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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]DD is a junior, and her only options for college are in-state because of our family's financial situation. She has a 3.88 at a good public high school, one sport, no ECs to speak of. [b]She hates high school with a passion, thinks it's idiotic, all her classes are stupid, hates the administration and its crazy rules and incompetence, etc. She does the work because her friends do it, but she has no enthusiasm for school at all. 
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She went to CTY at Johns Hopkins for three summers, where she really blossomed. She told me recently those were the happiest weeks of her life. Her CTY teachers said she was "exceptional" and "outstanding."

I'm not bragging, I'm worried. I fear she'll be unhappy and unchallenged in college. We can't afford to send her to a CTY-like top college. If you have a similarly gifted kid who went to a lower-ranked college, how did s/he do? Did your child find a peer group? Were the classes interesting/challenging enough? Any advice most appreciated.

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Yikes.  My take on this is that she wants to be at a small school where she is coddled and babied.  If she hates school and has no enthusiasm for it then she really should think about alternatives.  [b]Frankly your report of her attending CTY doesn't ring true. [/b] It is more likely she attended some summer programs but without going through the rigorous testing and vetting process because a 3.88 is not a GT grade point average to be proud of.  I think you need to look at small schools.  She may do better at someplace like one of the Colleges That Change Lives.[/quote]

[b]What a bizarre statement. I went to CTY, loved it, and still had a shitty HS GPA.  The environments are very different.[/b][/quote]

+1, from another former CTYer. Plenty of CTY kids hate their unchallenging high school and don't care if they get less than perfect grades.

OP, my CTY friends who went to lower-ranked state universities because of $$ were mostly unhappy, because they felt like they were unfairly denied the opportunity to go to the great schools their CTY friends were going to. I don't understand why you expect your kid to be super motivated to work hard in high school, when your position is that she has to go to a cheap in-state school no matter what. You've already said she can't go to Harvard or similar schools even if she gets in. What's her motivation? I would slack off, too.

And as far as thinking high school is dumb: the only thing that fixed this for me and a couple of my CTY friends was switching to a more challenging private school. All these years later, I still think my public high school WAS dumb. I got a D in my required typing class because I looked at my hands while typing and refused to do endless worksheets of busywork, just typing random assigned sentences like a monkey. And yet, somehow, I have typed this post. All that nonsense and mindless busywork went away in private school. But you're obviously going to say you can't afford private school, either. I feel sorry for your kid. Hopefully she can pick her own grad school and get the education she deserves.

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