Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums THINKING BIG About Gifted Education John Hopkins CTY Program

My son who is in 8th grade qualified for CTY Intensive Studies Summer Programs, humanities and writing courses and CTYOnline (distance education) courses in writing, language arts, humanities, foreign languages. My questions is how these courses will help him in future? Do they count as credits for high school or college? Is it worth the money? Does anyone has any personal experience with this program>
Please help as we are very new to this gifted high potential arena. Thanks

DD17, now a freshman in college, did JHU-CTY Intensive studies for three summers in high school (summers after 9th, 10th, and 11th grades). The three classes she took were Neuroscience, Cognitive Psychology, and Ethics.

Your mileage may vary, but here are our experiences.


Help in the future:

She feels her Neuro and Psych classes both helped in achieving a 5 on the AP Psychology exam (as a side note, she taught the neurology chapter to her AP Psych class).

The Neuroscience class helped prepare her for our local university's brain bee. She finished second in 11th grade, and won it her senior year - qualifying her for the national brain bee.

The papers she wrote for all of her classes were her first, true research type papers and were critiqued by college level instructors.


Credits: After discussing with them first, her high school did award her credit for each of the three classes. I don't believe any colleges would award credit, but since JHU-CTY is fully accredited, DDs HS had no issue granting it.


Is is worth the money? For us, unquestionably yes.

Our DD gained confidence in her abilities, received high quality instruction, and found a reassurance that neuroscience was a path she wanted to continue exploring.

Probably the biggest shocks were how ecstatic her time there was and how she came back a different, more confident person. I would never have considered her unhappy before, but at the intensive studies camps she finally met and hung out with true peers. For the first time in her academic career, she felt reasonably close to being a "normal" kid. She still keeps up with some of her summer friends via social media.

Initially, DW and I had thought JHU-CTY would be a one and done for DD, but after her first year's experience, we immediately started budgeting for the next year.


Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions.

Best of luck,
--S.F.

A few years ago, my D did two courses during the summer between freshman and sophomore year: Neuroscience and Genetics. Like SFrog above, my D loved her peer group at CTY.

In addition, the the Neuroscience class really resonated with her. The following three summers she performed neuro research internships at local universities in the Boston area. Her common app essay was about her interest in both art and neuroscience, and I believe this research and how she described it helped her a great deal in terms of college admissions.

She is now at UChicago, and she still feels that her peer group at CTY was a bit stronger than her college peers, despite UChicago students having some of the highest test scores anywhere.

Congratulations! Yes some of the intensive studies classes carry 0.5 or 1.0 HS credit, JHU-CTY posts a list somewhere. Ultimately your local school decides if they will accept those credits or not. JHU-CTY provides letters and info for the schools. Our DS qualified last year for Intensives Studies. Even though we heard wonderful things about the program my wife and I were very nervous about the whole thing. I could write at length about DS son’s experience. I’m sure everyone’s experience varies, but for us it was everything we could have hoped for and more in terms of his academic experience and his being on his own for 3-weeks. DS has a few opportunities this summer including a local college and DE summer program. I wouldn’t have thought I’d say this (a year ago) but he’ll be going back to CTY this summer.

Our daughter did a couple of the Academic Explorations sessions when too young to do the Intensive Studies. The final year there she met a girl who is now her best friend.

They roomed together last summer for the Intensive Studies completing two sessions back to back. They studied Logic: Principles of Reasoning the first session and Mathematical Logic the second. They enjoyed both classes.

Our daughter has had a blast and has made many other friends with whom she is still in touch with. The program traditions vary depending on the campus and the kids have a lot of fun with them. There are lots of insider jokes, canon songs and a jolly good time is had by most. She will not do 2 session back to back again this year as she missed being able to 'just have a summer'.

The Humanities program has been getting less traditionally academic over the years e.g. Classical Greek and Latin are no longer offered which sucks because the best way to learn a language is with intense immersion - and a lot more fun can be had with fellow geeks in and out of the classroom.

However they still offer some fantastic classes - our daughter is looking forward to doing it again this year and tackling the Fast Paced High School Chemistry.

Gifted kids whose residential areas and B&M schools are less geek intensive will likely find their 'tribe' there. The campus is very secure so for the only time in a given year your kid will be surrounded by peers that want to grok things. This was very clear last year at the campus bookstore buying the course books, we were surrounded by kids whose glee was palpable to be going 'back to school'. This was just after the start of summer recess when most kids experience glee for the opposite reason!

