… plane ticket prices …
An announcement will be posted by March 19? What does that even mean?
Could be: here is a list of finalists and alternates.
Also could be: oops! We’re running behind, sorry, our bad. Check back for more later!
Stupid to stress over, but this is seriously getting on my nerves. WHAT THE HELL?
The message is cryptic. It could mean that they are going to cancel this year’s event while at the same time post “good job” to the following participants who entered their contest. Clearly, if they were going to post the finalists on Monday then they would have said so. It’s quite upsetting. >:P
In an ideal world, I would love to see a list of finalists and a revised final competition date so that the participants have enough time to book hotels and flights. Realistically, I’m expecting them to cancel with a string of excuses…which is infuriating because, at this point, there is no reasonable explanation other than their own negligence. If they weren’t sure they could put on the event, they should have cancelled long before we all expended weeks on our projects. What a way to burn bridges with several high schools across the country…
If they cancel the competition, the organizer will pay big prices for the bad impact. Some top students will not apply MIT as their first choices obviously since this college is such a big mess!
hey everyone! can someone catch me up on what’s happening? it seems like a lot of people are confused and upset, and i’d like to know why. i plan on competing in this next year and would like to know what to expect around this time in a year.
@handsomeswimmer This is a humanity competition, therefore, not that many students will make MIT their first choices anyway. People please stop bashing the organizer. This competition is run by students, not MIT. The students have their own school work to take care and MIT is known for their rigorousness. As a parent with college kid, I could understand what kind stress the MIT kids are under. Do I want my K2 to win INSPIRE, definitely, but if the organizer decides to cancel it, I am fine with it. He was doing us a favor taking over the competition after the founder graduated. I am sure he meant well.
Well I really hope they delay the competition as opposed to canceling it because a lot of students spent a lot of time on it. Anyways if they release the finalist list on monday that’ll be ideal.
@love2cheeses Are you one of the MIT Inspire organizers or is your college kid?
I wouldn’t have minded the competition to have been discontinued, but if somebody accepts the responsibility to continue the event, it is up to them to see it through to its completion. I couldn’t disagree with you more.
Hopefully the competition does not get discontinued after all the work not only the participants, but the student organizers put into it, but if worst comes to worst and it does, hopefully there will still be some way for participants to gain recognition for their research papers =((
@likelaughter Me? No way. You did not believe me when I said I have K2 entering INSPIRE. I am a parent with a kid at a rigorous college and a kid at high school. These are a bunch of college kids trying to do the right thing. Things do not always turn out the way they anticipated. If you check the discontinued Siemens Competition, Siemens contracted Discovery which had several year-round full-time employees handling the competition for Siemens. Hats off to INSPIRE founder who had to put in tremendous hours into it for 3 years on top of a very demanding course work. To be honest, if my K1 had asked me whether he should have sacrificed his school work so that a bunch of high schoolers could compete at his college, I would say NO.
I guess one thing they can do if they are cancelling the competition is still release a finalist list for people that would have attended if the competition was still in order so it doesn’t feel like we wasted time
@love2cheeses I agree with you on some points and disagree with you on others. Yes, it’s a program run by college students, and college students should put their education first. At a school like MIT, classes are going to take up a lot of time. My sister is also at a rigorous college, and my parents would probably tell her to put her education first just like you would. My parents would also tell her though, and me, that if she can’t follow through with her commitments, she has to let someone know, especially if people are counting on her. They wouldn’t tell her to ghost on people, and I don’t think you would tell your son to do that either. If we heard that they were behind or possibly canceling at the time they were supposed to announce the finals, I don’t think I would be as annoyed because at least I would know where they were in the process. It doesn’t take a lot of time to type “We are running behind. Finalists will be announced in a few weeks” on a website, (I just typed it in a few seconds.) I’m glad we have a real timeline now, and I think I’ll be fine if the competition never happens in person so long as my paper was evaluated, but I really hope that the team learns how important it is to talk with their participants and not ignore them.
Eh… then it would sound like we only did it for college apps not because we actually wanted to do the program.
I don’t know about everyone here, but I signed up because I was genuinely interested in the program not for college apps @cchiong19
@EmpireOfDirt Couldn’t have said it better myself 
my cousin organized mites a while ago and she was a junior in MIT— arguably one of the hardest years of college, but she managed to respectfully tell everyone the situation she was in and the participants didn’t feel as miffed as we are right now
@EmpireOfDirt @MangoLover11223 I appreciate your comments. We have all have put an incredible amount of time and effort into our papers and it was inconsiderate that MIT did not respond and give us a status. That takes 2 minutes. It’s basic manners which has nothing to do with having a rigorous schedule. You’re right in that I probably wouldn’t be miffed if they would have just communicated. Your cousin is not only academically smart but also has manners.
Finalists and winners will be announced by May 1. They’re not hosting finals anymore.
Will there be finalists, though? Their statement makes it seem as though they’re only selecting winners and not finalists. I hope this isn’t the case because it would make receiving recognition much more difficult.
to my understanding they are just releasing winners, meaning they probably never chose finalists. i’m glad to finally get some news on the competition, but it still kinda really sucks because i don’t think i’m alone in saying that i was really looking forward to hopefully getting the opportunity to have the experience of finals, but it is what it is : /
As I understood it they are choosing winners out of the SELECTED finalists so I think they still made a finalist list. Or may it’s just wishful thinking.
Since they said that there would be another update on the 19th on their website, maybe they’ll be announcing the finalists then and then announce the overall winners on May 1st ??