<p>my school is posting banners everywhere addressing how being on your highschool debate team raises your chances of getting into college by 34% does that have any truth to it?</p>
<p>Think about it for a couple of minutes…exactly 34% for any student to any school. Make sense ;)?</p>
<p>no they just made that up. The real statistics show that being on debate team actually leads to tongue tied stammering in the long run, and most debate teams invent facts so it leads to chronic lying, and is so very unlikely to get you into college that you should actually leave it off your resume to even have the slightest chance.</p>
<p>[Accidental</a> Hero . College Admission | PBS](<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/accidentalhero/parents/college.html]Accidental”>Accidental Hero . College Admission | PBS)</p>
<p>well obviously not any student to any school what I mean is, does debate actually help you out?</p>
<p>well that’s brutal… poor debate kids. there’s like 4 kids on our team so, I suppose their really desperate, Either way I doubt it HURTS your chances.</p>
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<p>i don’t know what the hell kind of debate teams you’re familiar with, but…</p>
<p>debate’s fun</p>
<p>go for it, OP. it’s another extracurricular and helps with organization and public speaking skills</p>
<p>As a parent of a forensics kid, I have nothing but great things to say about it. My DD is now a senior and has been involved with debate and mock trial all four years. She loves public-speaking and has done well, going to the CA state finals in her individual event last year, state finals the last two years in an extracurricular speech competition, and a podium finish in the state mock trial finals last year as well. I did not participate in debate in high school and knew nothing about forensics until my DD got involved. I am so impressed with the results. The confidence, poise, maturity, ability to think on her feet, etc. that she has gained over the past four years is remarkable. Since the schools rely on parent judges, I have also had the opportunity to judge at many debate competitions and I am always amazed and impressed by the debate kids. Not only do they learn public speaking, but they gain substantive knowledge as well as they research and prepare for speeches and debates on a variety of topics. I don’t know if participating in debate increases your chance of getting into college or not, but it should, and it certainly cannot hurt.</p>
<p>Statistics can be misleading. Kids who self-select to participate in debate or other forensic events are more likely to be serious students with ambitions for college. This was certainly true at our high school, which sent many kids to NFL Nationals each year. The experience itself is amazing, in my opinion, for anyone who has the desire and time to commit. But don’t do debate or any other activity just to increase your college acceptance chances. Depending on the colleges you are aiming for, that can be a fool’s game anyway. </p>
<p>See what forensics is about at your school (an enthusiastic coach can make all the difference!) and give it a try if it interests you. It sounds like it could be a good opportunity to help in rebuilding the team.</p>
<p>Sorry, I was feeling cranky when I posted. Please read the article I linked to for an excellent explanation of what positive effects debate has for your skills and your college resume. But I agree with entomom, listing some exact percentage of advantage it gives you is pretty ridic.</p>
<p>As another parent of a forensics kid, I agree completely with everything said by DGDzDad. I’ll add a few more good reasons to do debate: it teaches you to learn both sides of an issue, think critically, and it teaches you to how to deal with losing, how to regroup and rebound.</p>
<p>But I also agree that you should try it and see if it’s for you. My D says she loves it so much she would do it regardless of whether it helped her get into college.</p>