<p>My 7th grade son, who is severely allergic to tree nuts, has qualified for CTY courses this summer. I’ve just learned from a CTY staffer that the Lancaster campus (Franklin and Marshall) is nutfree. Lancaster was his first choice even before we heard this, because of the math/science emphasis, but because we were told that it’s hard for first-timers to be admitted there we also requested a course at Carlisle as a backup. </p>
<p>My anxiety level will be much lower if he goes to a nutfree campus. He’s had an anaphylactic reaction to very small amounts of nuts twice - once in a hospital during a food challenge, after test results suggested that he might have outgrown his allergy to cashews, and once last year, when he ate one butternut squash ravioli that, as it turned out, had ground walnuts in the filling. (I hadn’t thought to check the label.) That time we spent most of the night in the ER and he missed two days of school afterward. </p>
<p>Anyone have any idea what his chances are of getting into Probability and Game Theory, Mathematical Logic, or Fundamentals of Computer Science at Lancaster, session 2? His SAT scores were 640 math; 610 verbal, and he got a 690 on the STB.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about CTY but I would definitely call and tell them about his food allergies. I would hope they would take that into consideration, especially if they have gone to the trouble of maintaining a nutfree campus. See if you can talk to someone “high up” the command chain who can give you some definitive information about this. Good luck.</p>
<p>I agree that the best thing to do is to call and write (so as to have a paper trail) and discuss the nut allergy. CTY should try to accommodate children with allergies. It is best to do so right away when spots have not yet been allocated. If you have not yet sent in the application, do put this information on it very clearly so that it is not missed.</p>
<p>Definitely call, then follow-up with a letter. If they have gone to the trouble of advertising a “nutfree” campus, then they should expect to send children with documented allergies to that program.</p>
<p>Sorry, I’m an MD, I know how serious peanut/nut allergies can be, but I have to confess when I read the title, I thought here comes another political post - I was thinking of a different kind of nut ;).</p>
<p>Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. We have already applied, and made the early (2/11) deadline. They are not advertising the nutfree (at least tree-nut-free, cangel!) campus. I only heard about it when I called to ask whether a campus with disrupted food service would be a problem for a child with allergies. I was told that Franklin and Marshall is nut-free, so my impression is that the nutfree situation is fortuitous. In fact, I was not able to find any confirmation of the nutfree campus either on the CTY website or the F&M website.</p>
<p>I asked the woman who gave me the information whether I should call the director of the Lancaster site to ask that my son be given priority. She told me that she was the head of the medical disability committee. She asked me to fax her a letter from the allergist (I’m still waiting for it), and I will include a written request that my son be placed in one of the Lancaster courses. She was quite nice and helpful, but from what she said, this information will not change the priority for class assignment. </p>
<p>I also sent an email request to the registration office (as suggested by this woman), and they replied, pointing out that one of the requests (the 4th of 4) was for Carlisle and suggesting that I remove it if I really don’t want my son to go anywhere but Lancaster. This puts me in a difficult situation. It never occurred to me that a nutfree campus might be available, and I was willing to send him anyway. He is very responsible about his allergies, and never takes a chance of eating anything questionable. I had checked that both campuses had nearby emergency rooms, and I knew based on what I’d heard from many other parents that CTY is reliable about supervising and caring for the students. If I remove the Carlisle choice, he might not be placed at all.</p>
<p>blossom, did your son or daughter mention that the campus was nut-free?</p>
<p>Personally, I’d remove it. When my S finally agreed to attend a similar program at Duke, he was a week late. We called to see about availability of his 3 top choices, and they were already full. The director told us which classes still had space, so S locked into one of those. I’d suggest you make the campus the top priority, and encourage S to learn about a field outside his ‘norm’.</p>
<p>I don’t know about the entire campus–Franklin and Marshall rents its facility to a few sports camps at the same time so there’s a lot going on… but my son’s hall was nut free; the RA’s had training from the medical director before the kids arrived; he was told not to consume nuts on his day off. Could have just been that his hall was reserved for the kids w/allergies? The folks in Baltimore are your best bet for info-- F&M is really just the landlord.</p>
<p>My understanding is that returning students get the first dibs when they run through the requests. You are in the early pool so that should help. Then they weight by scores of the new students, your son’s are pretty good, just guessing but he’s probably middle of the pack there. I’d say his chances are good, especially since he’s going for the second session. My daughter was a first timer last year, with lower scores, and got her first choice, using the February application deadline. Good luck.</p>
<p>Lancaster (Franklin and Marshall) CTY was technically nut free last summer. They were very strict about it in the dorms and cafeteria. However, my son, ever the stickler for details, did note that there were candy bars with nuts for sale in the bookstore which, of course, is run by F&M not CTY. There were also several off-campus shopping trips to local convenience stores and the farmer’s market — not sure if they enforce no-nut products when students buy things to consume there. However, I have found the staff and RA’s to be very aware and responsive to individual attendee issues, so I think you do not have to worry too much.</p>
<p>In terms of registration, science and math classes fill up first and are the most difficult to get into, especially at Franklin & Marshall which is a very popular campus. The humanities and writing classes don’t usually book up as fast and my son has not had any problems getting the humanities classes he wanted for the past two years. If your son is open to including humanities and writing classes on his course request, he should get into at least one of his choices. Even if your son doesn’t get into any class on the first round (rare), they usually have openings in at least some classes, and they will let you know which ones in April or May. My son says that the “crafting the essay” class in particular is one that usually has openings in the second session.</p>
