My child attended several of their in person weekend and summer programs from 2017-2019 when they were in 3-5th grade in Chicago and Skokie. The classes that they did were great in terms of providing challenge, enrichment and social opportunities with other gifted kids. This summer as a rising 11th grader they did a 3 week summer residential academic program in Evanston. It was a wonderful experience that was sufficiently challenging and fun. My child learned a lot and completed an independent research project that they were both proud of and showed a lot of creative thought within the parameters of the project. As a parent I feel that the program communicated sufficiently and when small issues arose, they addressed them quickly and effectively. I would recommend CTD's in person programs for any kid who needs/wants more challenge than they get in their regular school experience and/or social connections with other gifted kids. read more

So far, so good. Was initially wary of signing my kiddos up based on the negative reviews but decent experience after their first Sat class.

We did CTD for 3 years and were fed up by the end of it, at least the online classes. We just felt like they weren't very serious and it felt a bit like a scam. I agree with a previous post about how they lure parents who are frustrated by the lack of gifted programming in public schools. We wanted our children to be more challenged, but we ended up paying CTD a huge amount of money for the kids to mostly teach themselves. With the math classes, I had to be their teacher much of the time, so I was not only paying lots of money but also lots of my own time!! This is a very good deal for Northwestern, but not for the families. There were no regular meetings between students and teacher, and instead there were only rare meetings that didn't seem to include any lecturing or teaching. (And for one class, the teacher inexplicably disappeared part way through the term and was substituted by another teacher who didn't know what was going on.) We switched to Art of Problem Solving for math and it was a much better approach -- weekly class meetings with a teacher, a far better text book, a more rigorous curriculum and practice problems, and the course was much cheaper to boot! Same thing with the foreign language class we ended up doing at a different online school. I'm sorry to say this, but I feel like CTD is just another manifestation of the university's greed. read more

Most of the negative reviews are at least a few years old. It means things probably improved but can't speak for others' experiences, really. Both my children were enrolled this summer at CTD at the Chicago and Evanston locations. The locations had very organized staff that not only responded to emails in more than a timely manner but also on phone calls. Parents were frequently updated through emails of the status of the courses and what children have been working on as well as protocols and Expo day expectations. My children needed last minute printing for their Expo and the office jumped in to help and printed things for them. During other situations, not academics related were yet another opportunity for them to show they care and facilitate me getting updated. Any change in a child's schedule was easily accommodated such as earlier pick-ups. Last but not least, their curriculum was extraordinary, and could never be paralleled to what they do usually at school. Thank you CTD! read more

If I could give it zero stars, I would. We had a horrendous experience with CTD this summer and we will never, ever return (nor would I ever recommend this to anyone). All I can say is save your money and go find other programming that is more worthwhile. There are plenty of other programs out there for bright, academically minded kids. Avoid this one. read more

Don't waste your money at this place. My son's recent experience was terrible. They used Northwestern University and gifted education to lure people and charged expensive tuition for no-value classes. read more

This updated review is Evanston location that was moved to Roycemore School. On the first day parents were told to stay in the car when drop off and pick-up students. This resulted a long back up of cars trying to enter a narrow one way street. It took over 30 minutes to drop off student. While instructions have been revised Roycemore is not a good location. It can not support the traffic on weekends when the streets are full of park cars. Parents and students are asked to have tiny yellow cards for pick up and drop off. Not sure why Noone can even see this unless they are near each other. read more

I just quickly wanted to say, yes the program needs to revisit the tiring names of their programs and be very clear what is what. However, I thought the admissions people were very helpful and my daughter thoroughly enjoys the classes. There is no video teacher, true, its largely self guided, but it suits my 13-year-old. read more

Our experience here was pretty terrible. To start with the website is confusing and no one answers the phone or returns calls in a reasonable amount of time. We couldn't figure out if they had received the materials we submitted online as there was no indication on the website, it simply reverted back to the previous page and one time that meant they were submitted and one time they hadn't gone through for some reason. They take your money before you have any idea whether you will get into the program or and if the courses are full or you aren't accepted, then it takes months to get a refund. The courses are really expensive for what you get, at least for their online offerings, which is just a slightly glorified Khan academy. In one case, the class just had them watch YouTube videos that we could have been watching for free. Every interaction has been seriously lacking. There is an oddly condescending attitude to everyone I have spoken to, like my child is lucky to be there so I really shouldn't be asking any questions. It really is a shame as it is a very needed resource for gifted kids but the opportunity has been squandered by bad management and bad attitudes. Would not recommend. read more

The online courses are awful. There are no lectures. They provide broken links to free websites such as Khan academy. The full section is usually "read chapter X and do the following 4 problems at the end of the chapter". No didactics. No teacher commentary. Textbooks used are often multiple editions old and courses not updated. It is a complete waste of money and is bordering on a scam. They should be ashamed of themselves and it is mind boggling that Northwestern would attach their name to this. read more

