the summer.

I posed the question above. I should have clarified that I'm talking about an elementary-aged child (not sure what the age cut-off is) who fits in fine with her regular peers, hangs around with other advanced students already, and can get plenty of instruction at home on more challenging concepts. I'm just not getting what would make it worth the apparently high costs in such a case.

[Anonymous]

I still can't wrap my head around what this "is." Is it primarily online courses to be taken during the school year in one's after-school time? In which case, do you get to choose your "course", are there teachers reviewing the work being submitted, and does the child get feedback? Or is it primarily an academic summer camp, in which case for what ages is it most enrolled/appropriate?

[Anonymous]

Does anyone know of any cheaper alternatives to CTY?

I actually participated in this program like almost 20 years ago! Back then I think it was based on standardized testing scores because I know I was invited. They also let you take the SAT early, which I think helped me. They didn't have online then but their summer courses were too expensive for my family.

[Anonymous]

We have our daughter in CTY because of the easily accessible online programs. We use them to supplement her math education. She's advanced and her school won't accommodate her so we use the CTY program to keep her challenged. I hope someday to enroll her in the summer camps. They look phenomenal, but are very expensive. We're leaving our private for a GT program so that frees up money so maybe next summer we'll try a camp!

[Anonymous]

Does CTY credits count anywhere? Does TJ recognize it?