I am doing the school search/application now. Being in NYC, there are gifted options. You do have to do the test thing to qualify, but there are differences in the options. We are not looking at private options, except a Jesuit school because the privates have a DOB cut-off of 9/1 while public is 12/31.
I tour the schools, I ask questions. What I like most of the gifted schools is that your child will be with other kids that stimulate thought. And she will find friends there. This past summer at the beach, I noticed a change in DD when she played with another child, 6 months older and very smart. Before she didn't care for her, just a personality mismatch, but this summer, she sort of overlooked the personality in order to have the interactive play at her level. It was a slow, push/pull process over the summer, but by mid-summer it was noticeable how she wanted to play with the other girl and how she wanted to play. Which made me think about my playmates. My closest buddy throughout my childhood, despite very different personalities, did physics and a doctorate in nuclear engineering. She got offered classified jobs before she was 2 years into her PhD.
In my opinion, having the peer group is important.
Ren
