Does hopkins talented youth program give any benefit college acceptance or anything else?
The benefit of those kinds of programs is to allow gifted kids to spend time & make friends with other kids like themselves (which can be hard to find at home), explore personal interests in more depth, and stay academically engaged in the summer. It is also a good chance for a kid to experience being away from home for a short time in preparation for going to college.
There is no real admissions boost. But colleges expect students to be productive somehow in summers, so this is a perfectly good way to do that.
It depends. For the middle school programs not really. My son ended up doing the Fast Paced High School Chemistry the summer after his freshman year because of scheduling issues for the following year. It allowed him to take all the three major sciences at AP level in high school. The earlier programs he took - “Cryptography” and “Probability and Number Theory” introduced him to math topics that high schools don’t typically cover. That experience may have helped in get into various weekend programs he was involved in when he was in high school. (IBM lecture series one year, classes for high school students at Columbia another year.)
There are numerous threads on this subject. Look them up.
To make a long story short, MANY of us have kids who have adored the experience, which has helped them achieve their intellectual potential and made them happy and fulfilled.
You don’t do it to get into college. You do it because your kid needs a kind of intellectual stimulation that is not available in the normal HS curriculum.
My opinion is that it depends on the kid.
If your kid was enthusiastic when you told them about the program, it probably will help. If your kid would rather spend the summer finishing their Eagle Scout, or hiking the wilderness, you should let them do that. If they want to spend the summer drawing or writing or making videos, you probably should find them a summer program with a more artistic focus.
Summer programs should enhance what your kid already has, let them dive deeper into areas of interest than they get to do during the school year.
Now if your kid isn’t focused on any one area then Hopkins could be perfect for building an enthusiasm or making it clear that STEM is not for him. And if it is, you should accept that and look at other areas.
And if your kid was planning to spend the summer playing League of Legends and screaming into his computer you will do the world a favor if you shove him into something more outwardly-focused.
This is a great opportunity to let the kid have some agency and take a little bit of control of their own future. Let the kid be the final decider.
My kids did different things during their summers. After freshman year, each went on an international month-long trip as more or less the culmination of their multi-year YMCA sleep-away camp years. Great independence-learning. After that they each did a CTY-type experience (both wanted to). Was a good- not life-changing experience. Living on a college campus gives a view into that approaching world. Third summer one did SSP (selective science program in astrophysics) and the other took (real) college level courses at Cornell. Both were absolutely fantastic experiences.
None of this was done particularly for college admissions (well the last summer probably helped each one). But because we wanted a “good summer experience” for them. But agree with others if the kid wants to work as a lifeguard or camp counselor, or volunteer at a vet office, or WHATEVER, let them do it. These CTY type things are good if that’s what they want to do.
My daughter was invited to the Hopkins program in middle school (to attend between the summer of 8th and 9th grade). The invitiation came as a result of her Math score on a standardized exam. I am sure it would have been a fine experience for her, but the program was expensive and she was a travel soccer player so there was no way it would have worked. We also had a standing extended family vacation planned every summer that she didn’t want to miss. Prior to declining the invitation, I spoke with a number of other parents who had kids that were also invited. Many also had athletic kids with sports conflicts in addition to conflicts with jobs and travel plans. What I found most interesting was that they universally felt like the program (not to sound crass) was a bit of a money grab and they felt that it wasn’t worth it. Those kids that declined, like my daughter, are now in or have graduated from college and are doing very well in their careers or gradaute school. They will all tell you they were challenged in their high schools, went to excellent colleges, and several are now in med school. If your school does not provide tough enough curriculum, you have no conflicts and have the money, then maybe it would be good for your student. It just wasn’t the case for us.
My daughter decided she wanted to enroll in the CTY “History of Disease” course when she was in middle school. She wasn’t “invited” to attend, but she took it upon herself to sign up for the ACT and got scores that qualified in both math and language (both were needed for that particular course). Unlike a lot of kids in those programs, she had never really thought of herself as “smart” before that. She was just a quiet little girl with an interest in infectious disease. I think CTY changed her perception of herself in a good way; she set her goals a little higher and had more confidence in her ability to reach them after that summer. So, in answer to your question, did it help with college acceptances? I don’t think she even put CTY on her college applications. So, no, not directly. But being in the program changed how she viewed herself, which, in turn, affected the courses she chose in high school, her ECs and leadership roles, and the schools she applied to. I’m not sure she would be preparing for MCATs and considering med school now as a junior in college if she hadn’t had that early CTY experience.
Thank you all for great and insightful responses
re #6 The parents of kids who didn’t do the problem thought it was a money grab and not worth. The parents of those whose kids actually have been in CTY don’t feel that way at all. (None that I have ever heard from anyway.) The way they run the programs requires a lot of bodies and oversight. The classes are small and there are a lot of adult bodies taking care of kids after classes as well. For many kids it will be the first time they meet other kids who are scary smart and get to be surrounded by kids who think doing nerdy things like wearing bathrobes on Thursdays is funny.
Both of my girls attended CTY every summer starting after summer of 5th grade. It was incredibly important to both of them. They weren’t STEM kids so they took a variety of cool Humanities classes. My older daughter was able to take classes that fed into her obsession with medieval history.
My younger daughter also took History of Disease (Hi @elliesmom ).
