@Consolation (and others similarly situated) - sure, it may cost the same as other “good residential summer camps in Maine” - but surely you can acknowledge that those camps cost thousands of dollars and are out of reach for the parents of most kids? I don’t mean to pick on you but I think there is an attitude on this thread that these camps are affordable for all who qualify, and that’s really not the case.
@suzy100, I think I made it clear that our income was sufficiently low that S received about a 50% scholarship. We scraped up the remainder.
The list of things we didn’t have or do that most people seem to consider non-negotiable was long, such as cable tv, anything larger than a small portable on a cart (our only tv), cell phones, and more. I didn’t go to the dentist for 10 years. (Luckily I seem to have pretty good teeth. 
)
Believe me, I know that everyone can’t afford it.
“Being in the majority instead of a lonely only.”
This.
The online “Crafting the Essay” course was very useful for my son, but of course it didn’t have the interaction with other kids that occurs at the summer on-site sessions.
My D tested for CTY in elementary school and middle school. Very positive experiences. I really didn’t expect her to score particularly well. She earned excellent grades in school, but I figured this was due to grade inflation. I was completely prepared to have her score in the bottom and I was going to frame it as “it takes a bunch of really smart people to make you look dumb.” (I would have tried to phrase that a little better, I think, had I needed to do this.) She took online writing courses in elementary school & middle school. When she received the first packet (as a 6th grader), I looked at the assignment and truly believed that I had just wasted hundreds of dollars – she wasn’t going to understand the instructions and would fail miserably. Just call me clueless… She needed no help at all with understanding the instructions, and leaped into every new assignment.
She opted out of any of the summer camps – she focused instead on community theater during the summers. But we did take several of the family trips: Digging for Dinosaurs in CO, studying Marine Biology in Scotland, time in Australia, and something in Wyoming. These vacations worked very well for us. I’m divorced and found it very stressful being the lone responsible adult when vacationing on our own. By vacationing with CTY, I wasn’t responsible for the arrangements and got to socialize with some really wonderful parents while my D made instant friends with the other kids.
If I had a do-over, I would probably have signed her up for an online math course instead of (or perhaps along with) the writing course. She has a good head for math, but I really had to fight the school system to get her placed into Algebra 1 in 8th grade, and it might have served her better to help her become all-over strong instead of focusing on her area of strength. (Though gifted, she was not a stellar student.) Having the CTY experience and the test scores helped a bit with self-esteem issues and gave a positive spin for the misery of alienation during high school.
CTY courses sound wonderful but I should not get ahead of myself and certainly l don’t think I have an advanced kid. After reading some posts on other threads I’m more curious to see what the test reveals and don’t want to see hidden issues to appear in HS like LD as school so far seems easy to him (little homework done at home).
CTY gives scholarships to reduce fees for low income students too.
Another CTY supporter here. We were only able to afford one summer camp experience, but it was truly a highlight for our son. Wish we could have sent him for a few more years.
He took the SAT in middle school cold, which is how it is supposed to be taken for these programs. The idea of spending a lot of money on prep defeats the purpose which is to find the kids who can figure out how to answer at least some of the questions about material they have not been exposed to.
Of the kids I know that did the summer programs, all really liked them but the price is high, and not sure the financial aid is all that good for middle class families. Otherwise, my kids did short stints at Y camps and 4H camps that were much more affordable. The one that went to CTY, however, would not have done well at the Y camp.
Remember people that taking the tests is not only for being eligible for summer camps. Knowing where your child sits on the gifted continuum is valuable information. Getting information on what can be done, by your school district, to help your child is well worth the time and expense of one test. Grades do not always reflect ability. Gifted students can be bored and not engaged in schoolwork. Finding out the actual abilities- beyond that glass ceiling of grade level testing- can help in meeting your child’s needs. It can also offer ammunition when facing schools that do not realize your child’s true abilities.
Should your child be doing X instead of Y, have exceptions to general rules made… Having an outside evaluation through the various regional testing programs means a lot more than a parent’s statements. One size does not fit all for gifted kids. An IQ of 130 is vastly different than an IQ of 150 or higher just as happens on the low end of the Bell curve. We were fortunate that our blue collar city’s school district had good gifted and talented coordinators who developed good criteria. There’s a pyramid model- most gifted kids (again think of the Bell curve numbers) do fine with what is usually offered while there will be those few students who have extraordinary needs. This testing can differentiate those students.
