Hi. I’m from team 972, Los Gatos and I’m a senior. Unfortunately, I was unable to join the local robotics team in previous years. This seems like such a great thing, that I don’t want this to be my last year, so I’m wondering: Does FIRST allow college teams to enter? And if that doesn’t work, does FIRST allow private teams to enter?
Why not start a new team with a high school and then mentor them… there are a lot of universities and colleges who mentor high schools for FIRST… good luck… 
I am no expert in FIRST registration, but if nothing else, you’re going to have a hard time finding three people on your team who are pre-college for your drivers and human player.
However, many colleges do help out with mentoring a team. You might want to try that.
(On a side note, I joined 1293 as a senior, mainly since there wasn’t a 1293 the other three years. And I came out just fine.)
There are teams that are composed of home schooled kids. There are teams that are from private schools. There are teams that have a lot of college students involved.
The common denominator is kids from the 9th-12th grade age range, with it sometimes going lower.
Where are you planning to goto college? Chances are there might be a team nearby that you can be involved with.
Wetzel
Yeah, last year (my senior year) was my first year, but I’m hoping to help out with the new Utah team, 1505. Who knows… maybe there’ll be a FIRST club here at BYU soon…
MrToast
Thanks for all the replies. I suppose next year, I can just stick with the Los Gatos high team and help tutor the freshmen. But until then, I’ve got all of this year to have a great time!