The Cost of Science Olympiad

[waffletree]

Everything is pretty expensive, I would pretty much guess that a team that goes to states up to 7,000-8,000 dollars; but a team for national can go 15 grand per team and higher.

well...i dont see how a team would spend more than 4000. if theres $300 for each of the 5 builds (thermo, battery buggy, boomi, ELG, mystery arch, roller coaster), thats $1800, and im pretty sure mystery arch doesn't take $300. If you spend 100 on each event that needs "stuff" and not just notes (Circuit, Crime, Density, ExpD, Potions, Road, Water quality, widi), thats $800. Then if the complete study events need $50 each (anatomy, disease, dynamic, fossils, heredity, herp, meteo, solar), which is $400, and i assume $50 isnt needed for each of those events. Game On shouldn't cost you anything. Then add $1000 miscellaneous
1800+800+400+1000=$4000.
Then materials can be used for next year, so i cant see how teams would need to spend $15000
correct me if im wrong

[UTF-8 U+6211 U+662F]

Everything is pretty expensive, I would pretty much guess that a team that goes to states up to 7,000-8,000 dollars; but a team for national can go 15 grand per team and higher.

well...i dont see how a team would spend more than 4000. if theres $300 for each of the 5 builds (thermo, battery buggy, boomi, ELG, mystery arch, roller coaster), thats $1800, and im pretty sure mystery arch doesn't take $300. If you spend 100 on each event that needs "stuff" and not just notes (Circuit, Crime, Density, ExpD, Potions, Road, Water quality, widi), thats $800. Then if the complete study events need $50 each (anatomy, disease, dynamic, fossils, heredity, herp, meteo, solar), which is $400, and i assume $50 isnt needed for each of those events. Game On shouldn't cost you anything. Then add $1000 miscellaneous
1800+800+400+1000=$4000.
Then materials can be used for next year, so i cant see how teams would need to spend $15000
correct me if im wrong

Also, don't forget the cost of invitationals, buses, etc.

Although 15 grand doesn't seem resonable to me... what are you guys doing with all of that?

[Anomaly]

last year, our middle school team spent collectively about 2500 dollars. note however, this is with self transportation and the one trip we spent a night in a hotel in was paid for individually by each family, so this isn't included in that

[MadCow2357]

I recall that going to nationals alone cost 16 grand. Obviously you have plane tickets, buses, food, stuff like that. It's not unheard of for a team to spend over $30,000 per year, especially if you fly across the country for invites like Troy and Solon.

[waffletree]

Everything is pretty expensive, I would pretty much guess that a team that goes to states up to 7,000-8,000 dollars; but a team for national can go 15 grand per team and higher.

well...i dont see how a team would spend more than 4000. if theres $300 for each of the 5 builds (thermo, battery buggy, boomi, ELG, mystery arch, roller coaster), thats $1800, and im pretty sure mystery arch doesn't take $300. If you spend 100 on each event that needs "stuff" and not just notes (Circuit, Crime, Density, ExpD, Potions, Road, Water quality, widi), thats $800. Then if the complete study events need $50 each (anatomy, disease, dynamic, fossils, heredity, herp, meteo, solar), which is $400, and i assume $50 isnt needed for each of those events. Game On shouldn't cost you anything. Then add $1000 miscellaneous
1800+800+400+1000=$4000.
Then materials can be used for next year, so i cant see how teams would need to spend $15000
correct me if im wrong

Also, don't forget the cost of invitationals, buses, etc.

Although 15 grand doesn't seem resonable to me... what are you guys doing with all of that?

right. so add another $4000 though that stuff doesnt take that much. that's $8000...
i agree with utf
im pretty sure my team wouldnt even know what to do with 15000

[TheChiScientist]

well...i dont see how a team would spend more than 4000. if theres $300 for each of the 5 builds (thermo, battery buggy, boomi, ELG, mystery arch, roller coaster), thats $1800, and im pretty sure mystery arch doesn't take $300. If you spend 100 on each event that needs "stuff" and not just notes (Circuit, Crime, Density, ExpD, Potions, Road, Water quality, widi), thats $800. Then if the complete study events need $50 each (anatomy, disease, dynamic, fossils, heredity, herp, meteo, solar), which is $400, and i assume $50 isnt needed for each of those events. Game On shouldn't cost you anything. Then add $1000 miscellaneous
1800+800+400+1000=$4000.
Then materials can be used for next year, so i cant see how teams would need to spend $15000
correct me if im wrong

Also, don't forget the cost of invitationals, buses, etc.

Although 15 grand doesn't seem resonable to me... what are you guys doing with all of that?

right. so add another $4000 though that stuff doesnt take that much. that's $8000...
i agree with utf
im pretty sure my team wouldnt even know what to do with 15000

The main reason we deal with needing sums of 15k+ is that most of these teams get hotels for when they qualify for states or compete at a far away invitational. Unless parents are covering the costs of hotels that can be a major expense to teams that cover these costs for their competitors.

[HuskyLove]

I'm currently in Division C, but this answer is about the Div. B team that I participated in and help out right now.

First of all: the school offers next to no support. The team isn't allowed to fundraise, and we have to rent rooms at the school every week. This makes the costs a LOT higher. I don't remember the exact cost, but it runs the team a couple thousand just to have somewhere to practice.

Each student at the beginning of the year has to pay $250, if my memory isn't failing me. This is even if they're not going to competition (although with the current system, pretty much all the students go to at least one invitational). We have about eighty students at the beginning of the year, so if you do the math, that comes out to about $20000.

This money covers us for the whole year, with some wiggle room, for:

• Room rentals
• Building event costs
• Team shirts (one for each student and coach, extra ones for parents, siblings, etc. cost $10)
• Food costs during competition
• Invitational costs (in recent years, we've sent a total of 7 teams spread out over 3 invitationals)
• Individual event costs (reimbursements for snacks, textbooks, etc.)
• If we have the extra money (and we usually do) jackets/windbreakers for the coaches

At first glance, this money seems like way too much, even to me, but once I realized that this team is entirely volunteer-run and this is our only source of income for the whole year, it makes a lot more sense.