My daughter participated in Duke TIP for several weeks for two summers and a similar program at Vanderbilt VSA for several weeks for two summers. Both were very positive experiences for her. She loved “nerd camp.” She was surrounded by kids that were academically motivated, and she made friends from all over the country. She was able to gain independence, experience life on a college campus, and study areas of interest in depth.
If anyone were like me several months ago wondering if a middle schooler should participate in the academic talent search I now can say absolutely yes. It was a good experience for both kid and me.
Before the test date my son never did a timed practice other than went though a full test over a week or two without checking what he did right or wrong. On the test day when I picked him up at the end I wondered if he was exhausted after hours of testing. To my surprise he was so excited, saying he did really well, i.e., he finished all the questions.
He got a composite ACT score in the mid 20’s which represents what he’s learned at school by the end of 7th grade. He thinks he can ace the test when he’s older and I think schooling alone can land him a respectable score in high school. The comfort to me is that I know where he stands nationally among peers. Though he’s evenly balanced among subject areas, his weaknesses and strengths are shown which probably reflect school instructions and his own interests. Going to talent search summer programs is’t in the plan but he qualifies for anything they offer.
So I’m happy he took the opportunity that allowed me to learn something new about him. Many of his schoolmates took the test too.
My daughters were in the Duke Tip program and took advantage of taking the ACT in 7th grade. We told them it didn’t matter how well they did but it would give them the experience of what the ACT would be like in high school. They did pretty well and gave their uncles and aunts a hard time that they had the scores to get into their alma maters as 7th graders. It also turned out to be a good experience for both of them.
Our kids enjoyed the challenge of taking a timed standardized test (the SAT) years before they would take it “officially” in HS. S has always enjoyed novel assignments and brain teasers. To no one’s surprise he did very well, but we were surprised he was 1st or 2nd in the state for his age both in 7th and 8th grades in math and also high in verbal. D also did well, higher than the median entering SAT score for our public U.
It was a confidence booster for D and gave us a perception check for S. We had been wondering why his teachers weren’t challenging him and got a better understanding, that he was really an outlier. Neither child was interested in doing the online courses or in person ones that they felt was expensive (we did offer). Maybe we could or should have insisted. S did try taking a course summer after 10th grade at the local private college that gave him a scholarship for one free course due to his high scores. He was very disappointed that the course was not as deep and rigorous as he had hoped and he vowed never to attend that U (he was one of or perhaps the only student who brought the statistics text book for the 1st class, so class was dismissed early since the others were so unprepared).
For exceptionally bright kids, (JHU SET level, scoring 700+ on either the Math or CR sections of the SAT prior to age 13) the testing opens opportunities for enrichment at an early age. In the past (don’t know if they still do this) JHU SET arranged for free college classes at some pretty spiffy colleges (including NYU) for SET qualifiers. Also when a kid gets a score at age 12 that would make most HS seniors proud, they tend to have very low stress when it is time to take the test “for real” in 11th grade.
I think for my younger son, especially, taking the SAT in middle school was valuable. He didn’t do nearly as well as his older brother, and unlike older brother had no interest in the CTY offerings, but he gained some confidence, when he discovered that his scores were better than all his friends. (And no, I did not encourage sharing scores!) I was amused and happy though. It was hard on him to always be in the shadow of the high-achieving brilliant big brother. I actually think he has more potential because he gets people in a way older brother does not.
Yes, both of my kids had very low stress when taking standardized tests because they had scored so high in 7th & 8th grade on the SAT with no prep. Being relaxed about it and having a sense of the timing was very useful for them and made the experience much better for all of us. That alone was worth paying for the SAT registration for those years.
I agree with that. I scored somewhere around 24 composite when I took the test in 7th grade. I really didn’t stress when taking it again in high school, or for transfer applications.
The only downside is a reality check that little Johnny/Susie isn’t as smart as you thought. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. The parent materials that came with the Midwest Talent Search (out of Northwestern) were extremely valuable back in son’s day.
Let me share an observation: All the kids participating in the talent search have similar mean scores across the testing centers in the entire nation, NUMATS, JHU CTY, and Duke TIP (are there other centers?). If one has to see who’s better however small numerically, NUMATS is ahead. So, don’t joke about moving to South Dakota or other midwest states for better college admissions.
^ Yeah, I’m going to move to Alaska to increase my chances at Harvard, or maybe Wyoming is a better location… Hmm.