Hi,
We went to the DukeTIP awards ceremony last year and it took forever to hand out the awards. They had a small group of Explore kids with a large group of SAT/ACT kids from 7th grade. The speaker was good but there was a lot of sitting and waiting.
Even though it was a 2 hr drive I still felt like it was worth it because my child attended a small rural school and got to see that there are other kids like her, just not at her school.
Hope that helps.
Wendy