Personally, I have seen kids take very challenging material (such as full-length SAT and ACT tests) and perform very well starting from the eight grade. However, I can with full certainty say that it is not necessary. There have also been kids who have started just a summer before taking the exam as a junior in high school and perform very well. Overall, it is all about the student’s independent capacity for information.
My older boys did the JHU-CTY “SCAT” in elementary and the SAT in 7th grade. My youngest tried the SCAT but didn’t do that well and we haven’t thought yet about if he should try again now that he knows how to read a lot better than he did in 1st grade.
For DS1 it was most useful as “ammunition” for more math acceleration in elementary/middle school, as others have mentioned.
For DS2, who scored in the top “rank”(?), we got a really neat prize: DS2 can take a free summer school course at BU anytime before his 12th grade year. I think it has to be after a certain grade (?) but in any case, he’s considering using it this summer (entering 10th) for a math elective that wouldn’t be available in regular school. I believe there are equivalent programs at several universities around the country and kids are assigned to the closest one.
I’ve heard wonderful things about the CTY classes and camps, but they were never in our budget so far. If DS2 needs a class there, I think we’ll consider it again.
I’m also a big skeptic about things like “Who’s Who” and other weird alleged talent searches, but these (TIPS/CTY/similar) seem to be the real deal. Part of the appeal to me, and the evidence that it’s not a scam, is that there’s no charge to join except for the test. - ETA I see that there does seem to be a program fee, and I’m not sure if there always was. So I guess that will not be a pro anymore 
My son did the CTY talent search in 7th grade. At the time, it was just for testing experience and, I’m ashamed to say, for his ego. He is really busy during the summer so has never been able to do the residential courses. However, last summer he did the pre-calculus course online because he wanted to skip pre-calc at school and go into Calc I as a sophomore. He needed an online course due to his summer activities. The course was GREAT! He really got a lot out of it. It was pricey but worth it for him.
Son did Duke Tip in middle school, and much like the other posts, it was a confidence boost and helped by making tests less stressful high school. I’d recommend it.
He took a single Duke TIp course on Game Theory with some college students, it was fun, but not life changing. I wouldn’t recommend the classes.
Anecdotally, many of his classmates at Princeton did TIP, CTY etc…
My impression is that the main downside to these programs were the cost. I really wanted to go to one of these programs when I was in those grades, but my family could not afford it. So I spent most of my summers volunteering and just hanging out with friends. Looking back I after now holding down a job I am wowed by how much they cost
Yes, pricey, but they do have scholarships.
In some districts, the talent search programs in middle school open new opportunities locally, during the regular academic year. This may especially be true if there is a college or university nearby. Depending on the state, the local school district may cover the tuition, or a significant part of it. This works nicely for students who may have summer activities planned, other than CTY. Also, the additional opportunities may not be pre-advertised–that is, they may only be advertised after the talent search has already been held for the year.
I did CTY when I was younger. I took the ACT in 7th or 8th grade, and then participated in camps in the summers before and after 9th grade. I loved it. It introduced me to people my age from all around the country. What I liked about it was that it gave you exposure to academic areas you might not be able to take in middle school and high school. With the diversity of majors increasing, but the curriculums in high school staying the same I think it’s really helpful. My second CTY showed me that I was incredibly interested in political theory, which is something I might not have discovered otherwise.
Pros for me: I realized that not everybody says “Hella” hahaha. I learned a lot. I also met amazing people, and have maintained friendships with some people all over North America.
Cons: I did a self-paced mathematics class for my first one - I barely did any work I mostly goofed off.
From the posts I see no real cons. The cost is nothing compared to so many other expenses parents are willing to incur for so many things (eg think of cell phones and bills). The whole morning spent is a one shot (or two if different tests are taken in different years) deal- remember that there is no time spent with test prep. The test scores taken years later will be much higher as the child matures and has a better knowledge and skills base.
The results give good information about where your child places among the gifted- setting aside speculation and misplaced ideas. The information about what to do with the results is valuable. This is important because you not only find out where your child is among the nation’s top kids but actual things you can do at your local level to help your child.
It does not matter if your child ever attends any special programs (and necessary to do so). You get a snapshot of where your child fits into the entire country, not just your school district. Well worth the money spent instead of so many other things we buy.
The results will not need to be at all public/known. But- having a gifted child labeled as such is good for meeting the needs.
I would imagine that for low-income people it’s disappointing because they can’t afford it - that could be a bit of a con.
CTY financial aid is targeted to low income people.
Oh is there financial aid for CTY? I honestly didn’t know!
In that case then I don’t see any cons.
I suppose that there’s probably people who are in the whole “everybody deserves an award for no reason” camp who might be offended that their kid isn’t as smart as somebody elses, but that’s kind-of a personal problem.
These programs at Duke and JHU are very expensive compared to the summer courses offered at your local universities. I wonder why parents would spend that money on TIP, CTY, etc while you can get the same learning much cheaper locally. Do parents think that going to these expensive summer programs give their kids a leg up in getting into the elite colleges?
