DD is kind of worried that if she takes a science course on something she doesn't know much about (Genetics, Engineering, etc), she will fall behind.
So from your experience, how friendly are these courses to students who don't have much prior knowledge of the topic? Or, on the other hand, are the courses too easy if someone already knows a lot (she is also considering Abnormal Psychology of Neuroscience, which she reads about all the time)?

Also, for anyone who's experienced both, would you recommend either CTY against TIP or vice versa based on the overall experience? DH favors TIP, DD favors CTY, but only by a bit, and wants to think about it a bit longer.

By the way DD got a 1920 in 7th grade, qualifying for both humanities and math/science.

For all we know, she will end up with a humanities as her top choice, and we won't even have to worry about difficulty :P