The US Geography Olympiad is now open to everyone, including parents, teachers, coaches, college students, and anyone else! Here’s how this will work:
At Regional and State-level tournaments for high school NHBB competitions, the Open Division will function just like any the Varsity and JV divisions. That is to say, it will be the same exam, it will still cost $10, and you will need to score either in the top half at your site or nationally (as of mid-March) to qualify for Nationals.
For Nationals, the Open Division will work the exact same way as the Varsity and JV divisions in terms of having an exam and a quizbowl component, which will be the identical questions that students play. It will still cost $70 unless you are staffing for NHBB Nationals, in which case it will cost $35. If you are staffing Nationals for NHBB, you will still need to qualify. You can do that at Regionals, or by taking a last minute multiple-choice exam on the afternoon of Friday, April 25, 2014 at the host hotel in Arlington, VA (time and location to be announced) and finishing in the top half of that, or above a certain threshold score (TBD). Nationals registration for the Open Division (as well as for NHBB and students in USGO) will open at some point later this fall.
Nationals is, for now, limited to 30 people in the Open Division. That would mean 5 rooms of 6 people at Nationals. If additional staff can be found, and especially if we anticipate no shortages with the staffing of the standard USGO, then we will consider expanding this (for now, we feel confident in having this be open to 30 people). There will be some sort of prize for the winner, the value of which will be a function of how many signups we get. For further questions, please email info@geographyolympiad.com. Good luck!
