The Duke Talent Identification Program (Duke TIP) is a gifted education program based at Duke University. Its purpose is to identify gifted children and provide them and their parents the resources for them to reach their full educational potential.
Duke TIP operates in sixteen states throughout the South and Midwest, specifically the states of Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas.[1] Duke TIP was originally started in 1980 and operated in 13 states; Iowa, Kansas, and Nebraska were added the following year.
Children are identified in fourth/fifth grade and/or in seventh grade. In the seventh grade search, students take the SAT or ACT. If a student does exceptionally well on these exams, he or she can receive state and even national recognition for his or her efforts. This usually entails a congratulatory letter, medals, and an invitation to attend an awards ceremony.
TIP also runs several summer and weekend residential programs for the students. TIP's Summer Studies Program consists of the Academy and Center for Summer Studies. These programs are offered for seventh through tenth graders, known as first to fourth years, respectively. College campuses currently hosting Academy for Summer Studies Programs include University of Kansas, Appalachian State University, Texas A&M University, University of Georgia, and Duke Marine Lab. The Center for Summer Studies Programs are located at Trinity University, Davidson College, and Duke (East and West campuses). The Summer Studies program has two terms at each campus, except Duke Marine Lab, for Academy participants, and for people that wish to study under the Center program, both Duke campuses, Davidson, and Trinity are two terms. Duke Marine Lab is one term. Participants can choose from a variety of courses and focus on one area for three weeks of intense study.
The three-week Summer Studies program is an intensely social environment for most students. Often seen as more of a vacation or escape than a solely educational opportunity, the experience is usually linked to college life. The TIP schedule includes weekend dances and scheduled nightly recreation jokingly known among students as "mandatory fun"; thus, even outside of class, students are constantly occupied and social. Field trips, campus-wide events, sports events, and special events are common, and they are a lot of fun for students. The program has its own entire systems of lore and tradition, such as the Llama, "Toga Tuesday", "Swamp Fest", Cross-Dressing Day and a roll call dance. Because of the program's socially intense qualities, end-of-term goodbyes are extremely emotional, especially for departing fourth years.
Duke also hosts academic enrichment programs for older students, including the PreCollege Program at Duke's West campus, the Leadership and Great Debates Institutes at Duke's East Campus, and the International Affairs Institute at Wake Forest University. In addition, there are a variety of two-week field study programs which take place across the country and around the world. In select cities, scholar weekends are held throughout the year.
The students that participate in the program have seven hours of class each weekday and three hours on Saturday.
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