I attended the Duke University Talent Identification Program in 1982, and recently received the paperwork for Daughter 2.0 to test this winter for the coming summer. I’m silly excited, in a totally nerdy sort of way: feels like I’m preparing to send her off to Hogwarts or something!
Did anyone else here attend? Do you look back at the experience fondly? (I’m still close to my roommate, and I think the social aspects of the program were better for me than the academics. It was nice to just be one more geek in the crowd!) What were the best and worst aspects for you?
I hope your daughter’s experience is good. I personally thought it was terrible - nothing but a sales pitch for their summercamp and a lot of bloviating by Duke officials. My mom actually wrote a letter of complaint that we drove up there and got such crappy treatment.
Oh, that doesn’t sound too promising, yellowjacketcoder. Your experience sounds nothing like mine, but I went the second year of the program, so there weren’t a bunch of extra camps to tout. I think they only offered a second year in 1983 (I was invited, but we couldn’t afford it.) But my roommate and I visited one another every summer through high school, and I last saw her just last summer. And the academic stuff certainly didn’t hurt me any.
I was. I went in 1998. I’m not sure how much good it did for me, really, as I distinctly remember thinking that people I went to school with were just as smart as these people, so what was the fuss about? But hey, being away from home for so long for the first time was good for me, even if I was dreadfully homesick, and I absolutely wouldn’t’ve wanted to go to a regular camp for any length of time, so nerd camp was the best thing in that regard.
I have enjoyed keeping in touch with the program as an alumna, though. I’ve taken part in some research through them since then.
