Corruption Ring in Science Olympiad

[zyzzyva980]

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.

[RandomPerson]

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!!

That's quite stereotypical and frankly wrong. It is usually public schools who do the best in science olympiad.
But yes, schools with more funding do usually do better than schools with less funding, but funding is much much less of a factor than hard work. Especially for study events. Of course it is a shame that well funded schools do get any sort of advantage, but there is little we can do about it.

[robotman]

Yea it is a generally false statement.
My team last year was a public school and our team had 0 funding and we made it to nats.

[kjhsscioly]

I really doubt it has much to do with "corruption". Our state is always won by public schools. Always. Granted, the school that does win every year spends $18,000 dollars on any given student in a year, while the state average is around $8,000, but it is just that they have more resources, and possibly just work harder. Our school's team is not funded well by the district compared to many of the sports team, but there have been two years in which we have beat the two usual teams. Winning state really doesn't come down to how rich or poor your school is, but rather how hard your team works.

[AlphaTauri]

We have the same two teams win Div C every year, and the same 3 (formerly 4) teams fighting over the Div B spots. Yes, those schools have money and yes, some of them (actually only one) are private schools...but there's no corruption. They work the hardest and deserve to go to Nats. I won't say that money doesn't help, but it definitely isn't everything. A rich school with lots of money but no dedication can easily lose to an unfunded, but dedicated, team.

[French_Toast]

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!!

I dunno if you've ever seen Solon's team before. Last time I checked, there wasn't a whole lot of whiteness there(no offense meant, just stating facts).

[brobo]

While it may appear that certain teams win because they are rich, private, and white, that is not always the case. A rich, private, and all white school can definitely win, but no more than the public school with no funding that has a bit of every race in it. That's the beauty of Science Olympiad; it really shows that knowledge is power, not money. Any team can win as long as they have dedication and a will to get to Nationals.

Last year our school had plenty of funding. A brand new school in a great part of town. It's a large school, so the team was picked from the very best- we had every chance in the world to get to nationals. And ya know what? We didn't make it. We lost to the school with no funding. Why? Because they had more dedication, spent more time on their events, and because they wanted it more.

The judges aren't "corrupted", nor is Science Olympiad. If you feel that a team has an unfair advantage over you, then you just need to work that much harder to beat them.

[robotman]

We lost to the school with no funding. Why? Because they had more dedication, spent more time on their events, and because they wanted it more.

yea we did

[brobo]

We lost to the school with no funding. Why? Because they had more dedication, spent more time on their events, and because they wanted it more.

yea we did

I was only trying to make a point. Don't rub it in.

[frogzorz]

I'm going to use our friends at Strath Haven Middle School as an example. plz no hatin'...
Strath Haven is not a private school. They are a public school. They're not all white. I'm pretty sure they're mostly self-funded with maybe a little support of the school district. And they do awesome at States. Really awesome. They won States along with our school last year. So what you've heard/believe about corruption rings and whatever is untrue. But what is true is that there is some kind of corruption in how awesome the smoothies are at Von Liebig. Unbelievable.

We have the same two teams win Div C every year, and the same 3 (formerly 4) teams fighting over the Div B spots. Yes, those schools have money and yes, some of them (actually only one) are private schools...but there's no corruption. They work the hardest and deserve to go to Nats. I won't say that money doesn't help, but it definitely isn't everything. A rich school with lots of money but no dedication can easily lose to an unfunded, but dedicated, team.

Has Bayard-Rustin ever won? Just curious.
By the way, Shady Side Academy is not entirely comprised of Caucasians. At Science Crime Busters last year we met two pleasant kids from SSA. One was presumably of South Asian descent and the other was (I think) Sino-Asian. We didn't medal, but they did.

If you're frustrated about not getting past States, study hard. Find all the resources you can (best are on the internet). Even if your team doesn't clinch it, you will have a shiny medal that you will have bragging rights to.