MIT Invitational 2018

[Raleway]

Cost of MIT is pretty scary if you're not within driving distance (I know teams like Mason drove 14+ hours here, even right after awards ended around 9 PM). Flying wise get ready to pay for every seat and know that you risk a lot when flying with builds (TSA will probably call your mission possible a bomb). Hotels in the Cambridge area are pretty expensive (MIT gets discounts but ranges from 80-150). Out of state, I would estimate about 200-300 dollars a person? It really depends where you are relative to Cambridge but yes, be ready to pay a lot.

[islipscioly]

Cost of MIT is pretty scary if you're not within driving distance (I know teams like Mason drove 14+ hours here, even right after awards ended around 9 PM). Flying wise get ready to pay for every seat and know that you risk a lot when flying with builds (TSA will probably call your mission possible a bomb). Hotels in the Cambridge area are pretty expensive (MIT gets discounts but ranges from 80-150). Out of state, I would estimate about 200-300 dollars a person? It really depends where you are relative to Cambridge but yes, be ready to pay a lot.

We drove from Long Island on Friday via coach bus and stayed one night. The hotel and coach bus alone was $5000 for two teams and four chaperones. That doesn't include food and registration costs.

[alleycat03]

Cost of MIT is pretty scary if you're not within driving distance (I know teams like Mason drove 14+ hours here, even right after awards ended around 9 PM). Flying wise get ready to pay for every seat and know that you risk a lot when flying with builds (TSA will probably call your mission possible a bomb). Hotels in the Cambridge area are pretty expensive (MIT gets discounts but ranges from 80-150). Out of state, I would estimate about 200-300 dollars a person? It really depends where you are relative to Cambridge but yes, be ready to pay a lot.

We put most of our builds in checked luggage and prayed that they wouldn’t break. On the way back, one of the containers actually did get searched by TSA.
My friend actually wanted to take his mission possible in a carry on, but our coach didn’t allow that because it definitely looked like a bomb.

In terms of costs for MIT, coming from Kansas it was pretty expensive. We each had to pay $468 for a team of 15 and our 2 coaches. This included 2 team meals, airplane tickets, part of the tournament fee, and the hotel room (for 2 nights). We also each brought about $100 in spending money for other meals and souvenirs. We host a tournament every year (O-Town Throwdown), which gave us some money that we could use for tournaments like MIT. We also fundraised A LOT and then it was basically up to each team member to pay for the rest of their portion.

After MIT, our team bank account is basically empty, but MIT was fun and, in my opinion, totally worth it.

[PM2017]

I'm apparently completely stupid, and forgot about GGSO, which is much cheaper (I'm in SoCal) Would have still liked to go to MIT though...

[alleycat03]

I'm apparently completely stupid, and forgot about GGSO, which is much cheaper (I'm in SoCal) Would have still liked to go to MIT though...

From what I’ve seen, GGSO seems like a very competitive competition, almost on the same level as MIT. GGSO is probably a lot more feasible for you team to attend, but don’t totally discard the possibility of going to MIT. The tournament is expensive but I think it is worth it. My team competed against many teams that do amazingly well at nationals, while taking tests that were on par with, if not better than, nationals tests.

[PM2017]

I'm apparently completely stupid, and forgot about GGSO, which is much cheaper (I'm in SoCal) Would have still liked to go to MIT though...

From what I’ve seen, GGSO seems like a very competitive competition, almost on the same level as MIT. GGSO is probably a lot more feasible for you team to attend, but don’t totally discard the possibility of going to MIT. The tournament is expensive but I think it is worth it. My team competed against many teams that do amazingly well at nationals, while taking tests that were on par with, if not better than, nationals tests.

Lol nationals currently mean nothing to me, thanks to Troy being in SoCal (ripp....).

It's just that we have no good way of raising the money to go, and even if we do, we can only really send one of our two teams, since it just isn't feasible for us to send both... Our school won't even let us sell donuts on campus anymore. Also, members are already paying a good chunk of money as an annual membership fee, so I can't expect anyone to pay for MIT, after that.

EDIT: WAIT, I forgot about the money that we got from membership fees. I seem to be very forgetful today...

[alleycat03]

I'm apparently completely stupid, and forgot about GGSO, which is much cheaper (I'm in SoCal) Would have still liked to go to MIT though...

From what I’ve seen, GGSO seems like a very competitive competition, almost on the same level as MIT. GGSO is probably a lot more feasible for you team to attend, but don’t totally discard the possibility of going to MIT. The tournament is expensive but I think it is worth it. My team competed against many teams that do amazingly well at nationals, while taking tests that were on par with, if not better than, nationals tests.

Lol nationals currently mean nothing to me, thanks to Troy being in SoCal (ripp....).

It's just that we have no good way of raising the money to go, and even if we do, we can only really send one of our two teams, since it just isn't feasible for us to send both... Our school won't even let us sell donuts on campus anymore. Also, members are already paying a good chunk of money as an annual membership fee, so I can't expect anyone to pay for MIT, after that.

EDIT: WAIT, I forgot about the money that we got from membership fees. I seem to be very forgetful today...

If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you charge for membership fees? We charge $40 per person, which also includes the team t-shirt, so there’s about $25-$30 (depending on the shirt price) that the team ends up with per person on the team. We had about 50? people pay membership fees, so that was $1250-$1500.

