Corruption Ring in Science Olympiad

[AlphaTauri]

Has Bayard-Rustin ever won? Just curious.

Bayard-Rustin has never won...they and Conestoga have battled it out for third for the past few years. Harriton has won for 13 years straight (1998-2010), and Penncrest has come in second for 7 years running. Before those two schools, State College, Haverford, and Stroudsburg were the state powerhouses. I think there's a complete list on the Wiki.

[Bubba1960]

The only corruption is your school not working hard enough to defeat them

EDIT: And no, I'm not part of the alleged "conspiracy"- I lost to several rich schools myself, but could have defeated them with a little more work. See: 2 points more work.

What about your "incident" last year?

[zyzzyva980]

I medaled in all six of my events last year but couldn't get those last two points to go to nats. I don't really want to talk about it. It's somewhere around the forums, I'm sure. Check the archives if you're really that interested.

[personasaurus rex]

you really cant blame the judges. im sure the judges are picked because of their honesty.
however, he does have a point. not necessarily private, but big rich schools definitely do have a leg up on the poor schools. more money = better/more materials = possibly a better chance of winning. large schools benefit too because they have more people, and therefore more talent to choose their 15 from.

[winneratlife]

Corruption ring in Science Olympiad? It might be true!! The same teams win every year, rich, private schools with white kids. These schools have the most money and I belive they are corrupting the judges and the highest powers in Science Olympiad! Please respond!!

White kids win in my opinion because, frankly, asians spread themselves way too thin. Trying to pile on swimming or tennis with math competitions with SciO with Quizbowl with other things doesn't work out.

And private schools? I've actually had this discussion with some of my friends. The question wasn't why they do so well, because they don't. It was why they don't. I mean, Exeter, Andover, Horace Mann, probably more I can't remember: Do any of them even make nats?

[paleonaps]

Corruption ring in Science Olympiad? It might be true!! The same teams win every year, rich, private schools with white kids. These schools have the most money and I belive they are corrupting the judges and the highest powers in Science Olympiad! Please respond!!

No. Just no.
My team is in a wealthy area, but it is not private, and we have a good racial mix. We never corrupt the judges. We just work hard.

[Kokonilly]

White kids win in my opinion because, frankly, asians spread themselves way too thin. Trying to pile on swimming or tennis with math competitions with SciO with Quizbowl with other things doesn't work out.

Did you really just say/write that?

The bottom line is that it's not just white people that win at SciO (have you seen the Troy team? Not trying to profile here, but seriously!) and any conspiracy theories are completely off the mark. People win because they work hard, really want it, and are resourceful.

[ichaelm]

As another example of a public school that does really well but gets no funding for their events and only partial funding for transportation within the state, Bala Cynwyd!

And honestly this is one of the funniest ideas I've ever heard of. It would be like rigging a science fair.

Also, in the past couple weeks I have gotten lots of free high-tech supplies from manufacturers, just by asking for it and explaining why I need it! That can be really helpful for Sumo Bots, although I realize you're in B division. So besides transportation, what does a B division team need money for? Last year's winning battery buggy at nationals was made of wood, used plastic gears, and was powered by 4 AAs driving a drill-sized motor. From the looks of it, they didn't even use bearings for the axles. It seems to me like money really isn't an advantage at all.

[lllazar]

1. More funding means nothing, we have done 2 bake sales thus far and have raised over a $1000. For a few days of work. And that should do more than enough to cover all of our building events. If we do one more, we should have enough to make up for registration for Regionals and state. We get no funding from our school. So...ya....and as for trips to nationals, we'll cross that bridge WHEN we get there.

2. Study events take 0 funding, only your time. Dedication and hard work. And either way the majority of events are study events.

3. White kids? HAVE YOU SEEN SOLON/TROY (CALI)??? Some of the top placing schools at nats, majority Asian. What have you to say about that eh?

4. I can't say i don't get mad sometimes about not being able to make it to nats because everyone on my team honestly can't bring themselves to be as dedicated as myself, but i've found complaining about anything in this world does nothing but make you look selfish and unwilling to work harder.

5. Science olympiad is a team effort. If there isn't at least a majority of your team willing to work, forget it. Some of the kids on this forum will tell you that you should just work harder, but they couldn't begin to understand the half of it. You can't change the priorities of 14 other kids. You can try to rub off on them, maybe if you work harder they might. But they have to have the vision and goals that are absolutely crucial to doing well in sci oly. When you have a team of intelligent hard working kids who care about science olympiad, money couldn't matter less. When you have a team of very few dedicated members, and a majority lazy, unwilling kids, you have very little power in determining how they do.

All im saying is, i'm tired of hearing all this hardwork BS for making it to nats as a TEAM, because i work as hard as i can, aiming to get 1st at state in every event, but my teammates won't. And i know that they never will. If your school has diligent members who are willing to put in the time, i envy you, but i suggest you work as hard as you can to make it to nats because any TEAM that is willing to put in the work can make it to nats.

[gneissisnice]

Corruption ring in Science Olympiad? It might be true!! The same teams win every year, rich, private schools with white kids. These schools have the most money and I belive they are corrupting the judges and the highest powers in Science Olympiad! Please respond!!

My school does pretty well (top 3 in states, top 15 in nats, generally), and half the team is Asian. We're also a public school.