Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 22:12     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: I saw a thread on Reddit that this was discussed items you can purchase - john locke essay, math competitions, olympiads, buy internship certificates, buy ISEF project, even USAMO is for sale.

Someone there said the majority of ISEF finalists that come from their school either have parents with a PHD or they basically piggyback off a mentor or other PHD the families know.

I just find this off putting that the best schools in the country turn the blind eye to all this.


How can USAMO be for sale? Any activity where a student has to compete inside a room or on a field/court/pool with all eyes on them is legit. Hats off to the winners. Parents can coach or hire experts to coach the hell out of them, but they still have to perform. Essays? Research? Non-profits? Nobody knows who did what and how. Off putting indeed.


At least the last couple of years, AIME and AMC12 exams have leaked (I believe from China). So some kids have a leg up. Won't be surprised if someone leaked USAMO as well. Of course, given the difficulty (and the actual scores) I don't think even leaked USAMO helps most kids. The actual top 12 (USAMO gold) have been kids who are known commodities (all the kids in the math community knows them and some of these who make the IMO teams end up with golds). 3 of the 6 US IMO team kids don't have math parents, so it is all on them.


+1

Mathematical Association of America (MAA) sold their soul to Chinese money and influence and do not bother to investigate thoroughly or take appropriate measures to safeguard the tests.

Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 21:55     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: I saw a thread on Reddit that this was discussed items you can purchase - john locke essay, math competitions, olympiads, buy internship certificates, buy ISEF project, even USAMO is for sale.

Someone there said the majority of ISEF finalists that come from their school either have parents with a PHD or they basically piggyback off a mentor or other PHD the families know.

I just find this off putting that the best schools in the country turn the blind eye to all this.


How can USAMO be for sale? Any activity where a student has to compete inside a room or on a field/court/pool with all eyes on them is legit. Hats off to the winners. Parents can coach or hire experts to coach the hell out of them, but they still have to perform. Essays? Research? Non-profits? Nobody knows who did what and how. Off putting indeed.


On Reddit they said some Chinese company sells USAMO, but it’s expensive.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 21:42     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote: I saw a thread on Reddit that this was discussed items you can purchase - john locke essay, math competitions, olympiads, buy internship certificates, buy ISEF project, even USAMO is for sale.

Someone there said the majority of ISEF finalists that come from their school either have parents with a PHD or they basically piggyback off a mentor or other PHD the families know.

I just find this off putting that the best schools in the country turn the blind eye to all this.


How can USAMO be for sale? Any activity where a student has to compete inside a room or on a field/court/pool with all eyes on them is legit. Hats off to the winners. Parents can coach or hire experts to coach the hell out of them, but they still have to perform. Essays? Research? Non-profits? Nobody knows who did what and how. Off putting indeed.


At least the last couple of years, AIME and AMC12 exams have leaked (I believe from China). So some kids have a leg up. Won't be surprised if someone leaked USAMO as well. Of course, given the difficulty (and the actual scores) I don't think even leaked USAMO helps most kids. The actual top 12 (USAMO gold) have been kids who are known commodities (all the kids in the math community knows them and some of these who make the IMO teams end up with golds). 3 of the 6 US IMO team kids don't have math parents, so it is all on them.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 21:35     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote: I saw a thread on Reddit that this was discussed items you can purchase - john locke essay, math competitions, olympiads, buy internship certificates, buy ISEF project, even USAMO is for sale.

Someone there said the majority of ISEF finalists that come from their school either have parents with a PHD or they basically piggyback off a mentor or other PHD the families know.

I just find this off putting that the best schools in the country turn the blind eye to all this.


