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DYS (Davidson) families - share your experience?


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If your child is part of the Davidson program, could you share your experience? Have you found it to be a helpful resource for your child? (I don't think I need the parent resources.) Did they actually attend the summer institute or any of the camps? Do you access program resources during the school year as well?

I attended a webinar on the THINK program, and it looks similar to taking a CC / DE class, with the exception of the residential experience. 

tagging @SeaConquestbecause I think your DS is DYS?

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TLDR; if you have the scores apply, but be aware that what you get out of it will depend a lot on what you do-and where you are. 


 

L is a DYS alumni. For a long time, you could have done a gathering for every DYS family in about a 200 mile radius of my house in my living room-and I don’t have a terribly big house. The same was true for talent search, etc. There just weren’t many of us around. We applied to DYS largely for social reasons, when L was in early elementary. DYS was probably one of the best things we ever did. L's long time best friend and the mentors that got L connected with the professional herpetology world were connections made only due to DYS. L is actually planning to apply to work as staff this summer, but if an REU comes through, that's a higher priority. 

 

However, at the time, it was a lot easier to connect because each DYS had a page profile, and contact information for parents. So, the person who became L’s best friend’s mom found us and sent a message to me, and we connected. We also went to Reno…a lot. Like almost every family vacation for the last decade has been to Reno for DYS or to a Herpetology conference.  L did STARS 3x and THINK (and then COVID hit). We went to Summit many, many times. I’ve been on parent panels as a speaker. Because of that, we had a family support person who knew L quite well (and they stopped assigning individual family support folks now), and it let L connect with kids from Athena’s and G3, and see Kirsten, Jaime, and Benjamin (Athena, Guinevere and Galahad). I considered it my professional conference because it was so nice to sit down with parents in person who got it. The highest praise L could give about Agnes Scott was that it felt like being at a DYS event. 
 

I will say that being turned down for the Davidson Academy in Reno was crushing for L-the summer programs and Summit had led them to feel like Davidson Academy was essentially Hogwarts, and being told that it wasn’t “the optimal fit at this time” was devastating. In 20/20 hindsight, they were right. The cost of going to school there full time would likely have stopped most of L’s herp work in its tracks. L wouldn’t have been going to the WCH or had the opportunities had we moved to Reno. But at the time, it was extremely painful. And the fact that we then got a hard push for L to be part of the inaugural class at DAO, when the whole reason L was dying to go to DA was social, was extremely hard to stomach. 
 

I also do think that DYS has been weakened by them moving more and more classes and programs in house for fee, vs recommending outside resources like AoPS, Lukeion, OHS, and eIMACS. We didn’t do the Davidson Explore classes (a bit late on everything), but it definitely feels like there is one type of gifted kid those classes serve, and it especially misses 2e kids. But it did feel like each Summit had a few fewer vendors, even before COVID, and that those mapped to the kind of classes Davidson was now offering in house. 

 

On THINK, it’s very intense. Two college classes in 3 weeks is a lot. I think the kids who benefitted the most are those who have little challenge during the school year. L would have preferred it had they had one class and more social time, more like the programs for younger kids, but at least part of that was that L was doing full time dual enrollment, plus often a high school class or two on top of it, by that point.  And one thing to keep in mind is that since it IS college classes for credit, those transcripts have to be sent in. So make sure your kid is ready. 


 

 

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Thank you, @Dmmetler. They are changing THINK this year - it’s only 1 class.

I asked DD and she was not excited about the classes THINK was offering this year. It would be mostly for the social experience, as we have CC/DE options local to us for free. 

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20 minutes ago, WTM said:

Thank you, @Dmmetler. They are changing THINK this year - it’s only 1 class.

I asked DD and she was not excited about the classes THINK was offering this year. It would be mostly for the social experience, as we have CC/DE options local to us for free. 

I think 1 class would allow a lot more social time, and be an easier balance. One nice thing about STARS was there was enough academics to give the kids a place to start communicating, but in many ways, it was as much or more a social skills/social interactions camp for kids who needed that level of intellectual stimulation to thrive, and THINK was the opposite-it was an academic program that had social stuff available, more like college (but L has never had a semester yet that had the number of hours a day in class that THINK required). 

