<p>My child gave the Johns Hopkins Talent Search Test and scored very high and invited to an award ceremony. Can anybody tell me whether this is prestigious and worth attending the ceremony??</p>
<p>Well, at the end of the day it won’t get him or her into college. On the other hand, it’s nice recognition for your child. My son had the same thing and we did go to the ceremony. He got a certificate or two and a round of applause. </p>
<p>Edited to add: Even if you don’t go to the ceremony, the award is still his and can be listed on whatever resume or CV he puts together.</p>
<p>My S did this and I subsequently was the MC at our state ceremony several times. (Sometimes they send someone from JHU. Some states have more than one ceremony.) At least here, the ceremony was always held at a college or university, and there was always an interesting speaker from the school: at U Me Orono, the head of their Honors College; at Bates, a student (who was great). </p>
<p>The ceremony is intended to make kids feel good about their intellectual achievement and potential, the same way the MUCH more frequent sports “banquet” does in regard to kids’ athletic accomplishments. There area plenty of kids who go to schools where intellectual accomplishment is almost treated like a dirty secret, and the public recognition is reserved for athletes. 
The desire is to encourage them to continue.</p>
<p>If you don’t go, they will mail his certificate. There are also some special awards for the highest scoring kids in the state, so he could get one or more of those, also.</p>
<p>Is it “worth” attending the ceremony? That probably depends on whether you think your son would benefit from it, and how difficult it is for you to do so. As someone who has taken the trouble to help mount the ceremony, I can say that WE appreciated it when people showed up! :)</p>
<p>ETA: Your S is now eligible for summer CTY, which my S adored. He is also eligible to take online classes. That flexibility can make a big difference in some circumstances. It did for us.</p>
<p>Educators (elementary thru high school) in my town respect the CTY identification. My D was quite disappointed that she was unable to attend the ceremony. The CTY summer camps are also quite highly regarded around here. My D & I did several of the family summer trips (which we <em>loved</em> – in fact, one was her high school graduation gift.) I wish she had opted to attend one of the summer camps, but she had other priorities – either horse camp or musicals. She did, however, take a couple of their online courses which were excellent. None of it’s cheap, but at least it’s <em>really</em> good quality.</p>
<p>S did two of the summer CTY courses. The first one was excellent; the second one less so, but still good.</p>
<p>My kids did not bother to attend the ceremonies. (I did ask if they wanted to go.) The oldest went to three courses - they were all very good, though the last one (Fast-paced High school chemistry) I think is much less interesting than the ones where they delve into subjects that aren’t covered elsewhere. I was really impressed with what he learned in Cryptography, and especially the Game Theory course. (Math he didn’t see again until he took quantum mechanics, but he also learned about the Cuban missile crisis and price wars between Apple and Microsoft.)</p>
<p>For those in the Midwest. That talent search (run by Northwestern) also has an awards ceremony- year son went a local Nobel Laureate in Physics gave a great talk including all about quarks, something discovered AFTER my science degree college years. Their summer programs and WCATY (Wis) ones were great as well. The best benefit of the summer programs isn’t the good academics but spending 3 weeks with intellectual peers.</p>
<p>Thanks to all of you for your input. Definitely I will come to a decision soon. I too very much honor the program and the courses which they offer. </p>
<p>Don’t forget to include the child whose life it is in decision making.</p>
<p>The JHU CTY awards ceremony (for certain scores on SAT or ACT) was held each year at university’s which were pretty close to our house (30 mins or less). Thus I basically told the kids (and DH) to go to their ceremonies to receive their awards. I’m a fan of ceremonies/graduations/awards because I think it that is good to honor one’s achievements out loud. And it was fun when the kids would see some of their classmates at the ceremonies as well. If it was far away, I wouldn’t invest in flying or getting a hotel or anything. No, the award is not really prestigious for college applications because kids will be doing even bigger and better things in HS than in elementary school or middle school. But I think it’s important to celebrate one’s achievements as they come and not just poo poo it because they will get even bigger achievements in the future. They receive the certificate and handshake. They have a brief academic/inspirational talk at the beginning. The college where it is being held will toss in some promotional info to make you consider their college. In the Los Angeles area, maybe 200 kids in attendance? Don’t remember how many kids were on the awards list in total (i.e. I can’t remember the number of no-shows for their award, but it was definitely a large number…maybe 30% of kids show up to collect their certificate?)</p>
<p>If kid does not go to the award ceremony, then JHUCTY will mail kid the award certificate.</p>
<p>I just remembered that the last time H volunteered at the ceremony the speaker was a professor from some other school who had taught Lady GaGa when she was a kid at CTY. H said the kids were impressed. :)</p>