<p>As I said earlier, there is more to being in an academic program than learning the materials. Which is why S did not want to take the CTY computer-based, individually tailored math program and took other kinds of classes. After CTY, he went to a math camp where he happily did math all day long in the company of other math-loving kids.
To us, each camp was worth the $3000. S hated the equally expensive play camp he’d been in the summer after 3rd grade. It was not about college, for pete’s sake.</p>
<p>I don’t send my kid to CTY to “enhance the child’s application.” As if enhancing the child’s application is the only reason to spend bucks on a kid! Sheeeesh!!</p>
<p>Here’s what I wrote in the forum on the CTY site after my kid’s first summer attending the residential camps:</p>
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<p>Sending my kid to CTY is one of the best things I have ever done for my kid; MIT Open Courseware is a fabulous resource, but it cannot possibly substitute for everything that CTY did for my kid.</p>
<p>YMMV, of course.</p>
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<p>In that case you should know that, unlike most other countries, your son will not have the best results if all he has to show is academic excellence. </p>
<p>You should also encourage him to excel in ways that go beyond academics. Middle school is a great time to explore extra-curricular activities- sports, music, theater, debate, community service, etc. Let your child choose what he likes and then support that. Encourage him to become independent and make his own decisions. Nurture his self-confidence. Encourage him to develop his social side. </p>
<p>The most competitive colleges are looking for academically strong students who are also interesting and mature people who will contribute meaningfully to campus life.</p>
<p>I just wanted to reiterate that you need to get your child on the right tracks in middle school, so he’s prepared to take the right classes for college preparation. That means talking to parents of middle school kids now to find out what’s well thought of. Also talk to high school parents and teachers to find out how well prepared the incoming students are. </p>
<p>For example, our middle school had two different math tracks. One set up the kids for the college prep classes and the other created a remedial class in high school. We made sure our son got in the right track, even to the point of threatening to home school him in math if he was put in the wrong track. The middle school ended up making two classes of the right track and I have no idea why they continue to use the other.</p>
<p>we do cty but what really helped in the long run is the kumon program. one took math only and that helped him become #1 ranked in the state in his grade as well as a high performing mathcounts student.
the other took both math and reading. that exposed him to books he may not have chosen on his own, helped him organize/manage his time and let him see math concepts before he sees them in class
i agree that schools track kids very early (in my area after 3rd grade if you can believe it!). from personal experience, one child was tracked into the middle program and was told tht doors were closed to him (by a teacher and by the principal) when he asked to test into a higher level after getting a big boost from kumon…they wanted him held down.we switched to a charter school where he was able to test into a more suitable placement for him.
i agree with most posters that you need at least to be aware of tracking and placement.cty can be a way to prove your child can do the work. also the poster whoo mentioned volunteering was spot in in my opinion. you know what is going on in the school and how teachers relate to teh kids. it is a lot of fun and very useful on many many levels!</p>
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<p>Arisamp: We had the same issue with our son (about to graduate college). He did not take math at CTY but was very advanced in math from reading math books voraciously.
Originally, the school did not want to advance him. But 6th grade math truly tested his patience and he was clearly acting up and beginning to show disrespect to the teacher who by then knew less math than he did (she was, however, a fabulous humanities teacher). In 7th grade, the school has specialist teachers, so we talked to the 7th grade math teacher. The teacher gave us the 8th grade math book to look over the summer. In the fall, when we told him that S had already mastered all the materials and more, the teacher gave him a precalc book. S was put together with two other 7th graders, one who was doing 8th grade math and one who was assigned precalc like my S, and one 8th grader who was doing 9th grade math. They all sat in one corner of the room while the math teacher taught the rest of the class. Essentially, they taught themselves with the help of the textbooks, the supervision of their parents or of privately hired tutors. The same thing happened in 8th grade. Except that S was doing AP-Calc BC under the supervision of a very kind retired math teacher who sent him problems via email and corrected them also via email.
Some of the advanced students were also allowed to go to the high school for advanced classes (it was within walking distance). The 7th grade science teacher warned us that 8th grade science was going to be unchallenging for S. That caused S to take the Fast-Paced High School Physics course in CTY with the result that he took AP-Physics in 8th grade, going to the high school to do so. </p>
<p>Maybe something like that could be worked out for your child? I think the school realized that students who were unchallenged could become a discipline issue.</p>