<p>…because I’ve seen numerous mentions to CTY on various threads. So who are you? Are your kids now in college, still of CTY age, or somewhere in-between?</p>
<p>My S, a HS freshman, will return to CTY again this summer. CTY is the reason there won’t be as much money in his college fund as there should be, but he enjoys it so much, and grows so much there, off he goes. (I once added up how much $$$ CTY will have gotten from my little family by the time S is done. And then fell over.)</p>
<p>I’m a CTY parent. My D tested in the 7th grade. She wanted to go, so we paid for it. It was the best thing we could have done for her - she was having difficulty “fitting in” during middle school and CTY proved to her that there were people out there “weirder” than her, LOL.</p>
<p>She was upset when she turned 17 and couldn’t do it anymore.</p>
<p>Oh, there are lots of us here… Both D’s went to CTY…D1 (the major science/math geek) went all 4 years; it was a life changing experience and worth every bit of its cost. D1 is a freshman physics and astronomy major at UMD. On her FIRST day on a campus that many dismiss because of its size, she ran into one of her CTY ROOMMATES in the bookstore!!! D2 went for 2 years (when her sister also went)…she was more of a humanities person… Both still keep in touch with several of the people they met there.</p>
<p>D2 stopped going because she was doing some heavy-duty travel during the summers. Last year she and her dad went to Peru for >3 weeks; this summer they’re headed to Africa for >4 weeks. She’s a more social person in general… She really enjoyed CTY, but it wasn’t the earth-moving experience that it was for her sister, I don’t think… </p>
<p>It actually made moving into the dorms much easier, having those 3-week living-in-a-dorm experiences in years past. Every once in a while there’s a CTY pros/cons thread that comes through CC. I’m a fan!</p>
<p>My D, now a sophomore in college, did CTY for four summers, until she aged out. It was a transformative experience for her, socially. She didn’t have many friends in school, and suddenly she was surrounded by, as she put it, “my fellow nerds”. She has stayed in very close touch with many of them, and they have CTY ‘reunions’ on a regular basis. I can’t say enough good things about the program. Oh, and she really enjoyed the courses, too!</p>
<p>My S did CTY for four summers and loved it. He is currently a third-year student at UC Berkeley majoring in political science and history.</p>
<p>My S#1 attended CTY for 6 summers, and it was truly a life changing experience for him. It was the only time when he could learn at his own pace, very quickly. He is currently a 1st year Ph.D. student and aspires to teach at CTY one of these years. :)</p>
<p>My older son did it three times. He did Probability and Game Theory at the St. Mary’s College of Md. location, Cryptography at Franklin and Marshall, and Fast Paced High school chemistry at Siena College. He had a great time. When we were looking at colleges for real, he would say, “I don’t know why they show us the dorms - they all look exactly the same.” But he’s ended up with something ten time bigger than anything he stayed in at CTY.</p>
<p>Younger brother - “why would I want to go to school in the summer?”</p>
<p>S attended CTY at UC-Santa Cruz and Sienna College and is now at Amherst. It was a transformative experience.</p>
<p>D qualified for CTY but after doing a snail mail mentor program- we decided that her school supplied her with enough challenge. Summers she didn’t do academics but worked.
However, at her college- I think there were lots of CTY kids-</p>
<p>Youngest of my four kids will have his first CTY experience this summer. My kids all did it and loved it. Yes, they run into CTY kids in college which is nice.</p>
<p>My daughter’s a CTY nut- 1 year of Baby CTY and then 3 more years, including one double session. Interestingly, her favorite session was her last year at JHU - long perceived as one of the strictest sites! She’s now a HS junior looking at colleges. She stopped CTY before she aged out, opting for our state’s governor’s school instead. Easier on the pocketbook!</p>
<p>My S did four years and my D will do her 4th year this summer, all at F&M. It was the highlight of their years. My S is now at Columbia, keeps in touch with a few CTY kids. My D has a large CTY network that she communicates with all winter. We have also done a couple of the day workshops, like the Nanotech one from last Fall.
For my S, it was truly a life changing experience because he had the social problems many boys have in middle school, and finally found many people like him. He was able to run through Alg 1 after 7th grade, and accelerate in Math. D took Geom after 8th and also jumped ahead.
I highly recommend it, especially for those who feel like they just don’t fit in school.</p>
<p>My D, now a college freshman, did Dickinson for two years; it would have been three, but she was was hospitalized with colitis the middle summer. By exposing her to important ideas (psychology and ethics) as well as to other students who were a bit quirky like she is, it was a wonderful experience. She wears her lanyard braided around her wrist to this day and keeps in touch with some via Facebook. A couple of her acquaintances are at her college, but the most interesting thing was that she ran into others during our college Road Trip to UChicago and Carnegie-Mellon.</p>
<p>Seems to be something about the CTY experience, hmm? My S is also crazy about it. He’s been to Siena, Skidmore, and Dickinson, and will add F&M to the list this summer. He also did a couple of baby CTY sessions (day camps) and we’ve been to the one-day things several years in a row, but didn’t make it to the nanotech one, darn it! He’s also used the distance learning for math.</p>
<p>Because of where his birthday falls and when he started school, he could be a five-year freak. I love CTY for him, but I’m kind of hoping he looks at other things to do during the summer as he gets older. He’s been double-sessioning the whole time (thank goodness his dad and I share the cost). He’ll be eligible even after his junior year, and I’m thinking maybe he should do something else for at least part of that summer if not the whole summer. </p>
<p>He hasn’t in the past felt he’s fit into school; that seems to be getting better.</p>
<p>But as many CTYers say, CTY=home.</p>
<p>My son went twice, and my daughter is about to go for the second time. They both took Music Theory, which has turned out to be extremely useful to them.</p>
<p>I did not do CTY, nor did any of my friends, but I did go to a leadership camp last summer that was at the same college (Loyola Marymount) as one CTY. </p>
<p>It was definitely a little surreal to see a whole bunch of young teenagers and pre-teens strutting around campus behind their counselors, toting huge bags of laundry and quarters, before they went off to their dancer party on the quad complete with Hannah Montana (I really thought that was younger kids…)</p>
<p>However, any time I ran into those kids they just seemed so happy and so glad to be there with a bunch of other kids just like them. Everyone seemed to be having a good time and generally getting along. While I opted for more “traditional” forms of summer camp, I can understand why some kids would want to do the “college thing.” </p>
<p>Way to go, CTY kids and parents.</p>
<p>PS: I was at LMU when Harry Potter 7 came out. The CTY crowd basically camped out at the bookstore the night before and then spent all the next morning/afternoon/free time reading it. Quite a sight, that’s for sure!</p>
<p>My D is an 8th grader and 1st year CTY’er. She qualified for the classes, but we are very busy this summer, so maybe next year. :)</p>
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<p>D took her 4 years’ worth of lanyards, braided them together, and keeps her keys and college ID on it. It’s very colorful, and she never misplaces it!</p>
<p>How does CYT compared to Duke’s TIP? I live in the south and TIP seems to be more common. Has anyone been to both?</p>
<p>TIP is more common in the south. I don’t know if it is as quirky as CTY?</p>
<p>One of my favorite CD’s is a mix that my D made me… It’s got lots of music they play at CTY Music, as well as the “CTY Canon”.</p>