Enroll for Summer Gifted Programs

Please make a selection for more information about the application process:

• Enrollment Process
• Important Deadlines
• Registration Schedule
• How Courses are Assigned
• Course Assignment Notification
• 2017 Summer Programs Course Assignment Schedule
• Students Who do not Receive a Course Assignment
• Making Changes to Course Choices and Assignments
• The Waitlist Process
• Advice to all Students
• Advice to Returning Students
• Advice to First-Time Students
• Attendance for Both Sessions
• Planning for the Summer
• Canceled Courses
• Refund Policies

Enrollment Process

Step 1: Establishing eligibility

Students who are interested in our gifted and talented summer programs must take one of our designated tests to establish eligibility for CTY 7th Grade and Above: Intensive Studies or CTY 7th Grade and Above: Academic Explorations. They must take the SCAT test to establish eligibility for the Young Students Program for students in grades 2-6.

Review course eligibility information

We highly recommend that students who wish to attend our summer programs participate in CTY's Talent Search. By doing so, students increase their chances at being assigned to a course in our summer programs.

Step 2: Complete an application

You may either apply online or request a paper application by calling 800-393-6095.

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Important Deadlines

To be considered in our initial course assignment process, applications must be received at CTY by end of business on January 18. Refer to "How Courses Are Assigned," below, for details on how the course assignment process works.

After January 18, applications received by the close of business each Wednesday are considered for course assignment, following the same process.

The course assignment process continues once each week until registration closes in late spring. A late fee will be charged for applications received after April 8. 

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2017 Summer Programs Registration Schedule
 

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How Courses are Assigned

Students are not assigned to courses on a first-come, first-served basis. Instead, we use a computer program to assign as a group all students whose applications are in house by a particular date. The computer program follows a ranking system that sorts students into these main categories:

• Returning students, ranked according to test scores.
• Students who have never before participated in any of our academic programs, but who participated in the CTY Talent Search, also ranked according to test scores.

The computer assigns all returning students before moving to the students who have never before participated, and so on. Within categories, students with higher test scores are assigned to courses before students with lower scores.

As the computer places students, courses fill, and eventually the computer reaches a student whose first-choice course is closed. When this happens, it tries the second choice. If the second choice is full, it moves to the third choice, and so on, through all choices indicated. If the student has not indicated more than one choice, or if all choices indicated are full, the student is designated as unassigned, and the computer moves on to the next student.

Students who include several courses, sites, or sessions among their choices stand a better chance of receiving a course assignment. Students may make up to fifteen choices. Listing multiple choices does not hurt a student's chance of being assigned to the first-choice course; conversely, listing only one choice does not increase a student s chance of receiving that course.

The computer program is not able to adjust a course assignment for one student based on what course another student received. This means that if siblings or friends wish to attend together, great care must be taken with course requests. Please call 800-393-6095 for further advice and instructions.

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Course Assignment Notification

Students who apply on or before January 18 will be notified of their course assignment status by email on January 20. After that, students who apply by Wednesday of a given week will be notified of their status by email on Friday of that week. Course assignments will be available on MyCTY on approximately the same schedule. If you have not yet set up a MyCTY account, you can do so by visiting cty.jhu.edu.

Students will be mailed a Course Assignment Packet approximately two weeks after being notified of placement in a course. Course Assignment Packets include site-specific information about what to bring, on-site registration, meals, housing, etc., as well as a schedule of events, maps, detailed directions, and airport locations.

Course Assignment Packets also contain the medical forms and instructions for requesting shuttle service. Shuttle service is provided for an additional fee to students who need transportation to/from the site's designated terminal.

2017 Summer Programs Course Assignment Schedule
 

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Students Who do not Receive a Course Assignment

Students who could not be assigned to one of the choices indicated on their applications will be notified at the same time as the students who were assigned. They will have the choice of taking a class that is still available (if any), waiting to see if a desired course opens up later, or withdrawing. Deposits will be refunded to students who withdraw. The application fee is nonrefundable. Choosing to wait does not a guarantee eventual placement into a course. Learn more about not receiving a course assignment.

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Making Changes to Course Choices and Assignments

Before courses are assigned, students may change their requests through their MyCTY accounts. Go to cty.jhu.edu and select the MyCTY link.

If students wish to change courses after being assigned, they must use MyCTY to submit new course requests. Students will then be considered for placement in one of their new choices as part of the next regular weekly course assignment run. Priority for placement follows the usual ranking system (see How Courses Are Assigned, above).

Remember, each week the number of students requesting any particular course could exceed the space available. For this reason, placement into a new choice is NOT guaranteed. Keep in mind, too, the process is completely automated. If space is available in any new choice, the student will be moved immediately, and another student could also be moved immediately into that student’s original placement. Students should request new courses only if they are absolutely certain they want to make a change since it might not be possible to switch back to their original course.