How can USAMO be for sale? Any activity where a student has to compete inside a room or on a field/court/pool with all eyes on them is legit. Hats off to the winners. Parents can coach or hire experts to coach the hell out of them, but they still have to perform. Essays? Research? Non-profits? Nobody knows who did what and how. Off putting indeed.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 21:27     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
The point is not just gaining knowledge or coming up with the idea. The issue is one of resources. I took a quick look at some randomly selected Regeneron projects -- all of them require sophisticated equipment. So schools had to set up pipelines and mentors, kids had to pass lab safety tests and get permission to enter labs (and spend time) etc. All these require significant infrastructure and someone who knew good problems to solve etc.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 21:20     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote: I saw a thread on Reddit that this was discussed items you can purchase - john locke essay, math competitions, olympiads, buy internship certificates, buy ISEF project, even USAMO is for sale.

Someone there said the majority of ISEF finalists that come from their school either have parents with a PHD or they basically piggyback off a mentor or other PHD the families know.

I just find this off putting that the best schools in the country turn the blind eye to all this.


Or cheat….https://www.societyforscience.org/press-release/statement-from-society-for-science/



Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 21:11     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:NP. The science fair kids always have mentors. Usually they are paid and do most of the work while explaining to the kids what’s going on. I learned this when someone my DD looked up to placed in a science fair.

Now I know another kid who placed in last year’s state science fair who did not have a mentor. Or so he says. Dad is in tech. Son is really not that intellectual and cannot tell how why he started the project or what he did. I suspect dad (works at Microsoft) did it.


People that work at Microsoft are allowed to have kids and they're allowed to teach their kids about data and data collection and how to clean up data and how to manipulate data and how to analyze data. Presumably someone taught the person working at Microsoft those skills and they are allowed to teach them to someone else.

Pretty sure Venus Williams is allowed to teach her kid how to play tennis and Taylor Swift is allowed to teach her kid how to compose a song and Stephen King is allowed to teach his kid how to write a story.


But Venus Williams would not be allowed to go play a game for her kid so kid can win a medal, right? There’s no equivalence here!


That and Venus Williams started training at the age of 4 and played in her first official pro tournament was at 14. It took her 10 years to train to that level and I’m sure it was 40 hours a week or more.

Are you telling me your kid started data science, IoT, web technologies and environmental science in elementary school and got to professional level at the age of 14?

Spare me from this BS. I know how long it takes.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 21:01     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
I saw a thread on Reddit that this was discussed items you can purchase - john locke essay, math competitions, olympiads, buy internship certificates, buy ISEF project, even USAMO is for sale.

Someone there said the majority of ISEF finalists that come from their school either have parents with a PHD or they basically piggyback off a mentor or other PHD the families know.

I just find this off putting that the best schools in the country turn the blind eye to all this.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 20:46     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:You know, we came across a college consultant who got friends’ kids into Ivies. He was trying to push me to buy a research project for science fairs that someone else would create and train DC enough to contribute to it some and to be able to interview about it. I was shocked and appalled and rejected him.

But know I’m beginning to think it’s common and when he was trying to convince me it’s a rigged game he was right.


Out of curiosity, how much does a "project" like this cost?


It was cheap - $7K. It was going to be done by Eastern European scientists and they don’t make a ton of money.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 19:17     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:NP. The science fair kids always have mentors. Usually they are paid and do most of the work while explaining to the kids what’s going on. I learned this when someone my DD looked up to placed in a science fair.

Now I know another kid who placed in last year’s state science fair who did not have a mentor. Or so he says. Dad is in tech. Son is really not that intellectual and cannot tell how why he started the project or what he did. I suspect dad (works at Microsoft) did it.


People that work at Microsoft are allowed to have kids and they're allowed to teach their kids about data and data collection and how to clean up data and how to manipulate data and how to analyze data. Presumably someone taught the person working at Microsoft those skills and they are allowed to teach them to someone else.

Pretty sure Venus Williams is allowed to teach her kid how to play tennis and Taylor Swift is allowed to teach her kid how to compose a song and Stephen King is allowed to teach his kid how to write a story.


But Venus Williams would not be allowed to go play a game for her kid so kid can win a medal, right? There’s no equivalence here!


