Center For Talented Youth - Talent Search

Talent Search

Generally from October to February each year, CTY's Talent Search recruits elementary and middle school students (who have scored at or above the 95th percentile on in-grade standardized tests) to qualify for CTY's academic programs. Applicants then take a standardized test that is above their grade level, beyond the ability of most children their age.

• Students in the 2nd to 4th grades take the School and College Ability Test (SCAT) at the Elementary level, administered by either CTY or Prometric.
• Students in the 5th and 6th grades take the SCAT at the Intermediate and Secondary levels, respectively. Previously the PLUS test was used.
• Students in the 7th to 11th grades take the SAT, ACT, or the advanced SCAT.

To qualify for CTY's primary summer program, CTY: Intensive Studies, a 7th grade student must score at roughly the 50th percentile achieved by graduating high school seniors. Younger students must pass somewhat lower thresholds based on grade level; applicants above 7th grade face correspondingly higher cutoffs. Students in 5th grade and above may optionally take CTY's Spatial Test Battery; high scorers on the STB face slightly lower SCAT or SAT requirements. CTY has considered other entrance criteria several times over the years, but found that SAT (et al.) remained the best predictor of student success in CTY courses.

CTY has another summer program, called CTY: Academic Explorations, formerly the Center for Academic Advancement (CAA), for gifted students in grades 7 to 11 who are in the top 2% of their age group. CTY: Academic Explorations is identical to CTY: Intensive Studies in most respects, aside from its slightly lower standardized test score threshold. CTY Distance Education courses have test score requirements similar (but not necessarily identical) to those of the summer programs.

CTY course eligibility is based on the math and/or verbal subscores, depending on the course's subject matter (e.g. science courses mainly require math, writing courses require verbal). Over 80000 students are tested each year, more than half of whom qualify for some portion of CTY's course offerings.

CTY Talent Search officially operates in Alaska, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Students from other states are officially served by sister programs such as Duke University's Talent Identification Program or Northwestern's Center for Talent Development; however, they do not offer as many programs or sites as CTY, so cross-registrations are allowed. Students from every state, and dozens of countries, participate in CTY programs each year.