<p>Carolyn’s right. He needs to remove any other campus choice and fill the form with all Lancaster choices that he would be content taking. My son did his last CTY Summer Program at Lancaster and had his “care package” taken away from him because we had no idea peanut butter was contraband (and I teach for CTY–just never at Lancaster). Because test scores dictate placement ( as well as whether one is a returning student), it’s not first-come, first-served, so he needs to just meet the deadine and make sure he adds lots of choices ALL at that site.</p>
<p>If they do it the way they have in the past, they will send you a form a few weeks after they have processed your request asking you to double check your course picks. You can make additions and changes at that point if you want to add the humanities/writing courses or just change everything to Lancaster. </p>
<p>To be honest, I think it pretty much doesn’t matter what kids take at CTY. It is the experience of being there that kids enjoy and learn from more than the particular class they end up in. And, being in one of the humanities/writing classes can open new horizons. My son was a math/science type of kid until he decided to try Ancient Greek at CTY. It opened up a whole new world of interests for him and he never listed another math/science class on his CTY course request — didn’t this year either. I think it’s terrific, because he has plenty of chances to do math/science at school, but not many chances to really delve into classics or philosophy so he might never have known how much he would enjoy those subjects if he hadn’t been exposed to them at CTY.</p>
<p>I’m going to talk to my son about removing the Carlisle course. I agree that the humanities courses are great, too. I had originally identified at least four that I think my son would have loved, Ancient Greek among them. But when we were making choices, he refused to consider anything other than math or science. I’m going to talk to him again. Crafting the Essay is out of the question; he would consider it torture and, to be frank, so would I! (I’m a physicist and hate writing papers and grant proposals.)</p>
<p>I’m surprised that they don’t make it clear that the campus is nutfree. Not only is the information unavailable to those for whom it is important, but it seems a bit unfair to the other kids not to warn them about the restrictions at that campus ahead of time.</p>
<p>NYMom, Yes, I was also surprised that they didn’t make it clear. In fact, we didn’t know about it until we showed up on opening day with peanut butter jar in hand. It might have been somewhere in the materials they sent, but it wasn’t particularly emphasized and nearly everyone seemed surprised by it. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t force your son to take a humanities class – just let him know that if he only wants math/science he may not go, but if he broadens his options, he’s more likely to go this year and then be ranked higher for course choices as a returning student next year. And, my son feels the same about Crafting the Essay — but he wants to go to both sessions this year so badly (it’s his last CTY year) that he’s willing to put up with it if he has to. :)</p>
<p>A note about Probability and Game Theory - my son took that course, and he had completed Geometry by then but not Algebra II. The course description at that time said Algebra I (don’t know what it says now) but the class presumed knowledge of more complex algebra. It turned out well, as the TA took the younger ones aside and gave them remedial work to catch up - by the last week they had caught up and had learned tons of math very quickly.</p>
<p>The course itself was very interesting, and since then he wins 100% of the time at the connect-the-dots game (surely an important life skill).</p>
<p>His roommate had a severe allergy to peanuts - my son didn’t know about this in advance, and he had brought some small odds and ends in a large Planter Peanuts can. His roommate freaked when he saw it and the RA promptly removed the offending item. I seem to remember that they then cautioned everybody about nut allergies that night at orientation. The roommate survived.</p>
<p>That’s a good point, Carolyn, about putting down humanities courses to ensure that he gets in at all this year. He is very focused on the Probability and Game Theory class, though. This is how I ended up findng out about the nutfree campus. My son wanted to request that course at every possible campus. I called to find out whether Skidmore’s food service disruption would be a problem for him. </p>
<p>A couple of weeks ago he got into trouble in English class when his teacher caught him writing down math symbols during class. My son was thinking about how to calculate probabilities of success with various strategies in a board game, Axis and Allies, that he has started to play recently. He made up his own notation, and was figuring some things out when his teacher caught him. He wants to take the course really badly.</p>
<p>Thanks for the information, yulsie. The catalog does specify Algebra I, and his teacher has already faxed a letter documenting his enrollment in an accelerated 8th grade class that covers it, as well as a bit of geometry. I’ll let him know that he may want to do an EPGY course between now and then to beef up his skills.</p>
<p>He might enjoy the Logic class under humanities. Not math, of course, but very rational in terms of thinking and dissecting arguments. My son has that as his backup this year. I suspect, however, that he won’t have a problem getting into the Game Theory/Probability class - it seemed to be a smaller group the two years that my son has been at CTY. Good luck!!</p>
<p>Thank you, Carolyn. I’m going to suggest it. He is doing the Mock Trial club after school, and loves it. He considers it more intellectually stimulating than most of his classes. The Logic course must be similar. </p>
<p>We have only a couple of days to add course requests, and there are a number of humanities courses I know he’d enjoy. I wish I could be confident of his getting into the Prob/Game Theory course at JHU. I learned from one of the site directors that last year there were two courses of 15 students each. My impression was that that was the limit; the course was filled. I did ask about the grade distribution, and there were a number of 7th graders. So if things work out similarly this year, he’ll have a chance. I’ll just have to hope that not too many first-timers with higher SAT scores request that course. At Carlisle there was only one section, and only 7-8 kids.</p>