> The gifted program isn't as hot as those
> involved think it is (I should know, I was in
> it for 10 years), in fact in my experience it's
> a glorified clique for intellectual snobs with
> no real benefits after the elementary school
> years. Special awards are great, but really,
> what colleges want are students who can do the
> work and graduate.

Heh. Here, I have to disagree with you. Sure, the gifted program is largely a glorified clique for intellectual snobs. At my high school, however, that's a good thing; by taking gifted and AP classes, I can gracefully avoid the awful, insanely dumbed-down college prep classes which my school offers. And the social environment's preferable; at least I'm on a similar wavelength with my classmates in gifted classes, whereas if I were in a college prep class--eh, let's just say I'd be even more extremely introverted than I *currently* am. :)

-- codeman"my school really stretches the definition of 'college prep'"38