<p>I've been really dedicated to debate in my high school, and I would really like to continue with it in college. I'm wondering now, which top colleges are known for their debate teams?</p>
<p>Simple question, hopefully a simple answer? :)</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I can only speak for my own college, Chicago, which I'm sure has a tremendous debate team in a certain category(im not sure which as im not a debater myself). Northwestern I hear is excellent as well.</p>
<p>There are several college debate leagues and styles. Parliamentary[/url</a>], which is the style I do and am more familiar with, has two major leagues. The [url=<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APDA%5DAmerican">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/APDA]American</a> Parliamentary Debate Association is entirely student run and is made up of mostly private schools in the Northeast, including a lot of schools that CC considers "prestigious" (the Ivies, the little Ivies, MIT, Stanford, UChicago). Many different schools have had success over the years, but HYP have probably been the most consistently successful.</p>
<p>I know less about the National</a> Parliamentary Debate Association. I know that it is numerically larger and covers a wider geographic area than APDA, with much more of its membership being state schools. It's style and APDA's are also slightly different.</p>
<p>Northwestern I believe focuses solely on Policy style debate, which is very different from parliamentary. From what I've heard, you'd be hard pressed to find a better policy program anywhere.</p>
<p>Feel free to pm me if you have any questions on APDA, parliamentary style, or collegiate debate generally.</p>
<p>UUUUUUU CCHICAGO. and Harvard are the two I know of.</p>
<p>Northwestern, Michigan State, Harvard, Dartmouth, Chicago, Cal...</p>
<p>In recent years Northwestern is probably the strongest!</p>
<p>whoa so if I went to Northwestern, I wouldn't be able to do Public Forum?</p>
<p>Whitman College in Washington is a tiny LAC (CTCL though) with a kickass debate team. They have debate scholarships, also!</p>
<p>Liberty University</p>
<p>Northwestern is the winning-est Policy Debate program in the country, though two caveats:</p>
<p>1) "The Duck", the legendary coach, just retired, so the quality of the current program is up in the air. I imagine it will remain strong.</p>
<p>2) It's as intense as a varsity sport, if not more so. A hall mate of mine is on the Policy team, and he regularly goes away for 4 day weekends for tournaments, and many times I've walked by his suite to see it looking like a scene from "A Beautiful Mind"- piles of papers scattered everywhere, with my friend huddled over in the center muttering to himself with headphones on. :-O</p>
<p>I don't know if you're interested in just debate, or in IEs as well...but these colleges are ones that offer IEs and debate (some have LD, some have PFD, some have Policy, some have a mixture of the three) as well...though I am not too sure how the programs compare to one another</p>
<p>*Northwestern
*Arizona State
*Western Kentucky
*George Mason
*Ohio University
*Johns Hopkins
*Bradley University
*University of Texas (excellent debate!)</p>
<p>I'm going to be more through research of forensics programs very soon with my coach so i can find a school with a good program. If you'd like, I will PM you if I find anything strong in the events you are interested in.</p>
<p>Dartmouth!</p>
<p>Dartmouth has its own special debate program for high school students. Also, the college team does very well, winning a lot of awards each year. An added bonus is that they are extremely flexible about participation. You can be on the team, but you don't have to go to every single tournament. Plus, anybody can join. I'd imagine it could be intimidating if you had never done it before, though.</p>
<p>Hmm, - I thought that King's/LSE were up there. No matter - so Canada and the UK have similar numbers, but really Canada wins because it has a vastly lower population, I'd say. Like I said before - I wasn't sure that the UK had more - I just had a hunch they did. Regardless, it proves Canada's school system is better than I give it credit for.</p>
<p>That notwithstanding - I still stand by my statement that McGill and UofT aren't as prestigious as most people give them credit for. To me, comparing McGill to cornell/UCB is still ludicrous, and even comparing it to BC is still a stretch in terms of undergraduate education. It goes back to the fact that the world views Canadians as more sophisticated than American hillbillies and hippies and hicks, and so the world's view of the schooling system here is skewed. Like I said before - on alot of worldwide rankings that I've seen, Princeton is low - way down - like below McGill sometimes. That's ridiculous, honestly - arguably the best university in America is ranked below McGill? Yeah, right.</p>
<p>I think that 30-40% is everyone together - Americans, Canadians, other internationals all lumped together if I remember correctly.</p>
<p>Also, of course Seattle and UWAsh etc are better research schools than Dartmouth and ND - the latter ones named are more known for their undergrad education (arguably among the best in the U.S) - I agree with you.</p>
<p>I agree with you that alot of people would put Cornell ahead of BC - I agree with those people. But how would people compare McGill to BC? or McGill to UTAustin - because where I have lived (Nigeria, UK, Holland) - I think that McGill is better known than UTAustin and maybe comparable to BC, but here in the U.S. most people I talk to would put McGill behind both.</p>
<p>I think it just goes to show regional opinions and provincial biases that I enumerated in my first post.</p>
<p>Wrong topic...............</p>
<p>Just to clarify, not all of these schools compete against each other in the same events. I would urge you to investigate the various styles and find what interests you before you try to find the best debate program. Northwestern has a fantastic policy team, but if you don't like policy, it won't be the place for you.</p>
<p>I'm in PF Debate in my high school, and I could probably adjust to Policy in college, but I'd prefer to continue with PF -- 2legit (or anyone else), if you find any schools strong in PF, could you PM me? Thanks! :)</p>
<p>I'm going to look more deeply into all the colleges mentioned here, too. Thanks for your input!</p>
<p>Another warning...</p>
<p>Don't just ask which is "the best." Not all debate teams let everyone who wants to debate do so. I've known some kids who were a bit shocked to find out when they got to college that they weren't good enough to make the debate team.</p>
<p>Wake Forest University. Beat Darmouth for the National title this past year. Strong debate history on campus. </p>
<p>Wake</a> Forest University wins National Debate Tournament</p>
<p>National</a> Debate Tournament Previous Winners</p>
<p>site for past NDT champions</p>
<p>The team considered to be "Number One" among the 16 First Round At-Large Bids is awarded the Rex Copeland Award.</p>
<ul>
<li>"Copeland Award Winners By School"</li>
</ul>
<p>5- Dartmouth, Georgetown, Northwestern
3- Cal-Berkeley, Harvard
2- Baylor
1- Augustana, Claremont McKenna, Emory, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, UMass, Redlands, Samford, Wake Forest</p>
<p>(Wikipedia)</p>