China embarrasses US in NSA hacking contest

computerworlduk.com

7 points·dc2k08··3 comments

The article makes a flawed argument. I think that the top US coders have better opportunities than TopCoder, so we won't see them there. Personal history follows.

I come from an eastern European country, and I participated in the IOI (high-school equivalent of TopCoder). If I were still living there, I would have gone to Top Coder, because the prize looks good for someone in eastern Europe.

Now that I'm in the US, the prize money isn't worth the time I would need to train. I have better opportunities to make money and add to my resume. I miss competitions, but I really like what I'm working on.

I'm not saying that the US school system doesn't suck. I'm just saying that TopCoder performance isn't a valid argument for that.

It always seemed like more of a cultural difference than a financial one to me. Don't you think that TopCoder could be useful for American high school and undergraduate students, who could be preparing for the IOI and ICPC respectively? Fun fact: this year's TopCoder Open Algorithm Championship winner was a Chinese high school student who never qualified for the IOI.

As an aside, if you don't mind telling me, do you think your participation in the IOI helped get you into grad school at MIT? If so, to what extent?

I requested to see my admission file after I was accepted into MIT. My guess is I wouldn't have been there without my medal.

Disclaimers: I can't into the heads of the people in the admissions office. Also, the Dean of Admissions was changed a few years ago, so my input is likely to be irrelevant.

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