Debate at Penn

<p>Hey everyone - I was accepted to Penn ED… I’ve been competing on the national and local circuits in debate/forensics for the past 3 years. It’s been a great experience, and without a doubt it helped me in the admissions process. I was just wondering about a few things: </p>

<p>(1) Any other high school debaters in here? If so, are you planning on continuing in college?</p>

<p>(2) If anyone does college debate, what’s it like? Specifically, how is the Penn Parli team (in terms of fun, accomplishments, difficulty in getting involved, etc.)?</p>

<p>(3) Does Penn have a team that competes in IEs (individual events)/speech? I couldn’t find anything about it on the website.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance!</p>

<p>Yes, high school debater here! and accepted at Penn ED too...:)</p>

<p>I've been really involved in debate club throughout high school, it has been such an important part of my education and development, really. So eventhough it doesn't have much to do with my major (I'm going to SEAS), I plan on continuing in college. </p>

<p>I'm not that familiar with the Debate activities at Penn... I just know they do the ILMUN and Model Congress.... if there's anyone who can provide more insight that would be just wonderful! ;)</p>

<p>im a debater from NY and i've looked into the Penn Parli team. i'm pretty sure that anyone can join, and that most members participate less frequently at tournaments than do high school debaters. i think that's true in general for college Parli teams because debate is very time-consuming and even moreso at the college level. but i also know that there are still debate fanatics at college that go to every tournament. i really don't know anything about speech at penn, but i assume that there's some kind of team because's penn's a pretty damn good school.</p>

<p>im definitely gonna continue debate at college. but i think its true that even for the some of the more accomplished high school LDers, involvement in Parli at college is to a lesser extent than to LD in high school.</p>

<p>if you like parli, or debate, or whatever, join the international affairs association!</p>

<p><a href="http://www.penn-iaa.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.penn-iaa.org&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>My son is a freshman at Penn and made the Parli debate squad. It was a competitive process- something like 30/200 kids made it per his report anyways. He travels or competes about every third weekend or so...including trips as far north as Darthmouth, and as far south as William and Mary, to name a few. Freshman are considered 'novices' at least in the beginning. He has had pretty good success, keeps a fairly consistent partner for debate, likes the kids, etc. INdividual Debate participation is by sign-up with more experienced people getting first dibs at desirable locations (he wanted to go to NYU, for example, but only more senior people went.) He did forensics and MUN in high school, but not debate. The style of debate was different at his HS, he wasn't as keen on it- more of an extemp/impromptu guy. I think he plans to stick with Parli next year, it is pretty flexible in that he can choose what weekends he debates...at least to an extent.</p>

<p>bump... anyone else?</p>

<p>I ran one of the Model UN conferences when I was a student. Both debate and IAA (Model UN) are very lively, good clubs to be in. Model UN is more social than debate but the fun level of the club depends on how stuck-up the senior leadership of the club is. It was fun in the 1980s-early 1990s, then got more button-up in the late 1990s.</p>

<p>heya. Also ED and into debate/MUN. I've been looking into Philo, MUN and the debate team. As far as MUN is concerned, I know that Penn hosts a MUN conference, but I'm still uncertain as to whether it hosts the ILMUNC or just a MUN program for high school students outside of Penn. I've heard that the debate team is not so big but I'd still love to join. . . there was also another activity (dont remember what its called) where you debate current affairs issues. .in an impromptu style. . more like parli.</p>

<p>30 kids made it out of 200 trying out????</p>

<p>So the Penn debate team is more competitive to be on then Penn itself is to get into?!</p>

<p>wow.</p>

<p>I have never done debate on a team before, but I did Mock Trial in HS and I think I want to do debate in college.</p>

<p>MUN club (called IAA - International Affairs Association) hosts both a college conference in November (called UPMUNC) and the high school conference in January (called ILMUNC). They also go to other schools' college conferences as debaters - Georgetown, Harvard, Berkeley, sometimes Yale, Virginia, Chicago, Worlds in Europe, one in Mexico. Depends how much money they make from their own conferences. </p>

<p>It's a very fun club and you make a lot of friends at other schools on the Model UN circuit.</p>

<p>does debate at penn involve alot of commitment..does it take away time from the intense course work?</p>

<p>My name is Marielle and I am the president of the Parliamentary Debate team and Chairwoman of the Debate Council at Penn. This is the way that debate at penn works: there are three organizations under the umbrella organization of the "Debate council." There is Parliamentary Debate, which is a very different style from policy in high school, but it is very easy to adapt (I did). We are the biggest group (about 50) and do the most. we attend tournaments every weekend and have our own huge tournament. we also have social events that the others don't have (we even have a social chair). Then there is Speech and Debate which is more like LD for college with Extempt events and other random speech events. Its mostly individual stuff, whereas Parli is with a partner. Then there is Penn Forum, which isn't really debate at all, its more like a group sponsored discussion. outside of debate council, there is mock trial, which is self-explanatory.</p>

<p>there is not much that you can do to get involved with debate right now because we are not doing anything but final papers and exams. Over the summer, nothing happens. However, as soon as you get to Penn in the fall, make sure you find out when the Debate Council intro meeting is. that's where you sign up for tryouts and meet the teams. I'll be there, making a speech. Its usually the second or third day of NSO. We flyer and it will be made known when the meeting is.</p>

<p>My email is <a href="mailto:mdfillit@sas.upenn.edu">mdfillit@sas.upenn.edu</a> if you have any questions. our website has much more info: <a href="http://dolphin.upenn.edu/%7Edebate/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://dolphin.upenn.edu/~debate/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Hope this helps! Hope to see you in tryouts!</p>

<p>Liberty University has better debate...</p>

<p>Then again they are trying to ban all sorts of demonic paraphanalia like abortion, birth control, and orange juice.</p>

<p>Oh meng, if our friendship has taught you nothing, it should be the horrors of ORange Juice.</p>

<p>But give me my birth control pills! I need regularity :(</p>