New Jersey 2014

[Luo]

Well traditionally JP Stevens has always been good at balsa structure events (and build events in general I guess). But the people who were responsible for getting us almost all of our medals this year (myself included) are all going to graduate next year...so I worry about the future of our club. We took only two sophomores to states.

Oh wow, for our school it's the opposite. We had 3 seniors on our states team, and I know a few 8th graders that did really well in states. I hope, and most likely, they will come to UCVTS.

So with this in mind, and that fact that states seems to be gradually declining a bit in quality, I think an invitationals would be great. Most invitationals that NJ teams could go to are either too far away, or out of schedule. And considering most teams don't have the funds or drive to actually even go to invitationals out-of-state, I do think a New Jersey invitationals, a physical, non-online one, is in order. It'd give all the NJ teams a chance to test ideas, meet new friends, and conspire to overthrow WWPHS South (not kidding )

Okay that's wonderful! I'm going to see what I can do to run an invite. My school's got the room and everything. As long as we have enough other teams coming, I think we can do this! Also... fixed that for you xD

Oh, and I'd be glad to actually provide some build tips directly to your team if you want. My personal goal is to simply make NJ more competitive in general.

I will take you up on that offer as soon as I can! I can uhhh help you with astronomy? (Never mind your school's already good at astronomy.)

Oh, yah! In a moment of egotism, I can see pictures of me on the state tournament album

Haha I can see distant pictures of me on the bleachers behind WW-P South....Remind me to never again sit behind WW-P South at the award ceremony. >.<

I sent her a very edited, false-courteous email 2 weeks before States asking about the event schedule, and she replied a week later. Looking now on the NJ website, there's a notice under the NJ SO Contact info that "Please direct all inquiries to your team coach." The only way for students to directly offer comments would probably through Facebook or Twitter or something (which I would if I had one of those).

I too, sent her an email asking for clarifications. She never responded.

PLEASE run an invitational next year It's about time NJ had one, considering how awesome we are. Just make sure it doesn't conflict with Connestoga or Tiger Invies xD. But seriously, having an invitational in NJ would save people from driving two hours to PA, which would be awesome
BTW, I wish there was a way for NJ to send two teams to Nats each year. Apparently we just need to increase our total State membership, maybe by 50 or so teams. Haha perhaps open a fourth Regional tourny or expand the team limit at the current three tournies?

And yeah, WQ was terrible at States I have to vouch for UCC, that test was pretty good. I think it was written by one of the professors there during winter break
**EDIT: We'd only need 15ish more schools registered to send two teams to Nats? Don't see why we can't do it! About time NJ sent two teams, considering how competitive we are

We are hoping that a few New Jersey teams will make the trek up to Boston for our inaugural Division C invitational at MIT next winter. Details to come.

[nxtscholar]

lol. The last time I went to MIT was for InvenTeam last year...a six hour ride on a bus.

But sure, we'd be interested.

[fanjiatian]

You're kidding right? Only 14 more teams? That is a ridiculously low number relatively. Anyone want to join me in campaigning around NJ to kickstart new teams?

But yeah, about that NJ Invitationals, I know that UCVTS is trying to organize one. If that doesn't work out (though I hope it does), I can guarantee JP Stevens will. It seems generally from everyone I heard that an NJ Invitational would be viewed favorably...except how many of us exactly would be planning on going? I would imagine at least 20 teams would need to register?

Oh, don't worry about getting enough teams xD If you schedule it for mid-late February or late January, I'm sure many teams in NJ would want to come. Plus, a lot of PA teams would probably come as they're within 1.5 hours away
On a side note, I was really impressed to see a team from MD and Delaware at one of the PA invies, they probably drove for 3+ hours and stayed overnight

[UQOnyx]

Ahem... If anyone is thinking of doing an invite PLEASE PLEASE include div B. Also, kinda confused about the topic at hand. Are we talking about the number of teams needed to get more teams to go to Nats?

[nxtscholar]

That was one of the topics, yes. New Jersey only needed at least 15 more teams approx.

[SilverNight]

Ahem... If anyone is thinking of doing an invite PLEASE PLEASE include div B.

Awww I'm sorry
If I (representing UCVTS) do an invite, it would be div C only. For the first year at least.
Maybe you can get someone else (or your school) to do div B?

[UQOnyx]

Lol, my school is way too small. If you guys have driven down Rt. 1 near South Brunswick/Princeton, you guys have seen the size of my school...

[islipscioly]

As an FYI, we held a Division C invitational on Long Island last year, and we intend to hold it again next year in December. The preliminary date is December 13th. The location might have to change to another district on the island as our school is set to start a capital building project in the upcoming months. We should have everything finalized for your consideration in June.

[nxtscholar]

Oh, just for future reference and further emphasis for other NJ users:

The question was why UCC regionals was so much better, and the general question to be asked is which regionals is the most competitive.

I added up the placement numbers for every Div C team at states for each regional. So UCC teams got 49. Camden got 125. And NJIT got 177.

Of course, you might make the argument that I should've added the total scores, which would give perhaps a better idea. So I did that too. Here is the break down:

NJIT - 3396
Camden - 2755
UCC - 1586


Clearly, these numbers give a clear idea about the quality of teams competing at the regionals level.

[nxtscholar]

I just noticed this on the NJSO website:

"Event Rules
Event rules for ALL Science Olympiad events printed in the current year's Official Rules Manuals supersede any and all materials found at the "Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki" or anywhere else online. The "Science Olympiad Student Center Wiki" is not maintained by National Science Olympiad. National Science Olympiad does not publish any event rules online or any location other than the Official Rules Manual."

So...does that mean that event clarifications posted by NSO on their website doesn't mean anything? Because the way this is strictly worded seems to imply that.