New Jersey 2018

knottingpurple
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Re: New Jersey 2018

Post by knottingpurple »

kenniky wrote:
Unome wrote:how many people from MIT and Harvard were at MA state tournaments for example?
Not many because the locations of the state tournaments are not in Boston and aren't really close to any major public transportation stops. Owning a car in Boston, especially as a college student, is pretty dumb because Boston's public transportation covers a really good amount of the city, and parking sucks especially in the winter when there's furniture on the road
Maybe that's also a factor in NJ - we had one alum, now at Rutgers, who came to States on our bus (we have direct train service to Rutgers and Princeton which I assume they used), rather than having to drive themself or pay for an Uber at 7 in the morning, and I think lumosityfan went on JPS's bus if I remember correctly? But alumni who can't get to their old schools via public transport are really stuck - or teams which run out of space on their buses for alumni, which frankly, we did. If Rutgers hosted a competition at least there'd be NJ Transit Northeast Corridor to get there, although it's not the most reliable and people not living near that train love wouldn't be helped much, plus Rutgers would have a huge student body to volunteer without any transportation at all.
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Re: New Jersey 2018

Post by pikachu4919 »

knottingpurple wrote:
kenniky wrote:
Unome wrote:how many people from MIT and Harvard were at MA state tournaments for example?
Not many because the locations of the state tournaments are not in Boston and aren't really close to any major public transportation stops. Owning a car in Boston, especially as a college student, is pretty dumb because Boston's public transportation covers a really good amount of the city, and parking sucks especially in the winter when there's furniture on the road
Maybe that's also a factor in NJ - we had one alum, now at Rutgers, who came to States on our bus (we have direct train service to Rutgers and Princeton which I assume they used), rather than having to drive themself or pay for an Uber at 7 in the morning, and I think lumosityfan went on JPS's bus if I remember correctly? But alumni who can't get to their old schools via public transport are really stuck - or teams which run out of space on their buses for alumni, which frankly, we did. If Rutgers hosted a competition at least there'd be NJ Transit Northeast Corridor to get there, although it's not the most reliable and people not living near that train love wouldn't be helped much, plus Rutgers would have a huge student body to volunteer without any transportation at all.
Can confirm - Two things here: first - timing. I can easily volunteer at IN's State bc it's usually during my spring break (Purdue and IU happen to have the same spring breaks - coincidence? idk), so I don't have to worry about missing class or exams or anything (I mean I may have some but they wouldn't be immediate concerns). Second - transportation. Last year I had to completely rely on my coach and team for transportation to IN's state tournament bc it's held at IU, I'm a Purdue student, the two campuses are quite far away from each other and not terribly convenient to reach by public transportation, and I didn't have my own means or a carpool from another Purdue student (again, bc of spring break) XD it was much better this year since I have a car with me now but seriously, transportation to the tournament is also a big factor in college undergrads getting there. Honestly, those two are my biggest things to figure out in order to go volunteer at a tournament in the first place.
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Re: New Jersey 2018

Post by lumosityfan »

1) aww thx to all you guys who say my test is good. I try even though college sucks :|
2) I did not go on JP's bus but rather my mom took me. That being said great point about transportation - MCC is a pain in the butt to get to.
3) Totally agreed we need to get states on a weekend. I know that if states were on the weekend the past 2 years I'd def at least strongly consider going minus any qb nats or whatnot.
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Re: New Jersey 2018

Post by fanjiatian »

Why Princeton students don't volunteer at States: the date makes it really hard for in-state alumni to help out. Princeton always has midterms during the week of States, which is why not a lot of Princeton students volunteer. I got lucky this year and had all my midterms on the day before States (if it hadn't snowed), but the rest of the invitational organizers were buried until basically the last day of exams.

Why Princeton can't host States: it would be literally impossible - our campus is small and administration is incredibly difficult to work with. The beginning of February is basically the only time that we could hold a Science Olympiad tournament, which is why we run an invitational. Starting the invitational and successfully running for two consecutive years was not easy :)

Why States isn't on a weekend: one of the NJSO committee members said that it's because 1) a lot of schools apparently can't afford to pay teachers/bus drivers for "working" outside normal academic hours, and 2) MCC campus space is most available on a weekday. I don't know how much validity there is to 1) - maybe ask your coaches and get them to email NJSO.

On the bright side, some alums at Rutgers are working on a fourth regional tournament that might be ready in time for 2019. Perhaps States will be at Rutgers shortly after...
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Re: New Jersey 2018

Post by Unome »

fanjiatian wrote:Why States isn't on a weekend: one of the NJSO committee members said that it's because 1) a lot of schools apparently can't afford to pay teachers/bus drivers for "working" outside normal academic hours, and 2) MCC campus space is most available on a weekday. I don't know how much validity there is to 1) - maybe ask your coaches and get them to email NJSO.
As for #1, The absolute farthest any point in NJ is from MCC is a little over two hours - with impound and the first session starting as late as they do, the trip isn't that bad for most teams - there's no reason anyone should need an overnight trip, and though I haven't yet plotted state qualifiers on a map and checked, considering the population distribution of NJ I doubt there are many teams that would actually need a bus to travel.
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Re: New Jersey 2018

Post by knottingpurple »

Unome wrote:
fanjiatian wrote:Why States isn't on a weekend: one of the NJSO committee members said that it's because 1) a lot of schools apparently can't afford to pay teachers/bus drivers for "working" outside normal academic hours, and 2) MCC campus space is most available on a weekday. I don't know how much validity there is to 1) - maybe ask your coaches and get them to email NJSO.
As for #1, The absolute farthest any point in NJ is from MCC is a little over two hours - with impound and the first session starting as late as they do, the trip isn't that bad for most teams - there's no reason anyone should need an overnight trip, and though I haven't yet plotted state qualifiers on a map and checked, considering the population distribution of NJ I doubt there are many teams that would actually need a bus to travel.
About 1 - our district doesn't pay for our travel and our coach isn't paid per hour she works, to my knowledge - there's a certain amount of money she gets for being a coach who does things on weekends in addition to after school, but like, she is already that because of invitationals, so the day of the week of the State tournaments doesn't change anything. Idk about other districts funding mechanisms so maybe that is true in some cases idk.

But really, many of the teams in NJ do attend invitationals, whether far away ones or just PUSO, SOUP, or LISO, so I can't imagine that attending an official tournament on a weekend would be any additional inconvenience to teams which already attend invitational competitions on weekends...?

And in addition to Princeton students not being able to volunteer with the current day of the week, plenty of faculty can't, either - I asked my mum to volunteer this year but it was a day she was teaching. I imagine Rutgers professors might have similar problems, and most other qualified potential ES's. Maybe NJSO could at least send out a message to teams asking for their input on a date change, rather than assuming teams have a problem with it and not considering one...?
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