Before this year, I don’t think anybody on our team could’ve imagined attending MIT. Our first tournament that wasn’t in the Kansas City area (both in KS and MO) was just last season, when we were invited to, and ended up competing at, the Rice Invitational. This year, the members of our team wanted to go somewhere even more prestigious and competitive. After figuring out if attending MIT was possible, we worked hard to be able to afford it. So, if lots of people on your team besides you were interested in attending, it is certainly possible. Admittedly, a large part of the cost of MIT for each person was out of pocket. We didn’t even come close to paying for everything with fundraising, but we attempted to earn as much money as possible with fundraising. Try looking in to local restaurants and see if they would host a fundraiser night for your team. We did sell doughnuts, but we also did restaurant fundraisers and used a fundraising site called SnapRaise. That, plus the money from hosting our own tournament (registration fees and concessions money), did help offset some of the cost of MIT.

My school has about 40 people that are actively involved in Science Olympiad, and my coach had to select the top 15 people to send to MIT. Maybe the ability to attend the MIT tournament might motivate some of your team members to work harder so that they are selected to be on the team that attends?

[PM2017]

From what I’ve seen, GGSO seems like a very competitive competition, almost on the same level as MIT. GGSO is probably a lot more feasible for you team to attend, but don’t totally discard the possibility of going to MIT. The tournament is expensive but I think it is worth it. My team competed against many teams that do amazingly well at nationals, while taking tests that were on par with, if not better than, nationals tests.

Lol nationals currently mean nothing to me, thanks to Troy being in SoCal (ripp....).

It's just that we have no good way of raising the money to go, and even if we do, we can only really send one of our two teams, since it just isn't feasible for us to send both... Our school won't even let us sell donuts on campus anymore. Also, members are already paying a good chunk of money as an annual membership fee, so I can't expect anyone to pay for MIT, after that.

EDIT: WAIT, I forgot about the money that we got from membership fees. I seem to be very forgetful today...

If you don’t mind me asking, how much do you charge for membership fees? We charge $40 per person, which also includes the team t-shirt, so there’s about $25-$30 (depending on the shirt price) that the team ends up with per person on the team. We had about 50? people pay membership fees, so that was $1250-$1500.

Before this year, I don’t think anybody on our team could’ve imagined attending MIT. Our first tournament that wasn’t in the Kansas City area (both in KS and MO) was just last season, when we were invited to, and ended up competing at, the Rice Invitational. This year, the members of our team wanted to go somewhere even more prestigious and competitive. After figuring out if attending MIT was possible, we worked hard to be able to afford it. So, if lots of people on your team besides you were interested in attending, it is certainly possible. Admittedly, a large part of the cost of MIT for each person was out of pocket. We didn’t even come close to paying for everything with fundraising, but we attempted to earn as much money as possible with fundraising. Try looking in to local restaurants and see if they would host a fundraiser night for your team. We did sell doughnuts, but we also did restaurant fundraisers and used a fundraising site called SnapRaise. That, plus the money from hosting our own tournament (registration fees and concessions money), did help offset some of the cost of MIT.

My school has about 40 people that are actively involved in Science Olympiad, and my coach had to select the top 15 people to send to MIT. Maybe the ability to attend the MIT tournament might motivate some of your team members to work harder so that they are selected to be on the team that attends?

Our fee is $100 per person/year. this year approx $35 of each person's money went to a windbreaker (To be used for all four years, so the actual money the club gets will increase next year) This times the 33 people who joined, and two who joined, paid, then quit (???), gives $2345. Then, we have two 1,000 dollar grants, one from the district's education fund, and one from a company owned by the parent of an alum. For a total of $4345 After subtracting our current competition fees (2 invites*2 teams*$150/invite/team, as well as 2*$325 per team for regionals, even though only one can compete, and $60 for state = 1310) This results in $3035 for resource for builds and printing at Staples etc. (I do feel as though we're over-allocating to build events, and that most study events don't need any money at all)

One issue that we would have though, is the fact that we would be having unstacked teams next year, and would use invitationals to decide. I don't think that would work with MIT.

[shoujolivia]

you risk a lot when flying with builds (TSA will probably call your mission possible a bomb).

flying with build supplies and builds is definitely a nightmare!!! traveling with helicopter or towers pieces, even disassembled, is honestly so stressful. also, we watched our optics box get thrown onto one of the luggage carrying trucks from the plane. on the way home, tsa dropped our thermo box and the beakers inside broke. we've had people's knives get taken away because they forgot to pack them in checked luggage. TSA ALWAYS SEARCHES OUR BAGS TOO. flying's mostly funny in hindsight but super stressful in the moment.

[windu34]

you risk a lot when flying with builds (TSA will probably call your mission possible a bomb).

flying with build supplies and builds is definitely a nightmare!!! traveling with helicopter or towers pieces, even disassembled, is honestly so stressful. also, we watched our optics box get thrown onto one of the luggage carrying trucks from the plane. on the way home, tsa dropped our thermo box and the beakers inside broke. we've had people's knives get taken away because they forgot to pack them in checked luggage. TSA ALWAYS SEARCHES OUR BAGS TOO. flying's mostly funny in hindsight but super stressful in the moment.

Traveling with builds doesn't have to be stressful. Being from Florida, we had to fly with builds 3-4 times per season and we developed a system. Sure, things can break while traveling, but its not a problem if you EXPECT it to break. I always designed my builds with travel in mind (how will I disassemble this while maintaining accuracy) and I even built travel cases out of wood for Robot Arm and Electric Vehicle (both cases would get stuffed with various appropriate packing materials). I honestly believe that this pratice traveling with builds played a significant role in never having done poorly in a build at nationals due to something breaking or shifting.

As far as the TSA goes, just know what is allowed at what isnt and expect to be stopped regardless. Just don't say "Be careful, it might explode" when the TSA agent is inspecting your mission possible device (true story)