We signed my son up for an online science offering to augment his online learning during covid. This "class" was a disgrace. It was just pages and pages of PDFs to be printed out (completely de-contextualized- page 1,17,9 from one resource and pages 4,23 and 32 from another) and memorized. There was no discussion, no zoom, no video content at all. The labs were ancient 1990s links to FLASH websites that no longer worked. The class was purported to be self paced, however in reality he had 7 or 8 things "due" per week, so not much self pacing available. It was read a thing, answer a thing, read others answers, comment on other answers, read another thing. The whole thing was like a text-only tween chat site from the oughts. Truly an abomination of an offering for 2021. His completely un-prepared (as were we all) middle school teachers came up with better online learning content than CTD who has been doing it long before these teachers were teaching. Although that is the problem- it was OLD. Old content, old tech, old methods. read more

I lost my faith in them after our experience with them this summer. My daughters have attended Northwestern's Center for Talent Development for three years. They attend school in summer, live in the dorms, meet great kids, and learn a lot. But...there's a catch. This place is run by the most antiquated, bureacratic sloths! Forget getting a human on the phone when you call. Here is what happened this summer. One of my daughters got a $1,000 scholarship for her $2,500 tuition. They sent me a letter stating that I would owe $1,500 over a period of five months. Her mom had already sent a check for $250 with the application, $50 of which was a non-refundable application fee. I overlooked that when I got the scholarship letter. So, right off the bat we didn't get credit for the $200 that was to go toward tuition. Our balance going forward after the scholarship award should have been $1,300, not $1,500. I sent in $600, which was the first two of the five payments due. Then my daughter started the program and promptly got strep and mono after three days. They sent her home and kicked her out of the program; she was too contagious. I got a phone call from an adminstrator there stating that NU would refund the $600 I had paid, and I thanked them. Then I got a letter stating that the refund would be only $400. I called and asked why. The same administrator told me they had lost money on my daughter; they don't usually give refunds, and I should be happy with $400. She said I would receive the check within two - four weeks.That was late June. Then I realized they cashed the initial $250 check. A phone call ensued, and they politely told us to go scratch, despite protests that they were essentially reneging on the $1,000 scholarship. They didn't care. I just got the refund check today! Not worth their sharkiness no matter how worthwhile the education was. We'll find somewhere else next summer. read more

We enrolled our gifted 10 yo to an online course in Cryptography. I give the program 2 stars only because he really loved the content. Unfortunately the online course environment used by CTD is antiquated to the point of being unusable. The instructor had very limited computer skills and was also not good at navigating the courseware or structuring the course to maximize usability. But honestly the courseware is so abysmal I'm not sure that's even possible. The instructor was also very old-fashioned in collaborative learning and actively discouraged the students from sharing their work due to some strange notion that they would "steal" each others work. Open sharing and collaboration speeds both learning and innovation so this was a real loss to the participants. For the heavy price tag of $600 I'd say skip the online offerings at CTD, they are way behind the curve in creating a modern learning environment similar to MOOCs like Coursera. We paid $80 for a Coursera course and got a significantly better experience (though we now know they do apparently have a min age of 13). read more

If I could put zero stars...like stay the f away from this place it is a waste of money...I would!! The people could care less, their business practices are shady, they tout themselves as some kind of official knighting service for the forward progression of your "gifted" child...and yet: The equipment used in class often doesn't work. There is no follow-thru or plan for syllabus. It is an EXTREEMLY HIGH PRICED BABYSITTING SERVICE. The teachers and administrators are slow or non-existent when it comes to answering questions or emails. They cancel class with no refund and no chance for make up. I could go on..but PLEASE READ THIS YELP...DO NOT SPEND YOUR MONEY on Saturday Enrichment Program, CENTER FOR TALENT DEVELOPMENT. read more

The summer programs at CTD have been excellent for my two kids. In particular, the Debate course in Spectrum was outstanding, as was the Economics of Everything course in Equinox. Both kids requested to return after being there the prior year - choosing CTD over sports, theater, art, traditional camps; that says a lot about the kids. If yours are like that, they are likely to enjoy CTD and learn a lot. As another reviewer says, it is nice for some kids to be around "their people" for a few weeks a summer. The program isn't perfect. In particular, program management always seems a bit disorganized, and some classes are better than others, but overall, I would highly recommend it. read more

If I could give them zero stars I would have done so happily. Very unfriendly Staff, totally un-interested in dealing with any issue that comes up, and very unprofessional. For the amount of money you pay, this is very unacceptable!!!! also no makeup if your child happens to get sick, and no prorating if you happen to miss the first class or two for any reason (my husband and I happened to be traveling for work at the beginning of the fall courses, they refused to prorate and were very very unfriendly when I asked why at the front office on Noyes). I would stay away from them, the quality of what you get is not nearly close to what you are paying for....and the attitude is the worse!!!! read more

