Official History
The Beginning of CTY
CTY traces its history back to Dr. Julian Stanley of the Johns Hopkins University. In the early 70's, Dr. Stanley began research on mathematically talented youngsters. He found that many students can master complex material at a pace much faster than that permitted by their schools. In 1971, he founded the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY). This program led to other programs sponsored by the JHU to serve the needs of talented youth, and in 1979, the Office of Talent Identification and Development, CTY's first incarnation, was started by JHU. Residential programs started a year later in 1980.
A Timeline of notable events in official CTY History
CTY Names or a Guide to Acronyms
- SMPY- Study of Mathematically Precarious Youth, name for what would eventually become CTY from 1971 to 1979
- OTID- Office of Talent Identification and Development, first name for CTY from 1979 to 1983
- CTY- Center for Talented Youth, used from 1983 to 1997, and from 2000 to the present
- IAAY- Institute for the Academic Advancement of Youth, name for CTY from 1997 to 2000
- CAA- Center for Academic Advancement, Summer Program for top 2% of SAT scoring youth. (CTY accepts from the top 1/2%)
- CDE- Center for Distance Education
- EWT- Expository Writing Tutorial
- SET- Study of Exceptional Talent- the Research arm of CTY
Click here for information about social groups at CTY, and the role of names in such groups.
CTY Statistics
Past
- 1980 Talent Search participants: 9,000
- 1980 Summer Residential Enrollment: 109
- 1981 Talent Search participants: 15,000
- 1981 Summer Residential Enrollment: 221
- 1981 States Represented Among Summer Program Students: 39
- 1980-81 CTY Summer Sites: 1
Present
- 2002 Talent Search participants: 86,942
- 2002 Summer Residential Enrollment: 9,814
- 2002 Enrollment for all CTY programs: 21,505
- 2002 States Represented Among Summer Program Students: 45
- 2002 Countries Represented Among Summer Program Students: 70
- 2002 CTY program Summer Sites: 20
The Veil Law
In the early 1980's (I think 1984) a new rule was created at CTY. Unlike previous years, girls were no longer allowed to visit boys' dorms, and boys were no longer allowed to visit girls' dorms. The logic of the rule is that it keeps unsuspecting CTYers from being embarrassed by accidently confronting a member of the opposite gender while wearing nothing but a towel on their way back from the shower, and also prevents CTYers from participating in *cough* mixed gender activities that their parents wouldn't approve of. While current CTYers take this rule for granted, when it when it was first implemented, there was much protesting and unhappiness among the CTYers. The rule was dubbed the Veil Law, because, the argument went, they were next going to make all the girls wear veils to keep the lecherous eyes of the boys from their faces.
CTY Switzerland
CTY Switzerland was a brief-lived idea to hold a CTY session in the Swiss Alps. While apparently the site was beautiful, and the CTYers who attended had a good deal of fun, the large price tag of holding a site in Switzerland prevented many students from attending, and caused the program to end after only a year or two, as CTY persuaded more cost effective sites.
Random Tidbits
Pre-1983, there was a soda machine at Dickinson College where the soda machine actually MIXED YOUR SODA right in front of you, with syrup and soda water dispensed into a paper cup.
Pre-1988, The "Geology three day trip" which was eventually disbanded was an
end-of-session field trip for the Geology class. Basic mission: go to various points in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia in two small vans and look at rocks. The basic problem with this mission: The students spent the nights
carousing in motel rooms, and therefore had to be roused from deep slumber
every time a stop was made to inspect an outcropping of especially
interesting rock. After some RAs played a trick on some students that ended with the hotel room being a mess, the trip was no longer allowed.
In Lancaster, 2000 second session, there was a site-wide ban on frisbee-throwing midway through the session after several careless students bopped a tour group and failed to apologize. Franklin & Marshall threatened not to
renew CTY's contract for that site, but CTY smoothed things over, and F&M remained a CTY site in 2001.
For the History of the CTY Alumni Association, click Here
Sources
"The Insider's History to CTY: The First 10 Years" 1990, CTY Johns Hopkins University
2000 CTY Annual Report
E-mails and conversations with CTYers and Staff
To contribute, e-mail me at elizaweb@bigfoot.com