<p>Can someone please tell me how debate affects you chances at getting into a school? I know its big, but why do colleges value it so much? What qualities in debate that apply so much to life?</p>
<p>I am a LD debater and I enjoy it a lot, but it keeps coming up that Colleges look for 3 things: Newspaper editor, varsity sport, and debate team. Is it valued that much? I mean in LD all you do is you make a case and you logically defeat other peoples reason. Its a lot like arguing, its nicer and a little more formal. But to win you somehow fill your brain up with lots of information like Acdemic Bowl. How is it worth more then that? Whats the big deal?</p>
<p>i wouldnt say its huge or anything unless u have TOC Bids or went to Nationals or something, but really debate is worth more than other ECs cuz debate takes LOTS of time. to be a successful debater, u must have dedication/diligence and a lotta schools know that. but i wouldnt say debate is the "key" to get into a school =P</p>
<p>I did make it to semi-finals at a national qualifter. That was fun. What is are TOC bids?
Come to think about it I spend a whole lot of time in debate, but I really like doing it. I don't have to force myself to write a case, I do it automatically unlike other things.</p>
<p>LD sucks. policy debate is the real thing. just wanted to get that out, hehe.</p>
<p>anyway, IMO debate doesn't give you a hook, but it is definitely an impressive EC, especially if you're a national circuit debater. i don't have a high regard about LD, but policy skills definitely apply to real life. critical and quick thinking, the ability to ask the right questions to elicit the information that u want, the ability to step back and pick arguments that matter and weigh the round, all in minutes. persuasion skill is also def. real-world. of course, the time pressure thing might not apply in real life, but it means that if you can do it under time pressure, you should be able to do it even better w/o the time pressure.</p>
<p>also, doing policy debate increases your awareness of the governmental policies that affect the nation and often also the international community. being an informed citizen def. applies to real life.</p>
<p>Debate is essentially equivalent to other national level competitions. Take math - the few at the top are essentially recruited and guaranteed at the top schools.</p>
<p>taurustorus: Agreed. Policy rocks. A lot of my friends do LD for fun, and Policy seriously...IMO policy takes a lot, lot more work...</p>
<p>Policy is definitely a beautiful thing. It takes a @$#&load of time to prep, and thats probably why its so valued. TOC is the tournament of champions; you get there if you get a few bids, those come up at college tournies like Glenbrooks, Harvard, Stanford, etc. Its insanely impressive if you get one. And i did acadec/quizbowl- why would memorization and a work ethic make an impressive EC?</p>
<p>Policy is not even a form of debate. Its at best a speaking competion. I walked into a policy round and I listened. I heard nothing. It was a blab. I heard gibberish. Do you really think that when you give a point in real life that it would require you to talk this fast? Policy debaters claim that the speech itself is not important because it is immpossible to understand. The most important part they claim is the cross-x becuase
you refute the case from there.</p>
<p>Do you even understand what they are saying during a contrustive? I also find it funny that most policy debates end up with genocide or nuclear war.
LD in the north is far more popular then policy. Yes, I am dissing the south.</p>
<p>Even as you claim policy as extremely hard and lots of work, LD is a whole lot of work too. Policy is one topic per year with a parter. LD is 5 topics a year. You need to write a different case each time. The turnover rate is much higher so the research you used at the beginning of the year usually can not be used at the end of the year. The policy people bins just get larger and larger as the year goes by until you have 4-5 tupperware storage bins filled with paper or evidence. When a round ends it looks like a war zone with the paper all over the room. It looks like a tornado went through. </p>
<p>LD is a lot more reasoning and a lot less proving that my sources are better then your sources therefore I am right. In LD you weight harms and benfits not which source is better.</p>
<p>LD has TOC of too then. I just didn't go last time because the SAT was on that day. Evil SAT!</p>
<p>in high school, my two major ecs were congressional debate and the newspaper. debate was my passion, but the newspaper, in my opinion, took up wayyyy more time. my resume says that i put in 20 hrs a week for the newspaper and this was probably even an understatement. we were pretty much working constantly throughout the year whereas really in-depth work for debate only lasted about half the month.</p>
<p>mock trial, though, is probably a bigger committment than both of those. the kids i knew from mock trial put in insane hours to prepare for cases.</p>
<p>wait, so did you get a bid for TOC?</p>
<p>There's too much policy love on this thread.</p>
<p>Policy blows, it's totally not applicable to real life. The arguments are complete and utter bs... Nuclear war in space? Mass genicide? The fabrications policy trolls paint of reality is disgusting. </p>
<p>I watched the NFL nationals policy round last year and after the aff finished blathering on about sea turtles the neg brought up some whacko congress act and said that if sea turtles were tested on money would be diverted from the economy and terrorists would blow up the united states. the neg won over like 8+ judges... total bs. </p>
<p>also, it sounds like diahrea of the mouth. LD, and even PF, is wayyyy more useful. try going somewhere and talking like a policy uber debate nerd in front of people. you'd be shunned.</p>