I will also say L's experience was a bit unusual. About a week before the kids were supposed to start THINK, and fortunately, the week AFTER STARS, the cafeteria in the dorm they usually used exploded. So, while THINK went on as scheduled, it went on in a dorm which had been closed for the summer (L said that they could have hot water, elevators, or air conditioning, but never more than two of the three at a time), the secondary food service on campus was trying to ramp up and handle all the on campus programs, and things just weren't as smooth. They were also farther from the DA building, and that meant there was just plain less shared group space to spread out and play games or watch anime-a lot of that happened in dorm rooms that year, which both limited it on gender lines and also made it harder for kids who didn't already know people because it's one thing to pull up a chair with a bunch of people you don't know for a game of Catan around a table in the student lounge at DA, and a totally different one to invite yourself to sit on someone's bed.

 

Last summer for Summit, things seemed more put together (and I believe the rebuilding was supposed to be completed for this past fall), so that should be less of an issue this year. 

 

 

 

Edited by Dmmetler
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On 1/10/2023 at 11:19 PM, Malam said:

What's WCH? By OHS do you mean Stanford OHS?

World Congress of Herpetology-a big international conference every four years. Getting selected to present is a big deal-to do it at 15 was even more so. 

 

Yes, Stanford Online High School. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

My apologies for just seeing this. Yes, Sacha is a DYS, but I want to preface that statement by saying that he likely wouldn't have qualified had I not met Jackie from this board (who ended up teaching Sacha and helped me to realize how debilitated Sacha was with unmedicated ADHD). Sacha missed the cutoffs for DYS before he was on meds for ADHD (he qualified within a few months on meds), and I mention that because Sacha's 2e-ness (most especially, delayed executive functioning and other ADHD stuff) has come to define our experience with Davidson. As Dmmetler mentioned above, the Davidson stuff is right for the right kind of kid. Sacha is not that kid. He was so traumatized by the Explore Writing in the Humanities class (after years of loving the lit classes at Athena's and OG3), which he took in 5th grade, he has yet to regain his previous love of literature some 3 years on. In short, I found Davidson very unaccommodating re 2e kids. The pandemic took out the trip we had booked to Reno for Summit that year (2020), but today, we'd opt for PG Retreat before Summit anyway because I wouldn't want my younger DS (Ronen) to be excluded from events. I get why they do it, but that just doesn't work for us.

Instead of Davidson, we've shifted our focus to OHS. Sacha started with OHS in 7th grade, with a single course (he did well in an area of strength), and is taking 2 courses this year for 8th (it's been more of struggle thus far this year, but he's adjusting to the demands). He wants to attend OHS full-time for high school (I am still unsure if this is the best fit for him, but it's his choice), so we have been spending our resources attending OHS events (they have local meetups, Summer @ Stanford, and other large in-person and online events several times per year). OHS has very generous financial aid (so much so that they are even funding the vast majority of Sacha's spring break trip to New Orleans for the middle schoolers) and, in our experience to date, really tries to help the 2e/non-neurotypical kids. So, I would definitely recommend OHS over DAO for 2e kids that want rigorous online classes (whether FT or PT), and prefer the philosophy of PG Retreat (or something like Yunasa from IEA) vs Summit for in-person support. Just my two cents. 

Edited by SeaConquest
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On 1/26/2023 at 12:47 PM, SeaConquest said:

My apologies for just seeing this. Yes, Sacha is a DYS, but I want to preface that statement by saying that he likely wouldn't have qualified had I not met Jackie from this board (who ended up teaching Sacha and helped me to realize how debilitated Sacha was with unmedicated ADHD). Sacha missed the cutoffs for DYS before he was on meds for ADHD (he qualified within a few months on meds), and I mention that because Sacha's 2e-ness (most especially, delayed executive functioning and other ADHD stuff) has come to define our experience with Davidson. As Dmmetler mentioned above, the Davidson stuff is right for the right kind of kid. Sacha is not that kid. He was so traumatized by the Explore Writing in the Humanities class (after years of loving the lit classes at Athena's and OG3), which he took in 5th grade, he has yet to regain his previous love of literature some 3 years on. In short, I found Davidson very unaccommodating re 2e kids. The pandemic took out the trip we had booked to Reno for Summit that year (2020), but today, we'd opt for PG Retreat before Summit anyway because I wouldn't want my younger DS (Ronen) to be excluded from events. I get why they do it, but that just doesn't work for us.

