<p>I am a junior, looking at ivy league schools. Does anyone know if doing well in competitive debate helps in the admissions process, and if so, to what extent?</p>
<p>It means you're accomplished in at least one extracurricular. What else do you have to offer?</p>
<p>Sorry if that seems cold but most of the wannabee Ivy class of 2012 will be parading out their ECs (whether it be sports, activism, math clubs, church activities, etc.).</p>
<p>Excellence and devotion to ECs is what matters. Debate in and of itself would hold no extra hook, IMHO.</p>
<p>It will be listed as a extracuricular and can be used in an essay. It all depends on to what extent you can sell it and what degree of success you have.</p>
<p>I agree with the above poster. I was also a competitive debater throughout high school, but unless you have a leadership position or have been to state, it is not enough to get you into an Ivy. You have to back up your debating career with other ECs and scores (SAT ACT GPA).</p>
<p>It does help. Public speaking is a highly coveted skill, and one debaters develop. For me, that experience also really helped/ helps with handling interviews. As the posters above me said, it won't in itself get one into a school, but it is looked favourably upon.</p>
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<p>it is almost impossible for schools to verify the amount of success you've had- I would say it definitely helps but don't go overboard with it- just being on the team is usually sufficient.</p>
<p>ok, i've been surfing cc for a while and when i read this one i had to comment.</p>
<p>yes. DEBATE WILL HELP. on northwestern's general application, there is a specific question about whether or not you would be interested in participating in debate in college. but more interesting,</p>
<p>"State and national award winners have a 22% to 30% higher acceptance rate at top tier colleges and being captain of the debate team “improved an applicant’s chances by more than 60% compared with the rest of the pool,” according to the report. This is significantly better than other extracurricular activities that tend to recruit from the same pool of students as forensic teams such as school newspaper reporter (+3%), sports team captain (+5%), class president (+5), and band (+3). Even without winning major awards, participation in speech and debate develops valuable skills that colleges are seeking out and that is reflected in the above average acceptance rate (4%). Colleges and universities today are looking for articulate thinkers and communicators who will become active citizens and leaders of tomorrow."</p>
<p>that article is citing another piece by the wall street journal that i was too lazy to find.</p>
<p>my advice is, if you love debate, definitely. go overboard. if not, don't worry too much about it, because of course, you should do what you love. but from what i've read, debate is a big plus.</p>
<p>If you're dedicated and have done very well in debate, you can certainly benefit from debating.</p>
<p>I have to agree that you should at least compete in state or in the nationals.</p>
<p>However, you cannot rely on one EC to guarantee you admission. Back up an excellent EC with community service, good grades, good SAT scores, and a great essay then you'll be a better Ivy League candidate.</p>
<p>I believe that being a district champion for Oratory and Extemp helped me get into Penn and Cornell, but I know that without good stats, those wins would not have been as helpful.</p>
<p>My GPA is very strong (4.0 unw) with six AP's this year (out of seven classes). My SAT's are strong I haven't taken them yet, but my practice tests are about 1500 (out of 1600). In debate I have won states twice as well as finaled at nationals and won several other national tournaments. For leadership I am president of debate and vice-president of a few honor societies that I am active in. Will this make a large impact on the admissions officers?</p>
<p>It's impressive that you have done so well in debate and it will certainly look good on your application, but on its own, it wont guarantee you get accepted to an Ivy. Take a look at the threads in the Ivy forums that show who was accepted and rejected. There are people with impressive achievements in debate who were rejected and people who don't list debate at all who were accepted.</p>
<p>by all means, go for it. dedicate youreslf to it. and don't give up, even if it means losing that extra bit of sleep for it.. becuase to suddenly give up in the middle would reflect poorly on your attitude and committment.</p>
<p>Oh yeah it helps. Of course it depends on the extent of involvement/success...I won states and made semis at NFLs and got into my top choice...I'm assuming that helped a lot b/c those were the only major awards I had lol (i'm in other ECs of course, but nothing else "special") Most other kids I know who do well on the state and national levels are going to amazing schools (not just HYP of course, but UNC-CH, Duke, UVA, Tufts, etc...) Doing well shows a lot of dedication and skill. It's not a guaranteed in, but I imagine it helps!!!</p>
<p>steven16... My best advice to you is to participate in extracurriculars you're most passionate about. Find an even balance between what you enjoy doing and what you think would be the best resume-builder. Once you find that happy medium, you'd be much better off expressing your true interests and intellectual/academic/athletic achievements as opposed to Joe Schmoe who went to the math tournament and had a horrible time and just put "Participated in 2005 math tournament" on his application. It sounds real cliche, but you really need to do what you're most passionate about. Being the most passionate towel boy at basketball games will probably get you further in the admissions process than just being some random guy on the debate team.</p>
<p>I'm certain my being captain of my debate team, as well as winning states and going to nationals helped me gain admission to Tufts.</p>