Programs available for high IQs?

[HSinNH]

For various reasons, we had DD14 complete the WISC-V with a licensed educational psychologist and found out her IQ was in the 99.5th percentile. What programs, organizations, etc., are available to someone with this IQ score?

 

Thank you!

[Woodland Mist Academy]

I'll start.  :)

 

The one that is proving to be the most useful for us at the moment is John Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY). They offer a variety of online classes, including foreign language. After researching several options, we decided to give their Spanish courses a try. They are not inexpensive, but when you break down how many hours of instruction the student receives, the per hour price is actually quite competitive. Not all of the perks are actually listed on the site; I'm not sure why that is.

 

Some of the other CTY classes seem pricey for what you are actually getting, but the foreign language is reasonable. They also have financial aid available for those that qualify.  

 

http://cty.jhu.edu/

 

ETA: The classes are held in the evening because they are not geared toward just homeschoolers. Many brick-and-mortar school students take the classes.

[Dmmetler]

At age 14, a majority of programs that really seem to do anything more than be a social group require achievement testing in addition to or in place of IQ. The Davidson Institute DYS program does accept just IQ scores (check the website as to whether your DD's sub scores would qualify, because it's not just FSIQ), but their summer program for teens, THINK, is based on ACT/SAT, the Davidson Fellowships are based on research, and the Davidson Academy requires either high grades and teacher recommendations and in-house testing plus IQ or SAT/ACT (and there's a strong bias towards SAT/ACT. Homeschoolers are not allowed to apply without achievement test scores.

 

I think the DYS program is most helpful for parents of fairly young kids and for kids who struggle socially/emotionally and have difficulty in those areas. For the kids who are happy and content in their own skin most of the time, it may be less a good fit. They do offer nice seminars for parents and kids, their summer programs are excellent, and they provide advocacy and support in trying to find a good school fit. In our case, it's also been helpful when DD needed access to a specific program and had someone locally going to bat for her, but the higher ups needed extra validation that she had what it takes. No idea why they weren't willing to believe their own faculty, but a letter on official letterhead saying that DD qualified for this program pushed over the edge, but that's happened now a couple of times. It's free to apply, so if you have already paid for testing anyway, there's really no harm in doing so and then, if the programs aren't a good fit, simply not participating beyond getting s weekly e-mail.

 

The Talent Search programs offer classes, physical or online, summer camps, and often social forums as well. They can be expensive, but many people list them as being highly valuable. The classes can be helpful if you need to replace a class at a physical school, or as a homeschooler, or as a supplement. The summer camps, while academic, again are going to be a better fit for the kids who struggle socially and emotionally and really thrive in a setting of all kids who are focused on academics and tend to be more the nerdy/geeky type (disclaimer here-I've been married over 20 years to someone I met at a talent search summer program, and for me, that was truly the best summer of my life up until that point. My roommate that summer hated the whole thing-she was a smart, popular kid who was very comfortable in a school setting, didn't like the greater depth of the classes, and found all the other kids, including me, to be insufferable geeks, and the boys to be immature and nerdy. We were presumably both qualified to be there, but that was where the overlap ended.)

 

These programs come out of the various talent searches-CTY(Johns Hopkins), TIPS(Duke), BESTs (University of Iowa), NUMATS(Northwestern) EPGY (Stanford) and I think there's one more. Usually one qualifying score will let you access programs at any of them by just paying their registration fees. We've done classes and paid fees for all of the above at one time or another, pretty much, but keep coming back to BESTs for Information and parent support, and CTY for classes.

 

There are a number of early college/early admissions/Dual enrollment programs if your DD is interested. Some are residential, some are commuter only, and some are online only. These can be used to provide higher level study in a particular area or full acceleration. Application is the same as applying for college, and you typically must be quite a bit better qualified than the average student at that institution.

[Woodland Mist Academy]

 The summer camps, while academic, again are going to be a better fit for the kids who struggle socially and emotionally and really thrive in a setting of all kids who are focused on academics and tend to be more the nerdy/geeky type (disclaimer here-I've been married over 20 years to someone I met at a talent search summer program, and for me, that was truly the best summer of my life up until that point. My roommate that summer hated the whole thing-she was a smart, popular kid who was very comfortable in a school setting, didn't like the greater depth of the classes, and found all the other kids, including me, to be insufferable geeks, and the boys to be immature and nerdy. We were presumably both qualified to be there, but that was where the overlap ended.)

 

 

 

Interesting! This is the polar opposite of the experiences we've had with various summer camps for gifted youth.

 

It's been our experience that camps are good for people like your roommate. For insufferable geeks, not so much. In fact, dd was told once that no one actually goes for the classes. We're starting to believe that, much to our disappointment. 

 

This may just be dd's personality. She is mainly going for the class, the social is extra (or at times a negative...).  I think for many (most?) students, the opposite it true. 

