Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Recommended Resources Experiences with CTY Intensive Studies Summer camp

Thanks everyone for your input - mithawk and Dandy, I really appreciate hearing from families who's children are currently attending CTY summer camp I also really appreciated the links Dandy.

I have a few more questions:

mithawk, in your dd's Fast-Paced Biology class, was there a good share of lab and project work or was it primarily lecture? The CTY site says it is supposed to be 20 hours per week of lab - is it 40 hours per week of class? 1/2 and 1/2 lab and lecture? Or more lab than lecture?

My ds is also wondering about the age range (he's a bit shy re new situations) - it sounds like they try to pair same-age kids as roommates, but he's wondering about the classes and in the dorms - were their kids from 12-17 all together? Did that work out ok? Or were the kids grouped by age in the dorms?

mithawk, did your dd get high school credit (or did she at least place out of) her local high school biology course for having attended the CTY course?

Thanks again for taking the time to answer my questions! It's much appreciated

polarbear

Just took a quick peak at the Loyola 2013 info on the link that Dandy posted - there's a note about "pre-testing" for the kids taking the Fast-Paced science classes - do y'all know anything about that, what it is, what the purpose is?

There is also a "class session" listed at night in the weekly schedule - with a morning, afternoon and evening class session - were the kids really continuing to be immersed in new material or projects/labs even in the evenings? (Note - my ds would be fine with this, but it's frying my brain a bit to think of going back to class at night too lol!).

polarbear

The classes are grouped by age and the dorms (single-sex) are grouped by class (& therefor by age).

Here's a link to a sample syllabus for Fast-Paced Biology:
http://cty.jhu.edu/summer/docs/syllabi/biol_2.pdf

Our high school will not give credit for one of the Fast-Paced courses, but the class does satisfy the pre-req for AP courses.
(CTY folks are very accessible -- and helpful -- so don't hesitate to call with questions.)

Unfortunately, due to the limited number of courses available at Podunk High, our son can't really skip the science pre-reqs, as he'd run out of course options. BUT he's still contemplating taking the chemistry or physics next summer just to be prepared. I'm hesitant to encourage that as it would likely make the sloooow pace of regular classes even more frustrating.

-- -- --

Have your daughter read through the RealCty site for a better sense of the social side of things. Each campus has its own personalities, traditions, etc.

College Confidential is another great place to search for CTY-related discussions. (Not as awesome as DITD, of course... but still handy.)

Dandy

P.S.
The more I've learned about CTY over the years, the more I've wished I knew about it back in the day. The only experiences that came close were student gov't related, but those were only for a few days at a time.

LOL, I never knew polar bears could have a southern accent ("y'all").

Anyway, speaking with D, she thinks there might have been multiple Biology classes being taught at the same time, and her impression was that the pre-test was used to create the right classroom mix (whether that means high in one class, low in the other, or an even mix across both is something she doesn't know).


Yes, they were. They really do try to cover a 1-yr course in three weeks, so it is compressed. But the students are capable of doing it.

What D really enjoyed was being with her true peers, learning fast and still having time for social activities. She couldn't wait to go back.

Having said all this, I probably wouldn't have done CTY again this summer if D weren't so interested in neuroscience. There are plenty of other camps to try nationwide. But we couldn't find another neuroscience program for a rising sophomore that we were confident would be good. For example, Brown has neuroscience in its summer program, but Brown admits 90% of all applicants, so the peer group wouldn't be the same. Likewise, there are plenty of great math camps with competitive admissions, but that's not where D wants to spend her time.

One other point I want to make is that D didn't feel there was any competition among students. They do take tests and get an evaluation, but as we found out later, they don't give out letter grades.

Hi Dandy,
thank you for the sharing. I apprecite if you could tell us about what music camps are there for young boy.
Best,