My child, current 9th grader, qualifies for the Intensive Studies. I’ve generally heard great things about CTY generally. Wondering whether the Intensive Studies are a better experience than Academic Explorations, or vice versa. I know it depends on the course and kid, but just wondering if others have had experience with both types of programs or heard of others who have. Thanks.
No kids to speak of, but I went to CTY (Intensive Studies) at Skidmore a few summers ago and have nothing but good things to say! I’ve never done Academic Explorations so I’m not sure about the academic differences, but socially the traditions CTY is known for (themed dress-up days, rituals at dances, Passionfruit) are a bigger deal at the Intensive Studies sites than at the Academic Exploration ones. That’s a huge positive as far as I’m concerned, but it depends on the kid.
For what it’s worth, I never felt overwhelmed or stressed out about the workload; there really wasn’t any homework and we spent a lot of time doing fun activities and just hanging out. The website realcty dot org has a lot more information about the different sites and traditions.
That’s a new distinction. The courses my kid took are all still listed as “Intensive Studies”. All the academic exploration courses seem to be at colleges that didn’t offer CTY when my kids were young - so I can imagine they may have fewer traditions. I know my son did not feel stressed by the work at all. He played a lot of chess and frisbee.
My D attended a CTY Intensive Studies class for two summers. The best thing about it was the pace of the class, which moved quickly because everyone was capable of learning quickly. If your child would enjoy that, then I recommend staying with Intensive Studies.