My daughter attended CTY for three years and had exceptionally good experiences. The value for her wasn't in taking the SAT; the value was meeting and studying with highly intelligent and academically curious students. Though she attends a highly regarded private prep school, she found the students, teachers, and classrooms all light years beyond her regular school classes.

My daughter attended CTY for three years and had exceptionally good experiences. The value for her wasn't in taking the SAT; the value was meeting and studying with highly intelligent and academically curious students. Though she attends a highly regarded private prep school, she found the students, teachers, and classrooms all light years beyond her regular school classes.

My son tested into CTY and went to one of the summer camps after 6th grade at a well known college. The camp was well run but it was a lot of work and my son never wanted anything to do with CTY after that!

It was a valuable experience, however, in that he learned that there are many really smart kids and a lot of them are willing to work hard. He was also exposed to kids from other parts of the world, mostly wealthy kids from Asia who knew three or four languages, something that amazed my son. For a kid who had always been singled out as smart by his teachers but is a bit of a slacker it was eye-opening.

Anonymous wrote: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.

Funny. Us, too.

At this point I can say my son is very, very smart. Gifted, shmifted.

In addition to CTY and TIP, what other programs are out there?

I did this as a kid, scored very high and went to CTY programs for several years. That said, I wanted to go. I did get into good schools but I don't think by that time I even mentioned CTY on my applications.

I think it doesn't hurt to take the SATs if your daughter is curious, and wanting to go to a school because your parents did could change, but you should only choose CTY if you think your daughter would benefit from the program, not just from having it on her resume.

DC took an online writing course that was fabulous. He was in 7th grade, the course was 11th grade level. He got personal attention from a college professor. The class was very well done - a how to write primer for anyone. Duke TIP does take people from this area. The SAT scores have to be very high to matter - over 700 (out of 800) on a part for 12 year olds, 720 for 13 year olds.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Don't listen to the sour grapes. CTY is very prestigious. Can't hurt to try and will possibly help a great deal!

It's basically for anyone willing to pay a bunch of money for the camps, very prestigious

Hey idiot, you wouldn't qualify even if you paid...hah ha

Eloquent way of showing how prestigious CRY is