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Comment by jbrun | Hacker News Reader

And then all of them could not go to college due to immigration status and lack of money. They do manual labor now. Great American Underdog Story.

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even when they raised $90k of money from donations after their story was in Wired, two of them went but both dropped out. I think they work at a catering company now? it is a very american story.

and of course, most likely the team from MIT they beat are all now working at high tech companies or in graduate schools.

"The point of the game is not to win the game. The point of the game is to take the prize home."

Reminds me of a mini-competition that happened between some San Antonio unis about who got to do a NASA internship. The girl who got 3rd place went because the winner and runner-up were not American citizens (I was the runner-up).

We ended up collaborating on the design remotely. In later life, I had at least one person tell me that I couldn't put that on a resume. This person was not hurt.

Well, if you think it's just them then there's plenty of good research[1] that shows the attrition rate for first generation college students is a definite problem. Cultural norms change takes approximately three generations for it to take hold. A Great American Underdog Story is that one of the participants helped move the discussion ahead on how can the USA promote worthwhile talent within our borders irrespective of how it got here[2]. Note: I do see you're Canadian, and therefore likely are unfamiliar with the actual demographics and concerns of the American Southwest, so while I think your joke isn't really that funny, that's OK.

[1] http://dus.psu.edu/mentor/2011/02/resiliency-among-first-gen...

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act

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