The content and live teaching is great! Our son thoroughly enjoyed the summer camp experience he participated in: Oceans. My 1-Star rating is based on the 20th Century customer experience for the Parents, the purchasers of the service. The website is from 1999, it is not dynamic, hundreds of landing pages with PDF's and no sophistication in purchasing enrichment programs. Extremely hard to speak to a human being, you get put into voice mail and the response time is in days. As an alum of Northwestern University - the service component of the CTD does not match the current and inspirational brand persona of the university. read more

While we have no experience with the online courses, both my son and daughter attended Apogee, Spectrum and Equinox summer programs for five years each. Typically they would be at both sessions during the summer and at the end of the two sessions they were each disappointed at having to leave. Some reviewers felt that the programs were merely expensive "babysitting", I would disagree. The exposure to advanced technologies pushed my daughter toward receiving a dual degree in mathematics and economics at a highly ranked university. My son, whose strength was in music, attended a highly selective college in New York where he studied intensely with Grammy winning teachers and after graduation moved to Holland to study classical music in Utrecht. When I ask them what contributed most significantly to their life choices other than their family, they both will point to their time at CTD. read more

Terrible experience. These classes are meant to be taught be teachers with gifted education experience. My son was in an active architects course with 3 other students. The woman was so inept she could not manage 4 kids. They brought in an aide to help her and they still failed. Every time I went to pick him up, she looked like a deer in headlights and told me about how badly behaved my child is. How can you teach a class that involves building and Lego and fail? My son can sit for hours with a few Legos, absolutely focused. He is gifted in spatial reasoning and excels in anything involving engineering but this course could not engage him and at least two of the other three students. The kids were crawling under tables, running out of the room, and up to other mischief. These classes are EXPENSIVE. When I sent an email to Northwestern to express my disappointment, they told me my son's behavior improved (false) and sorry, no refunds. read more

What a disappointing experience for my child and for all of us. This program is poorly managed by inexperienced and even incompetent personnel and the lack of timely and thorough communication with parents and students about policies, procedures, extracurricular activities and related matters is abysmal. My son was admitted to the summer program (commuter student).Once admitted, I placed three phone calls and sent multiple emails to the program manager for Apogee, to discuss the accommodations my son would need for his medical condition. He has severe food allergies and no where in the materials was this thoroughly addressed. It took these five attempts, over a 3 week period, to get a response from her. She told me that the staff was "certified" in managing food allergies. I know this cannot be true because I work in the food allergy world professionally and there is no certification course. I was also told that no where is food used in the curriculum nor served in the classroom. This turned out to be untrue and was awkward for my son. We were told that there were extracurricular activities that the students could select each afternoon. We were told that we would not learn what they were, nor be able to sign up, until orientation, the day before the program start. How is a parent supposed to plan without advance information? On registration day, the sign up for these extracurricular was launched and then aborted due to tech glitches no fewer than three times. When finally launched there were no descriptions of the activities. The orientation was awful. They took arbitrary groups of kids and parents into a room and rushed us through a few logistics/facts, then did it again with another group, etc. Literally the first thing out of the speaker's mouth was "you must be here exactly at 8:15. if you are here at 8:16 we will mark you as late." Not, for instance, "thanks for choosing CTD and we are so glad you're here.". We were advised on pick up and drop off locations before receiving a map. The groups for this orientation were not organized by age or class. It was just random based on what time you showed up. Why they didn't just gather us either by class or put us all in an auditorium and answer everyone's questions at once I don't know. For some unknown reason, the portal they use only allows one email address to be associated with a student. In our case, my husband forwarded the emails, but I don't know what kids with divorced parents or different parenting situations do. The staff, mostly college kids I suspect, created and enforced rules arbitrarily and nastily. For instance, on the second day of the program, my 11 year old left his ID lanyard at home. He was nastily told by program director that if he leaves it home again he will be kicked out of the program! In fact, the manual says if you lose your ID there is a replacement charge for a new one- no where does it mention that forgetting it gets you booted. On multiple occasions, my son and his classmates were told that if they don't wear their lanyards, they could be kidnapped. This is really an appropriate message for a group of 11 year olds? The manual said they used the buddy system to go to the restroom (which was maybe ten yards from the classroom door). I come to find out that theyreplaced that system with having the TA (of the other gender) accompany the kids to the bathroom but then she got upset when they went in the restroom without her! Meanwhile, there were no ID checks for parents or others picking up students at the end of the day. Arbitrary! Another random rule- they offer study sessions two nights per week that commuter students are welcomed to join and are "welcome" to stay for dinner. We found out after the first session that the dinner part is mandatory if you are staying for study session - 12 bucks too. Another- two thirds of the way into the program the kids were told they could no longer have recess outside because their sports activities were "too loud.". I am definitely a geek but this is too strict even for me. Worst of all, and most seriously, my son had an allergic reaction while there and they did not call me nor anyone on his emergency contact list nor consider using his medication. I was livid when I found out later that night. I did get calls of apology from the academic dean and from PD after I called them, but told her that the "certification" she mentioned in our spring phone call was bogus. My son actually got in trouble for using a curse word in the bathroom while vomiting during this allergic reaction. No empathy. The only reason I am giving two stars is that the content of the curriculum was good and my son enjoyed the coursework. Even then, instructor made some jokes about food allergies at my son's expense. NU is an outstanding institution with so much to offer its community. This program blemishes their reputation. read more

