[Yan Wang]

Well, many teams seem to let anybody on the team (granted that they behave and are doing well academically), but for us, it is not possible and limited to 25 per year. All vet members have a slot if they wish. If we could have a lot of people, that'd be great, but too much is also a problem since that affects productivity. Our lab just got 24 new workstations (which play Halo nicely) and I am sure that they will be of great distraction to even the 25 people that we have.

To say that the application process is unfair is unfair. Our team looks at everyone's application anonymously and we decide based on:

Seniority - If that person is a senior and has only this year to participate, then they should.
Commitment - The person needs to be able to be there everyday for most of the time. It's only 6 weeks and things need to get done fast.
Overall application - Did the person put time into the application? Some of the ones we received included phrases and fragments, which we immediately rejected.
Desire to learn - Did the person also show a desire to learn? The ability to want to learn is more important than any prior background and teaching is a goal of FIRST. We do ask if the students are taking PLTW courses and what background they have, but when we initially look at the applications, those sections are not shown to be fair.

Another topic that was started within this topic was how members were selected for trips. Well, for us, it is similar to what has been said. A minimum number of hours is set and people have to meet that requirement. They also have to be passing classes.