 

She may decide to take classes next summer, as opposed to going to camps. Again, this may just be her personality. 

[Woodland Mist Academy]

Not formal programs, but options to keep in mind...

 

Taking AP classes at an earlier age than usual can be good for some high IQ students. Also, some students that attend brick-and mortar schools take MOOC classes in their free time to go more in-depth with topics of interests. 

[8filltheheart]

I responded in the other thread, but if I had a child who wanted to pursue astronaut (if you were serious about Mars....my Ds is very interested in SpaceX's program for different reasons) or FBI/CIA, I would encourage her to consider critical language studies and make sure she took time to be in top physical shape. NSLI-Y would be a good experience for someone with those goals. You might look at Space Camp opportunities.

[quark]

My son has been enjoying Cogito. It is an offshoot of JHU CTY and is open to 13-18yos and there is a moderated forum for discussion as well as webinars from time to time.

 

In case others are interested, I will add that he has a CTY account but has not taken CTY programs. He is below 13 and they accepted my brief email about him (DYS and SET information) and allowed him to join that way.

 

More info:

http://cty.jhu.edu/cogito/

https://cogito.cty.jhu.edu/about-us/how-to-join/

 

Good luck!

 

BTW HSinNH, if you would like to, I think you can ask the moderators if they would consider pinning this thread. We've had several boardies ask this question often on this AL board...would be nice to have a pinned thread to direct people to in the future.

 

 

[Arcadia]

CTY JHU, Duke TIP and NUMATS go by ACT/SAT scores instead of IQ scores. For Davidson Academy, homeschoolers need to supply ACT/SAT scores as well as IQ scores for your daughter's age.

 

I haven't encounter any program that requires IQ scores.  DYS accepts either qualifying ACT/SAT scores or IQ scores.

 

For school purpose, so far the guidance counselors we met at open houses were only concerned about whether the student can clear their placement tests and do not look at IQ scores at all.

 

 

 

In case others are interested, I will add that he has a CTY account but has not taken CTY programs. He is below 13 and they accepted my brief email about him (DYS and SET information) and allowed him to join that way.

 

 

Thanks.  Didn't know they are open to age waivers on a case by case basis.  DS10 might be interested before he turn 13. 

[HSinNH]

Thank you all! As far as pinning is concerned, I do not know how to do that. Can someone direct me?

[8filltheheart]

Are you homeschooling?  If you are, instead of just focusing on what programs are available, you could also research what resources to use.

[quark]

I haven't encounter any program that requires IQ scores.  DYS accepts either qualifying ACT/SAT scores or IQ scores.

 

[...]

 

Thanks.  Didn't know they are open to age waivers on a case by case basis.  DS10 might be interested before he turn 13. 

 

True...I forgot that Cogito doesn't ask for IQ. I don't think they do. We didn't have to furnish anything like that. I don't even think of IQ# these days, just whether or not a program will be a good fit for a certain type of kid personality/ learning profile. Thanks for mentioning that Arcadia.

 

You are very welcome about the tip. Hope your DS finds it fun if he applies. Mine isn't always online but uses Cogito now and then as a downtime activity.

 

Thank you all! As far as pinning is concerned, I do not know how to do that. Can someone direct me?

 

I think you can ask the moderators here: http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/forum/22-site-news-discussions/but not very sure if they will comply or whether the thread needs lots of likes first or something like that. Do let us know if you find out! :laugh:

[8filltheheart]

Cogito also has a great list of summer programs.

[quark]

Cogito also has a great list of summer programs.

 

A nice searchable list with filters etc too!

https://cogito.cty.jhu.edu/summer-programs/

Nice! I hadn't taken time to explore these things. Thanks 8!

[mathnerd]

Are you near a city? The universities usually have Math Circles. here is a list of all math circles:

https://www.mathcircles.org/Wiki_ExistingMathCirclePrograms_view

I applied to our local math circle for my DS and used his IQ score in the application along with his achievement test scores and his talent search exam scores.

[Laura Corin]

Not formal programs, but options to keep in mind...

 

Taking AP classes at an earlier age than usual can be good for some high IQ students. 

 

Yes.  Calvin started taking high-school-level exams at 11 (GCSEs, which are normally taken at 16 in England).  It gave him a great sense of accomplishment.  We didn't take a lot: one at 11, two at 13, but it was really good for him.

[Arcadia]

 

I applied to our local math circle for my DS and used his IQ score in the application along with his achievement test scores and his talent search exam scores.

 

I applied for both my boys last year for the Stanford Math Circle and did not need to put in any test scores for their online registration system.  DS9 got in to the elementary school one while DS10 was waitlisted for the middle school one. DS9 was bored though after the first term so we didn't continue.

[Staceyshoe]

I just skimmed through the responses and may have missed a comment about these, but Athena Academy and G3 both have online classes that are geared toward gifted students.