I've always wondered about this. In a similar state level competition, I felt like a giant hillbilly because all the projects were so damn awesome compared to mine (terrible feeling when you've put months upon months into a project only to walk into a room and realize you don't have the slightest chance in the world to win). Some of those awesome projects were definitely home-brew and were better than mine, but even those paled in comparison to the ones that came with professional help.
Growing up two hours away from the nearest real university, I didn't realize teenagers could work on projects like those. It rankles my sense of fairness that many (though certainly not all) of the people in the upper levels of the science competitions got there with a very large amount of help.
Of course, the same logic would apply to people who have even less access to resources than I did, so I should count my blessings.
Same here, I went to our state science fair in 8th grade (late 90s) I really felt that most of the experiments there far outstripped the abilities of an 8th grader.
In fact one of the biggest disparities was in price, I had maybe $100 budget, and that was after I upgraded my project for the state level. Many of the experiments there looked to be at least 10x more expensive.
Growing up two hours away from the nearest real university, I didn't realize teenagers could work on projects like those. It rankles my sense of fairness that many (though certainly not all) of the people in the upper levels of the science competitions got there with a very large amount of help.
Of course, the same logic would apply to people who have even less access to resources than I did, so I should count my blessings.