The Julian C. Stanley Study of Exceptional Talent (SET) was created to help extremely talented students achieve their full potential. Since 1980, SET has assisted students throughout the U.S. who exhibit extraordinary mathematical or verbal reasoning ability by scoring at least 700 on either the Mathematical or Verbal (Critical Reading) part of the SAT Reasoning Test before the age of 13.

Learn more about the history of SET and how students may qualify for and join SET.

If you just qualified for SET, congratulations!

• If you qualified in CTY's 2009 Talent Search, you should receive an invitation to join SET in March.
• If you qualified for SET in a Talent Search other than CTY, please see this page for instructions.

Counseling Services

SET's primary function is as a counseling service to its members. To help students find appropriately challenging academic opportunities, SET provides free academic advice both directly and through our publications and web resources:

• Imagine, a bimonthly magazine created just for highly able middle and high school students. Imagine is provided free to SET members and is available by subscription to anyone interested in learning more about opportunities for academically able youth.
• Cogito.org, an online community developed by CTY just for highly able middle and high school students with a keen interest in science and math. It provides news for and about such students, including profiles of young scientists, interviews of adult scientists, and searchable directories of relevant programs and resources. And members-only forums allow gifted students to safely connect with one another and with invited guest experts. All students who qualify for SET are invited to become members of Cogito.
• The SET Precollege Newsletter, published just for SET members, include additional information as well as news updates from SET members around the world.

Research Activities

By following the academic progress and careers of its members, SET's staff studies talent development and evaluates the effectiveness of various educational strategies and interventions in meeting the individual needs of exceptional youths. We hope to better understand the needs of highly able students and to identify effective ways for such individuals to meet those needs. For more about research on the SET population, see CTY's Research Bibliography and the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) at Vanderbilt University.

SET is directed by Dr. Linda Brody, who has over 20 years of experience counseling highly able students and studying how to meet their intellectual and developmental needs.

To learn more, read a brief history of SET, an overview of SET's services, and frequently asked questions about SET. If you have additional questions, please e-mail us at setcty@jhu.edu or call (410) 735-6120.