The only downside of the program is its cost but I have heard that they do offer assistance to families in straitened circumstances so that their talented kids can still attend.

Hello!
Due much in part to the feedback I received here, DS13 (then DS 12) attended Intensive Studies last summer in between 7th and 8th grade. He did Intro to Biomedical Sciences. Just about everything stated above was true for our DS as well. My DS really found his tribe there. It was also a great experience for him to have to manage himself. He wanted to make sure he got into the bathroom early enough not to encounter the rush to shower, etc. So he figured out how to get himself up early enough to get in his shower, do that stuff, get over to the nurse to take his allergy meds (very regimented there about that), and be at breakfast on time. He also did his own laundry and just had to be a little more grownup. It was very noticeable when he got home that it matured him a bit. Like others, we were planning on that being the only time, given the cost, etc., but he will be going back this summer to do Fast Paced HS Biology. I understand he can apply for credit in high school when he starts his freshman year this fall. I do dearly wish that Neuroscience was offered in southern California because he really wanted to take that.
I especially loved the closing ceremonies in which the different sections held up signs cheering on their particular classes, "Yeah Fast-Paced Chemistry", "Whooo Model UN", "Logic Rocks!" For a kid like mine who is a little off the beaten track, it was great. The RAs were very pleasant as well and kind to all. They planned fantastic outings or events for the kids to join in on. The other nice thing was that the kids in his RA group were the same kids in his class so they could all walk over together
Good luck!!

I'll add to the list of great experiences at CTY's summer program. My DD14 went to Carlisle last year and had extraordinary experiences, both academically and socially. While she's in accelerated/honors programs in school, she's still carrying 98-100 grades in every course. So being in a math class, her strong suit (Probability and Game Theory) and running into problems she couldn't solve, and seeing a few other students who could, was eye opening.

She was truly among kids "like her", with similar outlooks, challenges, etc. The instructor was also fantastic - former Williams/Harvard professor with top RateMyProfessor grades. She cried when the session was over and has kept in touch with all of her friends - they're already coordinating plans for this summer.

I consider most of the programs enrichment, not acceleration. Game Theory, Microeconomics, Cryptography, etc., aren't HS courses that she can/needs to place out of or get credit for. She does have the option of Fast-paced Physics after 10th grade to skip Honors and take AP Physics as a Junior. We've already had that conversation at school. But if she prefers something else that summer, that's fine.

Being responsible for herself for 3 weeks, including laundry, planning, time management, etc., made an obvious difference. She also understands there are options other than being the best at what is offered at school. She now looks for challenges to continue to grow. We found a local math club, where she's learning college-level math from grad students, sitting next to a member of last year's US Math Olympics team. Being one of the younger kids, she's probably in the lower third of ability, but looks forward to it every Sunday.

Yes, it's expensive. But I believe the investment in a child with high potential is very worthwhile.

I wanted to continue a line of thinking that was in another topic, but under a non-descriptive title.

I'm concerned about CTY and wonder if anyone is closer to the program and has any information.

They have cancelled the Grand Ceremony the last 2 years, and the regional ceremonies at least this year, if not earlier. My "Talent Search" fees for the last 2 years were basically for nothing.

The last issue of the Imagine magazine was the last to be published.

Today, I received an email that the Executive Director of the program was leaving.

As I stated in the other thread, I hate to be pessimistic, but the data points seem to be getting worse and worse. I lost the local CMITES program 4 years ago - I'd hate to see this one go away.

Summer program schedules typically come out in the 2nd half of December - I'll be interested to see if they appear.

I don't have any insider knowledge, but the documents attached to the new executive director search are here, including some financials:
https://cty.jhu.edu/director-search/index.html

Summer schedule and registration process is up, so at least that's going.

I received a reply to an email last week that there was no decision on a 2017-2018 Grand Ceremony, then a newsletter 2 days later that it has formally been cancelled for the 2nd year in a row. (I find it hard to believe they made the decision and put together the newsletter in the intervening 2 days).

DD14 received a Grand Ceremony certificate in the mail today - I guess they aren't even bothering with medals this year. A waste of Talent Search registration fees, 2 years in a row.

Hopefully a new Director will improve the process for future gifted kids.