<p>I've never read anything here about college bowl or quiz bowl. My son is on a Scholars Bowl team in his HS and loves it! Four of the 10 colleges on his final list have teams. I'm wondering if anyone here has had experience with college-level academic teams and, if so, what it's like. Lots of travel? High intensity?</p>
<p>Nobody cares about academic competitions? I guess that's why I haven't read much here about them. They are so much fun! Just my humble opinion.</p>
<p>I'm no help, bethievt. Just wanted to say that I second your humble opinion. Based solely on absolutely adoring the original GE College Bowl show on TV with Allen Ludden. It was a must watch for my father and me back in the day and I had every intention of growing up and finding myself staring into those TV cameras one day. Alas, by the time I got to college, it seemed to have faded from the radar. At least my radar.</p>
<p>Cold comfort, I know. But I <em>wish</em> I knew more.</p>
<p>Bethievt,</p>
<p>I'm glad to see the question come up. "Quiz bowls" is one of the things my son lists when colleges ask him what clubs, etc. he might be interested in. He has done Knowledge Master team competitions for years, and the Science Knowledge Bowl in high school.</p>
<p>When we were visiting Washington Univ. a few months ago, I picked up a copy of the campus newspaper, and there was a feature about the College Bowl (or something similar) team. I was pleased to see there was something like that still going on. </p>
<p>Knowledge junkies like my son and his friends have a lot of fun with these competitions. Every year they desperately look for girls who have a read a lot of 19th C fiction to join their teams, because this seems to be their Achilles heel. (Not for the Science Knowledge Bowl, of course.)</p>
<p>If Bowls are, in fact, completely out of favor, my son could be in for some major disappointment when he opens the college envelopes. Knowledge Master is one of his favorite and longest-running ecs.</p>
<p>I hope someone else with experience at the college level pipes up and gives us hope that these clubs are still around and active. Then again, it could be an opportunity for leadership and initiative to get the ball rolling themselves, right?</p>
<p>Oops, I just reread the original post and saw that 4 of 10 of the schools on your son's list do have teams. Perhaps the colleges could put your son in touch with team members, and he could ask them about travel and time committments.</p>
<p>My son was a top scholar bowl player in our rural conference during high school. He's a freshman at an Ivy League university this year. He said he checked out joining the quiz bowl team this year and it was very intense. I think he meant in terms of time and quality of competition. They had a traveling team (which he said he wasn't good enough to be on) and played within their conference and with other schools. They would have intramural competition also. He did say they had a lot of English majors who knew all the answers to the off the wall literature questions. He isn't doing it this year because he has his hands full learning how to manage his time, developing his social life and working very hard in school. Since he only has patience for a limited number of parental questions, I didn't follow up with asking him more about it. ;-)
momoffive</p>
<p>Thanks, posters</p>
<p>We have had some contact with 3 of the 4 teams, trying to make contact at the other. Frankly, I'm hoping if he plays for a team it will give me a legitimate excuse to see him more often (smiley face...I don't know how to make them).</p>
<p>It's been a favorite HS activity and I love to watch the kids play. They are amazing! Great exercise for the brain, and I notice they laugh a lot too.</p>
<p>D is on Quiz Bowl team for Amherst. As a sophomore, she is now in her second year of competition. She made B team. As a Texan, she is one of the few kids who drives on the team, and she has driven the college van to get them there. MIT just took first in the last competition that was held at MIT, with H second, and Amherst 3rd, if I remember correctly. Teams vary from year to year. THey get together and practice but she doesn't see them as that intense. D still loves it! Good luck!</p>
<p>BTW, the Quiz Bowl participants at the U level in TX hold a Quiz Bowl tournament and Round Robin for high schoolers. D did that, along with Knowledge Masters and Academic Challenge in HS.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Since he only has patience for a limited number of parental questions,
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Ah, a club in which I am a charter member ;).</p>
<p>bethievt - to make a smiley face: when you type in your reply to a thread, click on the Go Advanced or Preview button right below your post. Then scroll way way down to the bottom left of the page (even below other previous posts you will see). Click on the blue word Smilies in "Smilies are On." You will see all of the smilies and what characters you need to type to get one. Eg, I typed ; and ) to get the winking smiley.</p>
<p>CC is good for many things, but for this you should visit <a href="http://www.naqt.com%5B/url%5D">www.naqt.com</a> </p>
<p>Explore it thoroughly and have fun.</p>
<p>I've played quizbowl in college for the past two years and have definitely enjoyed the experience overall. Of course the questions are significantly harder and the competition is fierce (grad students compete along with undergrads), but it's more of an enjoyable social activity than it was in high school. Unlike in high school, where most tournaments take place relatively close-by, most college tournaments will require several hours of driving and overnight trips are much more common. Thus it's easy to make friends with your teammates. </p>
<p>There's definitely a learning curve between high school and college, but any student who truly enjoys learning for the sake of learning can become a solid player. If you have the time to spare and enjoy the company you'll be playing with, it's a great extracurricular to keep up.</p>
<p>gloworm, great link. I especially like the You Gotta Know... site. You gotta know a lot, evidently.</p>
<p>vig180, thanks for the input. I will pass along the encouragement to my son.</p>
<p>This is petty, I know, but it seems odd to me that grad students can compete because most of the small LACs don't have any grad students. Life isn't fair, I guess.</p>