This somehow really drove home the opportunities some people have that others don't. The fact that such a competition exists at a university level for students makes me incredibly envious. I go to one of the highest ranking universities in my country and there is no such competition or even idea to push students to collaborate and compete at such a high level. I feel like I'm at a complete intellectual disadvantage to MIT students to a degree.
How must people feel who didn't even have the opportunity to complete secondary school feel? The world might be flattening but it has a long long way to go.
I don't know. I think these sorts of competitions are actually becoming more and more common. I've read about other ones at various schools, and I think they even had some similar competitions at my school. I certainly remember advertisements for some sort of tech startup-geared competition as well as something similar focused on Bioengineering.
Maybe you just didn't hear about it at your school? The one at MIT and the Bioengineering one I saw here were both aimed at PhD students and Postdocs rather than undergrads, so that could be a factor as well.