 

Thank you for sharing your experience, it's very interesting! Could you please share where you kid is taking DE programming classes? They are very close to my son in math and science, but my husband and I are very far from programming. Thank you!

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I agree that if you have the scores, you should apply. Honestly, though, for us the vast majority of the benefits of the DYS program have been the parent resources. The parent Facebook groups and parent networking opportunities are fantastic. We also got some much appreciated help with educational planning and with advocating in public school from our Family Consultant, but as Dmmetler said, they have now eliminated individual Family Consultants. The FC were replaced with some kind of online group discussion thing or something, but I haven't attempted to access that resource yet and so can't comment on its efficacy. 

As far as student-specific benefits, it really depends on the kid. All three of my DYS are 2e, but the one that's benefited most is high achieving, has no learning disabilities, and responds very well to ADHD medication such that his ADHD symptoms are well controlled, at least during school hours. My two DYS with learning disabilities and less well managed ADHD aren't the right "flavor" of PG for most Davidson programs, though one is doing well with an Explore class right now.

The Davidson Explore classes have been a hit in my house with two of my DYS (mostly my high achieving DYS). For the one taking a writing class, I intentionally postponed beginning the Explore writing class sequence with him until he was on the older end of the recommended age range because I'd heard how exacting the critical thinking expectations were. I'm very glad I did.

My high achiever may possibly eventually apply for DA, but the other two certainly won't. One might apply for a single course offering from DAO but not full-time. That level of academic intensity isn't aligned with his wants and needs.

We haven't even attempted applying for STARS, REACH, or THINK because with their autism and delayed social/emotional/self-reg skills, I don't think any of my DYS would enjoy or do well with a sleep-away camp at this time. 

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On 1/31/2023 at 7:55 PM, Cake and Pi said:

The Davidson Explore classes have been a hit in my house with two of my DYS (mostly my high achieving DYS). For the one taking a writing class, I intentionally postponed beginning the Explore writing class sequence with him until he was on the older end of the recommended age range because I'd heard how exacting the critical thinking expectations were. I'm very glad I did.

This is really good advice, and I wish I had done the same. 

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On 1/31/2023 at 9:30 AM, Likaly said:

Thank you for sharing your experience, it's very interesting! Could you please share where you kid is taking DE programming classes? They are very close to my son in math and science, but my husband and I are very far from programming. Thank you!

He took Programming Fundamentals in C++ at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and is currently taking Data Structures in C++ at the College of San Mateo (the class at CCSF was full). He will likely take Computer Architecture with Assembly Language at CCSF in the fall. He has mostly been interested in astrobiology and astrophysics to date, but has recently become very interested in computer science. 

Edited by SeaConquest
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On 2/6/2023 at 10:47 PM, SeaConquest said:

He took Programming Fundamentals in C++ at City College of San Francisco (CCSF) and is currently taking Data Structures in C++ at the College of San Mateo (the class at CCSF was full). He will likely take Computer Architecture with Assembly Language at CCSF in the fall. He has mostly been interested in astrobiology and astrophysics to date, but has recently become very interested in computer science. 

A bit off topic, but if he wants to train for USACO, a great free resource is USACO.guide. They also have live classes (2hrs per week for 9 weeks) for only $100. He might also want to apply to SSP: https://summerscience.org/the-ssp-experience/orbit-determination/

There are also a lot of good books on astrobiology, but that depends on whether he wants a textbook or something for a general reader

Edited by Malam
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On 2/14/2023 at 1:10 PM, Malam said:

A bit off topic, but if he wants to train for USACO, a great free resource is USACO.guide. They also have live classes (2hrs per week for 9 weeks) for only $100. He might also want to apply to SSP: https://summerscience.org/the-ssp-experience/orbit-determination/

There are also a lot of good books on astrobiology, but that depends on whether he wants a textbook or something for a general reader

Thank you!!!

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