<p>Okay, no more policy hate. </p>
<p>Actually, out here on the west coast, policy is almost shunned, and parli and ld are embraced and cool.</p>
<p>Debate is so important because.. do you ever have oral presentations in class? compare yourself to them? yeah, not pretty.. colleges like kids that can actually articulate themselves.</p>
<p>debate should be mandatory. should be required to get 1 TOC bid to graduate. hehe.</p>
<p>This thread seems to be going off-track into a debate (pun intended) over whether LD or Policy is the better form of debate.</p>
<p>Back to the original question, I think debate would help at debate schools (Emory, Berkeley, Dartmouth) more than anything; if you want to debate for the school, contact the school's coach and they may be able to write a recommendation for you for the admissions office.</p>
<p>wow, didn't know that, I will keep that in mind. My goal is to out do a classmate of mine that excels in rowing. Good old rivals!</p>
<p>I'm a junior and im the captain of the debate team at our high school (LD, we dont have a policy team). I've been involved in debate for 3 years already and ive already been gauranteed the president spot of our speech and debate team next year. When I started debate at our school, our team only had 3 people and we competed at like 2 local tournaments the entire year, without anyone placing. Our team is very small and unlike many other schools, we do not have a debate coach. Our advisors have not even been very consistent throughout the years due budget cuts at our school. This year however, we've attended 6 national circuit tournaments already and I have been doing fairly well at them. I essentially built the team up and I am responsible for teaching our novices. Now our novices have broken (placed) at stanford, SCU, ect.</p>
<p>My Accomplishments this year (I was the only debater on my team to place at any of these tournaments):
-Quarterfinalist at Harker Invitational
-Semifinalist at Santa Clara Fall Invitational
-Double Octofinalist at Logan Invitational (TOC tournament)
-Triple Octofinalist at Berkeley Invitational (TOC tournament)</p>
<p>This summer I will be attending VBI and I hope to compete at many more tournaments my senior year and place as well (hopefully before november, haha). I'd say my academics/SAT scores will be fairly high, but I really don't have many other extra curriculars. I've heard from some people that dedication and success in a particular area is enough to get into a good school, and also like many people pointed out, debate is a very highly respected extra curricular by colleges. I guess what I'd like to know is my chances at the following colleges.</p>
<p>UPenn (early app)
Cornell
Columbia
Duke</p>
<p>Majoring in Bus. Admin or Poli Science. Do you guys think there's a good chance I'll get into one of those schools at least?</p>
<p>Hey guys,</p>
<p>Debate looks good on your apps because excelling in ANY form of academic debate takes skills applicable to your college ed, your career, and the "real world."- (a concept that often gets lost in rounds, yes.) Debate takes a lot of time for research. It requires you to be well-read and have a sophisticated understanding of argumentation and tons of theory (political, philosophical, sociological-- I swear, all of those "out there" Ks serve an academic purpose.)</p>
<ul>
<li> I walked into a policy round and I listened. I heard nothing. It was a blab. I heard gibberish. Do you really think that when you give a point in real life that it would require you to talk this fast? Policy debaters claim that the speech itself is not important because it is immpossible to understand. The most important part they claim is the cross-x becuase
you refute the case from there.</li>
</ul>
<p>Sorry, but not policy debater will agree with this. Its typical for people not accustomed to policy debate to not understand it at all - it takes practice and experience to get it all in. And the faster you talk, the more you get in - its that simple! It doesnt much matter whether or not you get more time in real life. And while the cross-x is crucial in a debate, the round winning points are made in speeches.</p>
<p>"I watched the NFL nationals policy round last year and after the aff finished blathering on about sea turtles the neg brought up some whacko congress act and said that if sea turtles were tested on money would be diverted from the economy and terrorists would blow up the united states. the neg won over like 8+ judges... total bs. </p>
<p>also, it sounds like diahrea of the mouth. LD, and even PF, is wayyyy more useful. try going somewhere and talking like a policy uber debate nerd in front of people. you'd be shunned."</p>
<p>I honestly think you're just being closed-minded. Think about a court case - the lawyers might bring in some strange, unheard of law or piece of evidence that you think is "bs", yet the the jury may well go for it. Are the impacts in policy debate necessarily likely? No. And yet, they are possible and important to think of. </p>
<p>Your last statement is just mean. Policy debate is much more than speaking fast - kepe in mind that policy takes lots of emphasis on research, logical argumentation, etc... These are really very useful for future life. If you're looking to make people appreciate your speeches, take public speaking - better than any form of debate.</p>
<p>No one is being closeminded except the posters who have been aimlessly criticizing LD or policy debate. Both debates have both positive and negative aspects; just because you participate in one debate doesn't give you the right to criticize the other form of debate. Besides, all of you have strayed far from the original question/topic of this thread.</p>