TIP O' The Hat

Nice to see after 20 years since I was there, Duke University's TIP program -- the ultimate summer geek camp -- is still going strong.

"Being labeled as 'gifted' as a middle school student is a social kiss of death," said Dr. Alison Stuebe, an alumna of the Duke TIP program, which had its largest season ever in 2010 with more than 3,100 students. "To go to a place where, rather than that being a liability, was actually a reason you got to go at all, was just a transforming experience," she said.

There is a misperception that talented youths get what they need in school. In fact, regular school classes don't always allow these kids to reach their full potential, said Brian Cooper, TIP's director of domestic educational programs. Summer sessions like TIP's are needed more and more because in tough economic times, schools are cutting programs for gifted students, he said.

TIP provides an environment where they can feed their passions for the subjects they love without having to worry about grades and competition, he said.

But first, kids have to prove themselves by taking the SAT in about seventh grade, and they need to score as well as or better than 50 percent of the college-bound juniors and seniors taking the SAT or ACT (you can retest later). Summer Institute for the Gifted, another program, also accepts letters of recommendation and participation in a gifted program as credentials. These camps have programs at various colleges in the U.S., and some in other countries, too.

And yeah, once my parents saw this (I had a pretty good guidance counselor back in the day) they bought me some test prep software and I knocked down a good enough score to get into TIP's science and math track all four years.  Not everyone's going to be the next Lady Gaga or Mark Zuckerberg, but hey, I turned out OK and learned a hell of a lot of stuff.  I still use my econ and programming class skills from there on a nearly daily basis and yeah, I turned out to be a pretty fearsome Ultimate Frisbee player too.

Even if I am a D-list political blogger.

Well, maybe C-list these days...