Some people have lost their moral compass. Spin and spin.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 19:14     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:NP. The science fair kids always have mentors. Usually they are paid and do most of the work while explaining to the kids what’s going on. I learned this when someone my DD looked up to placed in a science fair.

Now I know another kid who placed in last year’s state science fair who did not have a mentor. Or so he says. Dad is in tech. Son is really not that intellectual and cannot tell how why he started the project or what he did. I suspect dad (works at Microsoft) did it.


People that work at Microsoft are allowed to have kids and they're allowed to teach their kids about data and data collection and how to clean up data and how to manipulate data and how to analyze data. Presumably someone taught the person working at Microsoft those skills and they are allowed to teach them to someone else.

Pretty sure Venus Williams is allowed to teach her kid how to play tennis and Taylor Swift is allowed to teach her kid how to compose a song and Stephen King is allowed to teach his kid how to write a story.


But Venus Williams would not be allowed to go play a game for her kid so kid can win a medal, right? There’s no equivalence here!


I know right? what a bunch of loser high school kids that want to learn about science research. The country's doing a pretty good job of piling on to get rid of them all. Teach your kid to go get a job as a masked ice thug. That's where all the opportunities are these days. No one needs college for that.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 19:07     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:NP. The science fair kids always have mentors. Usually they are paid and do most of the work while explaining to the kids what’s going on. I learned this when someone my DD looked up to placed in a science fair.

Now I know another kid who placed in last year’s state science fair who did not have a mentor. Or so he says. Dad is in tech. Son is really not that intellectual and cannot tell how why he started the project or what he did. I suspect dad (works at Microsoft) did it.


People that work at Microsoft are allowed to have kids and they're allowed to teach their kids about data and data collection and how to clean up data and how to manipulate data and how to analyze data. Presumably someone taught the person working at Microsoft those skills and they are allowed to teach them to someone else.

Pretty sure Venus Williams is allowed to teach her kid how to play tennis and Taylor Swift is allowed to teach her kid how to compose a song and Stephen King is allowed to teach his kid how to write a story.


But Venus Williams would not be allowed to go play a game for her kid so kid can win a medal, right? There’s no equivalence here!
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 19:03     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Once again, where do most of these so-called “elite” college graduates actually end up?
It raises serious questions. Are we truly more innovative? Has society meaningfully improved? After all these years of holistic admissions, what have we really gained? Why do we end up needing h1b engineers, researchers and doctors?


Have your kids skip college if you think that's the best path for them. No one is stopping you from teaching them not to go to college and you think it's a waste of time.


Yeah. Lot of smarter and creative kids go straight to start their own companies. Why waste 4 years and paying a fortune only to be in a less intelligent environments.... College kids don't even bother to go to classes now...they get nothing out of it


As a college consultant, I will tell you that there are many parents out there that want their kids to be admitted to prestigious schools so they can have bragging rights. The lengths they are going to are truly scary.
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 16:50     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Education should be free and merit based
Anonymous
Post 10/13/2025 16:04     Subject: How can teenagers create such science projects?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Choose excellent public schools. Real talent thrives there — driven, grounded, and ready to build something meaningful. Who needs a luxury-branded, shallow education that breeds pretenders and shortcuts?


That is just a huge generalization. Look at excellent public schools. Look at excellent private schools. Figure out the best match for yourself as an individual. Certainly financially, if you are not high income, a high-level, need blind, private school that can offer very generous aid , can make a lot more economic sense than having to pay for a public school.


Nah... peers matter. Too much fraud coming from those _so called_ elite schools educated ones


Well lucky you. Some people aren't so fortunate and would be fools to turn down a full ride from MIT. You can manage to get yourself a good education at MIT even with all those pesky fraudsters and elites mucking up the place. Plus elites aren't going anywhere so get yourself some coping skills.
MIT is probably a good place to do that as well.