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The Waitlist Process

Students may add themselves to a waitlist for closed courses through MyCTY or by emailing ctyreg@jhu.edu. Our waitlist works differently from that of many other programs. Please keep these points in mind:

• The waitlist is not first-come, first-served. Priority is determined using the same criteria as for regular registration. This means that a student’s place on the waitlist can vary from week to week. For example, if a new student is the only student on a waitlist one week, but two returning students waitlist the next week, those two students will have higher priority.
• Going on the waitlist for a course is a commitment. The waitlist process is completely automated, and is designed to fill every open seat immediately. If a student is at the top of the waitlist and space opens up, the student will be placed. The student is not contacted before the placement is made. Switching back to the originally assigned course, if any, generally isn't possible. If at any point, you decide that you no longer wish for your child to be considered for a waitlisted course, please be sure to update or delete your waitlist request immediately.
• Students on a waitlist receive an email communication about their status each Friday, until they are either assigned to the waitlisted course, or withdraw their applications.
• On April 1 students will be removed from the waitlist unless they ask the Registration Office to keep their waitlist status active.

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Advice to all Students

Although we would like to accommodate all students who apply and to offer them their first-choice courses, due to space limitations this is not possible. When completing the application, we encourage you to list as many courses, sites, and sessions as you are willing and able to attend. This will give you the best possible chance of participating in our program this summer. While patterns in course requests vary from year to year, we have observed these general trends:

• Because lab space at all sites is limited, science and computer science courses often have more requests than we can accommodate. If science or computer science is your first choice, consider including a math course or humanities/writing course (if eligible) among your other choices.
• Requests for session 1 often exceed the space available. If possible, consider including choices in session 2.
• Be flexible about sites, if possible. While the sites are located at different colleges and have some different course offerings, the overall experience is quite similar wherever students attend.
• Remember that listing multiple choices does not hurt your chance of being assigned to the first-choice course.

Keep in mind, though, that each option listed represents a commitment on your part. Do not list any course, site, or session that you are not willing to attend; we will not refund your deposit if you decline any choice listed on the application.

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Advice to Returning Students

Returning students have priority in the ranking system for course assignments, but to receive the full advantage of this benefit, you should be sure to have your application in house by January 18, when the first course assignment process will be run.

In addition, never assume that you will receive your first choice. In some cases, there is not enough space in a course even for all the returning students who apply.

Remember, too, that if you list only one choice, and we cannot place you, you will not have another chance to select courses until the end of the course assignment run, and your choices may be much more limited. List in advance as many options as are acceptable to you.

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Advice to First-Time Students

If you participated in Talent Search in a previous year, or if you took the required test in December 2016 or earlier, you should be able to have your application in house by January 18, when the first course assignment process will be run.

If you submit your application after January 18, please check our website, for a list of all of the courses still available. This will save you the disappointment of applying for selections that were filled by other students. Keep in mind that the available courses will be filled according to our ranking system. While you may be assigned to a course on that list, we cannot guarantee that you will be. It is important to list as many options as possible from the available courses and to have a back-up plan for the summer.

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Attendance for Both Sessions

To maximize the number of students who are able to attend the program, all summer programs participants are limited initially to enrolling in just one three-week session.

Requests for an additional session may be submitted through MyCTY. Once you have submitted your initial application, you may edit the application to request an additional session. Please do not submit a second, entirely new application.

Students may submit requests as soon as they have received an initial course placement. However, we will not begin considering students for assignment to an additional session until February 24. Students whose forms are received in our office by Wednesday of a given week will be notified of their status by email on Friday of that week. They will be considered for placement using the same computer ranking system described under “How Courses Are Assigned.”

Note: Students wishing to attend the program at the Johns Hopkins location for both sessions may do so, so long as they take a humanities or writing course for one of the sessions.

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Planning for the Summer

Although we would like to accommodate all students who apply to the program, due to space limitations this is not possible. For this reason, we urge all families to have a back-up plan for the summer. Please do not assume that your child will be attending the program until you have received your Course Assignment Packet.

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Canceled Courses

Each year we must cancel a few courses in which students have already been registered. This is either because not enough students signed up, or because of unpredictable circumstances such as a lab becoming unavailable. Students whose courses are canceled will be contacted and may withdraw with a full tuition refund or select a course that still has space available.

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Refund Policies

To withdraw your child from the program for any reason prior to arriving on site, you must notify the CTY Registrar in writing. Once on site, you must notify the site director. Refunds take approximately 4-6 weeks to process from the time that the withdrawal notification is received by the CTY Registrar. Refunds are issued in the same method of payment (check or charge) used for the initial payment to CTY. Refunds are sent to the student’s address of record. Please refer to the chart below for more information regarding CTY’s refund policies.

* Tuition and non-application fees paid are fully refundable only in the following circumstances: if a student withdraws for a medical reason and provides us with appropriate documentation from a physician; the student did not receive sufficient financial aid; the student is not assigned to any of the courses requested ; or all the requested courses are canceled.

**If a student withdraws due to a medical reason and appropriate documentation from a physician is provided, a refund will be given on a prorated basis.

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