My son has attended Northwestern's CTD Equinox program for the past three years. He likes to refer to his summers at CTD as "being with my people." Gifted kids can sometimes have difficulties fitting in well with their mainstream school peers; CTD affords him a time when he can really communicate with other kids who just plain "get him." Yes, the education is top drawer and the activities are a lot of fun, but it is the overall experience of time spent with children of like minds that has been invaluable. He is already looking forward to this, his last summer before college. We are so grateful to Northwestern Center for Talent Development for giving him this opportunity. read more

Wow. Incredibly harsh reviews so far. I love the CTD. The teachers are phenomenal and the curriculum is fun and challenging for students who need to be challenged. My son has participated in two summer courses and one online course since we moved to the Boston area - he loves it and has had exposure to unique learnings that he might not otherwise. I love how the CTD makes learning challenging concepts fun! My only comment is I hope the CTD invests in more online/virtual learning so we can continue to participate! read more

My 11-year-old son has attended the Apogee summer program and the SEP (Saturday Enrichment Program) on Saturdays. He absolutely loved both! The course work is fun, but extremely challenging. He also had the opportunity to meet a lot of great kids from different backgrounds. The staff is great and they go all out for the students. My 8-year-old son just qualified for the program and I can't wait for him to get started! I highly recommend the CTD to any parent with gifted children. read more

The Northwestern CTD Honor program is an unaccepatable waste of time, money and, more importantly, a child's education. The honors program purports to be an online course. It is not. There is no course. There is no education. From an online course, a student and parent would expect some teaching, live videos or recorded videos, chat rooms for students and teachers -- in short, the standard for online education. Northwestern provides none of this NOTHING. There is NO TEACHING. Instead, the student must buy a text book, read it, teach himself and then submits quiz responses at the end of each chapter, which are graded and returned with comments. Grading a quiz at the the end of a chapter the student supposedly taught himself is not teaching. Yes, the student can e-mail questions, but how is a kid supposed to know what he does not know about a geometric proof. The Honors Geometery program is nothing more than grading of quizzes. Again, NO TEACHING. Northwestern should be ashamed to sell this as an online course. It is not. My child's school paid for this program to allow a few advanced students to move ahead in math. All the kids have stopped doing the program and the school has engaged another teacher to actually teach and the students are working together to solve problems -- not sitting alone with a text book trying to teach themselves. This is the worst academic program I have ever seen. DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE NORTHWESTERN BRAND. read more

I have four children that have all been in the summer CTD program multiple years. One daughter also did an online class through this program (which was a terrible waste of time and money with no teaching or real intent on learning the subject matter). The summer program however, I highly recommend! Many of the kids are returning campers. If your child is eager to learn and well adjusted they will love it and want to return too. Some of these Yelp reviews seem overly critical. In our experience for every 10 camp leaders 8 were fantastic and most were from top colleges around the country. More important, the kids are in class from 8-3 and the teachers are fantastic! If you have a high needs or highly allergic child I would not recommend three weeks anywhere at a young age. We live in a rural town. My kids have never been exposed to such knowledgable and motivated teachers and peers. It help set their bar much higher and exposed them to kids from all over the world, which they would never get in our town. I found this alone to be worth the expense. My two younger children will be going for their 3rd time this summer. My oldest in college, who attends a top Economics program said her only high school regret was not doing this camp throughout her high school years. Sometimes it's hard to get a 15 year old excited about course work over the summer, however she is encouraging her sisters to keep the program going through the high school years. Off the top of my head a few of the classes they enjoyed were Math Games, Physics and rollercoasters, Greek and Latin. My one daughter would not recommend Geometry, "it's just to much to squeeze in your brain in three weeks". My kids don't recommend the commuter program also. What made them want to return was the nice balance of fun and learning, the after class activities and the bonding with their advisors and floor mates help off set the academics. read more

I have the same experience with the CTD program. I was told one thing on the phone, but another in an email. They don't seems to care about the child or the parents! Information given were inconsistent and non caring. Can't believe they are in the business of educating children. read more