For both girls, CTY was an opportunity to hang out with smart kids and to realize that the there was a broader range of smart kids than what they say in their schools.
Do it for the kid, not the resume. Different regions have different program sponsors- Midwest’s is run by Northwestern and Wisconsin (WCATY) had its own summer programs. Wonderful for kids to be with intellectual peers, the academics are secondary. Son dropped out of his WCATY AP class his third HS summer because he wanted to run and the then location was not conducive to distances. The next spring he got a 5 on that AP test.
The down side is costs. But, if the money is available it is wonderful. Bad side effect for us- upon returning one year son considered us parents stupid after spending time with his peers (we are both gifted- who did he think gave him his genes and environment???
Remember your Bell curve. Not all gifted are alike. Just being in the top 2 (whatever) percent does not mean being in synch with all. An IQ of 130 is as far removed from an IQ of 160 as 120 is to 90. Lower end gifted may be in a small percentile group but more able to cope with the average college bound kid than those mid to highly gifted whose thinking is too far ahead of anyone they encounter in their HS.
The summer programs are wonderful for knowing there are other kids out there like you and spending time with people who get it in one like you do. It is different not always being the smartest. And don’t forget some are either verbally OR mathematically gifted but not both.
For most college is where they finally connect with others who think as fast (or faster)- a state flagship will have those students.
My son qualified into the CTY program but never attended the camps. When he attended SSP, he realized that some of the kids already knew other attendees from previous CTY camps. As a result, he thought maybe he should have attended CTY back in junior high where he would have a chance to make friends who were more like him.
His high school summers were pretty full of experiences he got a lot out of, but he probably had time in the summers after 7th and 8th for CTY. Middle school was more frustratingly limited for him than high school.
He didn’t take the CTY test for an admissions boost and never listed his CTY Grand status on applications that I recall. We thought he might take their online classes, but he took AoPS classes instead.
He now has many friends at his college who are a lot like him. I’m sure there also would have been a number of students he would have connected with at our state flagship (Berkeley) or even our local UC campus.
My kid, BTW, chose to study Philosophy for 3 years, and writing the last.
I was surprised that he chose to start with Philosophy of Mind, which frankly sounded like torture to me. 
And yeah, those 7th and 8th graders were happy reading Nietzche.
As for “money grab,” he received a substantial scholarship all four years, although it was tough for us to come up with the remainder. Regarding the “invitation” : kids had to sign up to take the SAT (now the ACT also) and have the scores reported to CTY. If kids qualified, in either verbal or math or both, they were able to attend courses at any of the campuses and/or take online courses. (The qualifying scores for online classes were lower.) CTY also administered some scholarships for kids to take courses at participating colleges all over the place.
This was a very heavily staffed and very well-run program: IME they usually had a prof and a TA for each class of about 12 kids, plus an RA for about the same number of kids. The dorms were separated by gender, and kids in the same class or a similar one roomed together under the supervision of the RA. The social life was great for most kids, with weekly dances featuring the CTY Canon, strong traditions all developed by the kids themselves and passed on through the years, activities ranging from the usual–soccer, for example–to the unusual. Blanket?
@mathmom I didn’t mean to offend you. We just appear to have kids that appreciate very different things. My daughter is very bright and has always been surrounded by very bright kids who value academics and athletics. She chose to spend 75% of her summers outside, being physically active, whether it was swim team, soccer, basketball, playing with friends, going on church mission trips, working, or participating in travel soccer when she got older. She was gifted in math, though didn’t particularly enjoy it, and she took a rigorous course load in high school (including AP classes). So while the invitation for her was flattering (and I am going back 8 years), it wasn’t something that she was particularly interested in, didn’t seem to be worth the price tag, and something none of us have ever regretted. These scholar programs along with the $4000 mission trips to Costa Rica are not going to get you into college - they are merely for those that find them interesting and feel their lives can be enriched by them. An admission counselor made it crystal clear to me that she couldn’t care less if you went to Somalia or Appalachia for a mission trip. One is a heck of a lot less expensive and just as important. Just my two cents.
If your kid is profoundly gifted, look into Davidson THINK. It was hugely influential for one of my kids, best opportunity she ever had to make friends like herself before attending college.
Not offended. My younger son didn’t want to do CTY either although he had qualified. I just think it’s unfair to say it’s a money maker. They ask for donations so that they can provide scholarships - and I am happy to donate every year because it really is a life changing experience for some kids.
It was the CTY testing which made me realize what an outlier my older son was - even within the CTY test takers his scores were way over on the right hand side of that bell curve. My younger son’s were just past the middle.
@mathmom I am not saying that if you run the P&L that it would be “profitable” on paper - I am sure it’s a 501c3 which would prohibit that. Truth is - Johns Hopkins is loaded. They ask for donations because they can. They have a $3B endowment. If the board wanted to make this program a priority and affordable for all, they easily could. Having said that, if anyone feels this is a good idea for their child, go for it. The cost/benefit was just not there for us.
Univeristies may be non-profits, but they aren’t charities.
@lastone03 $4K trips? The “in” ones locally are now up to $8K-$10K and higher. And of course they send a press release to your local paper trying to make it seem like it was an honor rather than mommy and daddy paying a boatload of money thinking it will somehow get their child into “that” college (whatever “that” college is!). You are write, admissions officers long ago figured these things out.