Johns Hopkins CTY program

[Anonymous]

maybe I am too new to this, but I'm wondering, other than the chance to pay for my kid to attend some nice summer camps, is it truly beneficial? are there weekly middle school programs close by? My kid is bright and motivated, but not a 'genius'....

[Anonymous]

My son did the summer camp last year and it was great. We haven't done any of the other activities because he goes to a challenging school and doesn't need to supplement. We wouldn't have done it if he wasn't interested in the camp.

[Anonymous]

We're on the fence about the summer camps too. There are so many challenging things to do in this area over the summer -- cooking camps, sailing camps, you name it. We're tempted by these non-academic sources of enrichment, although the CTY camps look good too.

[Anonymous]

Our daughter has gone to Duke TIP (Talent Identification Program) for the past two summers. If your child qualifies for CTY, chances are that he or she will qualify for TIP; they are comparable programs. She decided to do TIP because they offered a specific creative writing class she wanted to take. She spent her first summer at Davidson, and last summer at Duke. She counts these experiences as among the most wonderful she has ever had. She keeps in close touch with the friends she made at camp, and loved having the opportunity to meet other kids interested in the same things she finds interesting. It is very intense (something like 6 hours a day focusing on one topic), but if your child is VERY interested in a particular subject, I highly recommend it.

[Anonymous]

PP here -- by the way, the TIP program my daughter attended is only available to kids who are 8th graders or older. I don't know anything about the CTY programs for younger kids. A lot of what she finds appealing about TIP is the opportunity to live on a college campus, which is not part of the CTY experience for younger kids.

[Anonymous]

I went as a kid and worked several summers as a counselor at CTY (in the summer residential programs). I highly, highly recommend it. The peer group there was amazing, and it was socially and academically a transformative experience for me. I was in a mediocre middle school in a semi-rural area, so it may have affected me more than it would have had I been in a rigorous school with a lot of acceleration. My experience as a counselor was that the children who benefited most were the ones who were the most exceptionally bright (out of the general CTY population). I suspect many of them had a tough time socially at home and they seemed to light up at the combination of truly challenging schoolwork and other kids who shared their (often offbeat or advanced) interests. It was inspirational to see how much some of these kids were capable of, and how excited by learning they were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP here -- by the way, the TIP program my daughter attended is only available to kids who are 8th graders or older. I don't know anything about the CTY programs for younger kids. A lot of what she finds appealing about TIP is the opportunity to live on a college campus, which is not part of the CTY experience for younger kids.

Our 11-year old loved living on campus for her CTY summer camp -- it made her feel very grown up. She made many new friends and came back a much more confident kid. The only downside, from her perspective, was that there was unceasing supervision by counselors --- the kids went everywhere as a group and were not allowed to wonder the campus alone. Inevitable, but a bit constraining after a couple of weeks.

[Anonymous]

really? at 11 she was in sleep-away camp with cty? was it the baltimore one?

[Anonymous]

No, Washington College.

[Anonymous]

DC did it last summer (day camp not residential) and what she appreciated most was the intense focus on a single subject and work sessions that involved larger blocks of time (2 hours vs. 45 minutes) than she typically has in school.

So, to her, the pacing was the exceptional feature of the program -- not cohort, assignments, teachers.

She'll probably do the residential version next summer -- the college campus thing intrigues her and so does the subject matter of one of the courses.

[Anonymous]

How much $ are these programs?

[Anonymous]

I sent my children to CTY day camps and to at least one CTY sleep away camp years ago. Some CTY camps were better than others, and the CTY Alexandria VA day camp seemed to diminish in quality about 7-8 years ago. Maybe it's better now, but since the minimum test scores needed to attend the camps keep declining I wouldn't count on it.

My children's favorite CTY program was the Chestertown, MD camp at Washington College on the Chesapeake Bay. It was solely for students who had finished 5th or 6th grade. It was relatively small and designed just for that age group. The other sleep away camps include a wider range of ages.

[Anonymous]

We are going to do a summer course at Stanford and we are trying to decide between "Elements of Drama", "Heroes and Villains" (which are both writing classes), and "The Renaissance".

[Anonymous]

Good to hear re Chestertown. My DC (who did day camp last year) is headed to (first-ever) sleepaway camp at Washington College this summer. A couple of close friends from school are also going but taking different courses, which strikes me as a perfect outcome.

[Anonymous]

My third grader will be doing of the day camps at SSFS this summer. She is very excited about it!

For those whose kids have done the sleep away camps, were they worth the price?