[didericis]

Good question. The programs themselves are generally good, as far as I’ve experienced, but the culture around them is often quite toxic. Many kids are treated like race horses. I’m not sure how effective they are on net. Most highly successful people seem like autodidacts that end up finding the resources they need one way or another. Would guess the best way to create more of those people is just to keep a lot of doors open and hope someone like that walks through.

[DarylZero]

Culture overrun by rich overachievers gaming the selection system?

[didericis]

That’s a fairly blunt description, but I think it’s roughly accurate. I think there are plenty of middle income and low income overachievers in there as well. Recent immigrants can be incredibly demanding and hard on kids who might not be naturally inclined to pursue that kind of thing without external pressure, as can competitive suburbanites.

But by trying to mitigate the risk of toxicity you can go too far in the other direction and end up not pushing smart kids to reach their full potential, which is also bad. Striking the right balance is hard.