Summer Camps for Gifted Kids and Teens – Updated for 2016

Hi – here’s another one, a brand new program for math enthusiasts. One of the faculty is a former student of mine at MIT, and knowing her and her family I am able to recommend this program most enthusiastically! http://proveitmath.org/

Another Talent Search one is Center for Bright Kids (CBK) in Colorado, covering the western states. Their camps are run at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, CO

What a stellar list! For Kentucky, you might also check out the Governor’s Scholars Program (for rising high school seniors) and the Governor’s School for the Arts (for rising juniors and seniors).

Hello! We offer a mixed-age, choice-based camp for gifted in North Texas called Camp Pursuit. Would love to be included in the list! You can read more/vet us at CampPursuit.com. Thank you!

Areteem Institute is hosting three educational summer camps this year, at UCLA, Boston College & the University of Chicago. They are for gifted students in grades 6-college and focus on Math, Science, Humanities & Career subjects. More information can be found at http://www.areteem.org/en/2015-summer-camp/program-overview or by calling (949) 679-8989. Thank you!

BE WARNED……

The Center for Bright Kids in Denver used to be called Rocky Mountain Talent Search. My sons attended college through the University of Denver with this organization with the promise of earning college credit. When my oldest son graduated high school and applied to the University of Michigan, he put the Univ of Denver on his application and asked for transcripts so he could transfer those credits. RMTS aka bright kids told us that U of Denver has those records, U of Denver said no, Bright Kids have those records and that no credits are earned through these programs at U of D or anywhere else. My kids also attended Purdue Univ and I also learned that no credits were awarded even though they were advertised as an advantage of these programs. We spent a ton of money earning “early college credits”, at the end of the programs they even gave us letters stating how many credits were earned. Now I know that no university will take those letters stating credits earned and neither U of D or Purdue will give transcripts. My oldest son who has done everything right looked like a liar on his application because U of D would only write a letter stating he never attended, and that was after 27 phone calls (I counted). At least purdue stated that there were no transcripts given, they did not say that he did not attend the university.

for Oklahoma, we have FREE STEM camps offered by our colleges/universities for kids going into the 8th grade-12th grade. Application deadlines vary, but most are April/early May.

https://secure.okcollegestart.org/High_School_Planning/Summer_academies/summer_academies.aspx

I’m a little late, and some of these will need to be accessed for 2017, but Kansas also offers summer camps at Wichita State University: http://webs.wichita.edu/?u=engineeringcamps&p=/2016/index2016/, Kansas State (some for girls in STEM that are particularly good) http://www.k-state.edu/summer/camps/ and Fort Hays State: https://www.fhsu.edu/academic/college-of-education-and-technology/smei/camps/
The Kansas Historical Society also offers a unique archaeology opportunity (Kansas Archaeological Training Program KATP) that runs for 2 weeks each summer in early June. This is for adults and older children (10-13 must have full time supervision; older students can work independently but still must have an adult in attendance) and could be used as a family vacation activity. https://www.kshs.org/p/kansas-archeology-training-program-field-school-2014/14622
It is set up for 3 weekends and 2 weeks, but you can attend for as little as one day during that time. Training is provided.