Adjusting to dormitory life and enduring the rigors of a year's curriculum crammed into several weeks is all part of the challenge. The Center scouts middle and junior high schools, primarily in the Northeast and on the West Coast, for students who score above the 97th percentile on standardized exams like the California Achievement Tests or Iowa Tests. The students are then inv ited by the Center to take the College Board exams. Tenth graders must score close to 700 in the math or verbal tests, the average score of seniors bound for Ivy League colleges. For chemistry and biology students, the laboratories of a research complex like Johns Hopkins afford opportunities unavailable even at the finest private schools.
Neuroscience students examine human brains.
Budding biologists inject genetically altered material from luminescent squid into bacteria and chart the glowing results. By the end of the term, pizza boxes and soda cans avalanche from d resser tops, and most students will have danced, sung and giggled to exhaustion. That bonding experience is often the most precious opportunity these academically precocious students take away from the Center. Critics contend that in a world of scarce resources, money is better spent on less able students, presuming that gifted students will excel no matter what. But educators note that addiction and failure rates among highly intelligent students exceed the norm, and may even be higher in urban areas where outlets for their educational energies are scarce.