<p>Wow, this has been enlightening. Sounds like many of these kids are glorified lab assistants, and that the whole process is very suspect. I’m not saying that the kids with all the support from college programs aren’t bright or hard working, just that they aren’t competing on a level playing field with the equally bright and hard-working but unconnected kid who lives in Nowhereville. I’d always known that there was an element of unfairness in academic competitions in high school (S won a national creative writing award because an activist teacher pushed her AP English students to enter; by the time D, an equally good writer got to the school, the teacher had left and the school was no longer participating in the competition), but this is ridiculous.</p>