<p>Does anybody know any competitions I could enter to try and win some awards. </p>
<p>As of now, all I have is semi-finalist at Mock Trial. Does that even count, because its a team?</p>
<p>I'm also in the Bay Area </p>
<p>Anything national will significantly boost admissions chances</p>
<p>You can try to do TOC, but that’s more like debate</p>
<p>Do you know anything I can enter in? I want to major in finance if that helps</p>
<p>FBLA. I don’t know how much it boosts your chances for admissions, but you can easily rack up the awards up to the national level, where it gets really intense.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, some topics like Economics get really competitive. Being from California, those topics get incredibly difficult to place well in. I placed 2nd at sections, but with an 89% in Economics, I didn’t even place at state (1st place was like 97%). However, if you have the opportunity to get to NLC, it’s usually pretty fun and a chance to place nationally in a variety of topics.</p>
<p>@dubnation In the activities section of the Common App I wrote my team’s awards in the description textbox and put individual awards in the “awards” section… I don’t think there’s a “rule” for this, but I hope this helps :)</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats, you can’t just “do” TOC. You have to get two bids to even be eligible to attend, meaning you have to place at two national circuit tournaments (meaning you have to be an octofinalist at the least or even semifinalist). That means thousands of dollars from a school’s debate budget to afford attending two (usually many more) national circuit tournaments (I’m talking Harvard, Berkeley, UT Austin, etc.). Add on the expenses if going to TOC itself in Kentucky. It’s an extremely, extremely difficult tournament to even qualify for. If you’ve never done debate before, it’s incredibly unlikely, almost impossible, to qualify for the tournament, and from what it sounds like, the OP has no experience with debate (Mock Trial is NOT the same thing as debate). OP, don’t look at TOC. It’s not a viable option, and it costs an insane amount of money. If you want to do debate, look more at Nationals, a tournament held in June for those who qualify in their districts, which is a little easier to qualify for.</p>
<p>@430ktk I know what it takes. My d was in TOC. The OP was asking about awards to gain national recognition. You win TOC, that’s NATIONAL recognition. It can’t be that hard to go from Mock Trial to something like PF or Congressional, which is why I reccomended it.</p>
<p>@AnnieBeats, still, I would recommend attempting to attend the National Speech and Debate Tournament for “national” recognition. Plus, finalists at Nationals receive scholarships. While it may not be that hard to transition to debate from mock trial, it will be nearly impossible to transition from mock trial to TOC-level debate without about 4 years to do so. The OP might not even have the opportunity to compete at TOC, as most schools don’t have multi-thousand dollar debate budgets, and going to the TOC requires support from the school. I mentioned a more viable alternative national level debate award. OP, really, don’t look into TOC. It’s expensive and incredibly competitive. Look into the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament if you want national-level debate awards. </p>
<p>@AnnieBeats and @430ktk, I think it would be wildly optimistic to think that someone who had no debate experience could go and “win” at Nationals, much less TOC. First you would have to qualify at your district tournament. In PF, there were about 300 teams at Nationals and it took 17 rounds to get to the finalists. Both finalist teams were from private prep schools with strong debate programs. Also Nats is expensive because it’s a week long tournament necessitating lots of money spent on airfare and hotel.</p>
<p>@Corinthian, I understand the cost of Nationals; I just got back from it last week. I never said it was likely, just that it is a more viable option than TOC. Simply qualifying for Nationals is impressive (not to mention much more likely than qualifying for TOC). I was simply suggesting the National tournament as a slightly more viable, though probably not realistic, national level debate award.</p>
<p>It’s also hard to say how difficult it would be for the OP to qualify for Nats without knowing what district s/he would be competing in.</p>
<p>@430ktk, congrats on Nats! Let me ask you this: where on the Common App would someone list the fact of qualifying/attending Nats or TOC if you don’t win an award? In the Additional Info section? Or squeeze it into the description of the activity?</p>
<p>Also just noting that the OP is from the Bay Area, so a very competitive district for debate.</p>
<p>I would mention it on the activities section. It provides a place to list achievements acquired in each activity. Since you have to place at Districts to qualify for Nats, you could mention the award at Districts, same with the tournaments required to get to TOC. I’d also list “National Qualifier in X event” or “TOC Qualifier in X event” as an achievement, as it is quite an achievement. And you’re right. Because the Bay Area is a super competitive district, I’d say Nats probably isn’t that likely. However, I’m basically saying that if the OP is set on a national debate award, s/he should set a goal for Nats more so than TOC, as Nats is more realistic for virtually everyone.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback @430ktk and good luck with your apps!</p>
<p>@430ktk </p>
<p>I actually participate in debate (public forum) but I agree with you 100%. The cost is insane, and I don’t think it would be a smart option to spend that much money and time travelling.</p>
<p>OP, I found this article online about the value of debate in admissions. @Corinthian, I think it shows the value of qualifying for Nats even without breaking/placing. It’s written by a Yale professor:</p>
<p>“The National Forensic League, with its mission of “Training Youth for Leadership,” is one of a handful of national high school organizations which leading colleges use as a “barometer of success.” Qualification to NFL Nationals is viewed as a considerable accomplishment with late elimination round success being even more noteworthy. The fact that the NFL is also seen as the national high school speech and debate honor society is even more significant; with the higher degrees of membership and NFL Academic All-American status carrying more weight than ever in college admissions reviews.”</p>
<p>Also, there’s an idea for an award OP, NFL Academic All-American is achieved by having 750 NFL points and a minimum GPA (I think it’s like 3.7) and minimum test scores. It isn’t as hard to achieve as a Nats qualification- a team mate and I both got ours early on junior year, before either of us qualified for Nats. Here’s another interesting statistic from the article:</p>
<p>“The Wall Street Journal report did specifically highlight a “consistent trend”—one that forensic coaches have known for a long time—that dedicated participation in drama and debate has significantly increased the success rate of college applicants at all schools which track such data. State and national award winners have a 22% to 30% higher acceptance rate at top tier colleges and being captain of the debate team “improved an applicant’s chances by more than 60% compared with the rest of the pool,” according to the report. This is significantly better than other extracurricular activities that tend to recruit from the same pool of students as forensic teams such as school newspaper reporter (+3%), sports team captain (+5%), class president (+5%), and band (+3%). Even without winning major awards, participation in speech and debate develops valuable skills that colleges are seeking out and that is reflected in the above average acceptance rate (+4%). Colleges and universities today are looking for articulate thinkers and communicators who will become active citizens and leaders of tomorrow.”</p>
<p>So I think debate could be a very valuable activity if you really chose to pursue it. Here’s the rest of the article: <a href=“Accidental Hero . College Admission | PBS”>http://www.pbs.org/accidentalhero/parents/college.html</a></p>
<p>as someone earlier who got overshadowed in the debate debate said, FBLA nationals is very competitive for most topics (all test-based business ones should be competitive, some tech presentation ones are quite new and relatively easy for people who are into the material), and NLC is quite swaggy. #stoodnexttoColeSimmons</p>