DS17 took the “SCAT” test for CTY in 7th grade (and also in 2nd or 3rd). Logistically it was easier for him to take the SCAT than the SAT. (It was only an hour long, we could schedule it whenever, and though it was out of town, it was around the corner from his favorite LaserTag place.)
With no prep, he hit the ceiling on the math part of the SCAT and also got a “grand” level, whatever that is, on the verbal part. But, other than a brochure with some histograms, we didn’t know much about what the score meant other than making him eligible for their programs.
In retrospect, we probably should have had him take the SAT or ACT back then so that he’d have a score the schools could relate to. No one outside of CTY has heard of the SCAT.
We never had him go to any of the CTY camps or take any of their online classes. (He took AoPS classes instead.) He wasn’t especially interested in the camps that happened to be on the West Coast, and DH didn’t want to send him away for several weeks at a young age. 7th and 8th grade didn’t have much challenge available to him as far as classes, but his high school and our local dual enrollment options have been good for him, and we didn’t need to push high scores at them to get the options he needed.
He attended a selective astrophysics program in Boulder last summer, and a number of the kids there had been to CTY camps, and some of the kids already knew each other. Now he kind of regrets not going to CTY camps, but it’s all good. He was able to take local community college classes starting the summer after 8th and did a research program at our local UC the summer after 9th, so it’s not like he just sat around the summers he could have been at CTY.
@philbegas Many of the fancy summer programs have a good amount of financial aid available to low and low-mid income students.
@TimeUpJunior I think parents see this as a chance for their kids to interact socially with kids who are at a similar level. Many advanced kids are very lonely in middle school. Courses at 2-year and 4-year universities are often not open to 7th-9th graders. While our community college classes are free, summer courses at our local UC are about $1700 for 4 units.
There is financial aid.
Time up- there are no universities within commuting distance of my home which allows middle school kids to take summer classes. Happy if your area is different.
I know families who don’t think twice about expensive programs for Lacrosse or Soccer camps but think that paying to study Renaissance History is “a waste of money”. My kids weren’t interested in sports camps and I was happy to find a program (CTY) which met their needs.
@TimeUpJunior , at least do us parents whose kids loved CTY the courtesy of reading our posts. There are plenty in this thread. We have testified over and over again that CTY was an invaluable and unique social and intellectual experience for our kids. It is emphatically NOT the “same thing” they would get from taking a class at “the local university.” If there even is a local university.
As an aside, S had to do a job shadowing thing in 9th grade. He chose to shadow his GC, who also happened to have a PhD in Philosphy from Cambridge and taught philosophy classes at a “local university.” When he came home from attending several classes, he remarked that he could see that the people in them could only follow the professor up to a point, and then he had to stop and circle back in discussion/lecture. The kids in his 8th grade CTY philosophy class were apparently more capable than they were in this intellectual arena. Not the same experience.
CTY gave S about a 50% scholarship all four years.
We weren’t thinking about bolstering his college applications. We were thinking about filling his intellectual needs.
I have taken community college courses during high school AND CTY. I completely agree with @Consolation they are not similar whatsoever. CTY is like a slice of college life but in high school. Community college as a high school student is awkward, lonely, boring 
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In 7th and 8th grade CTY summer classes are irrelevant to college admissions. We had a kid who wasn’t like any other in kid in the entire town. His idea of fun was learning things, but he’d never been in a class where he could socialize with others and have fun learning new things. (Chess camp came close as did one week of computer programming camp - which was almost as expensive as CTY and was a day program!) CTY is expensive because it’s small classes, three meals a day, and social activities geared towards the interests of gifted kids. The Lancaster site had a tradition of wearing bathrobes on Thursdays*, because that’s the kind of camp it is. Taking classes with college students is not the same experience. And although we are surrounded by colleges, there are remarkably few programs for gifted kids. My son did later in high school take a summer programming at Columbia. It wasn’t cheap either. The nearest community college for us is an hour away by public transportation.
*That’s a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy joke.
I don’t think anyone attends CTY to bolster their college application. If that were the case, there would be people there who weren’t excited about the academics and the traditions and I just didn’t see any of that. Also, not everyone has access to programming at local universities. I live in an upper middle class suburb with well-regarded public schools, but there are no dual enrollment options and the closest university doesn’t offer summer classes. Not to mention that part of what makes CTY so incredible is the ability one has to hang out with people who are also excited about learning and can do it at a faster pace.
I’m not a genius by any stretch of the imagination, so it’s not like I’m bored with everything I’m learning in school currently (hs senior,) but at CTY I felt a lot less pressure to get everything right the first time just because I wasn’t being graded. I could make mistakes throughout the learning process and that was okay. I’m not sure I’ll ever have that kind of academic environment back, and I miss it often.
I was not very specific about the summer courses at local university. I meant the classes specifically designed for middle and high schoolers. we are lucky to live in a city where our flagship state university offer summer courses in computer programming, math, engineering design, creative writing, and visual and performing art … you name it. A two-week half day Java programming costs about $500.
@Consolation You definitely have an exceptional kid.
@merething Thanks for the perspectives from a hs senior.