<p>hey all, I am a very competitive and a highly successful debater and forensicator (qualified and attended two nationals this past summer as just one example). I found out that Stanford is starting a debate program and that they are seeking for people to join. Consequently, I emailed somebody on the squad asking about this and they responded back giving me more info about the program. However, this was awhile back. Now I am about ready to apply SCEA for Stanford and I wonder if debate can help me or at least give me a small boost in the admissions process, and I have been toying with the idea of emailing this person back and telling him that I am interested in debating for Stanford, but I'm not sure if this will help me get in if at all or have any impact whatsoever. Suggestions? Advice?</p>
<p>well contacting somone on the squad isn't gonna give you a boost, b/c i'm guessing they were just a student and have no influence in the admissions process. however, in your application i think that mentioning your passion and willingness to contribute to debate at stanford will help. admissions wants applicants who will contribute somehow to stanford and not just study and leave. so i think you have that going for you at least. you can mention how you contacted so-and-so and what you'd like to do with the program, or at least tie it into your app somehow. good luck.</p>
<p>I must've not made myself that clear, sorry. I contacted the actual debate coach for Stanford and he emailed me back and we had a conversation but this was all the way back in January. Hope that clears some things up.</p>
<p>oh, um, well, i think my post still stands. except now perhaps when you mention the coach's name, the admissions people may actually talk to him about it. i remember an admissions person saying they went to a professor when a student mentioned some math theory thing in an essay.</p>
<p>What do you mean by starting a debate program? Stanford already has a quite successful debate team.</p>
<p>yeah i was wondering that too. i just assumed he/she mean their starting on the debate team or something</p>
<p>Sorry but the fact that you're a debater will not help in the admissions process (with relation to the new program)...I read a statistic on Claremont McKenna's website saying that 60% of the Claremont McKenna class of 2010 did debate in high school...and that's only the percentage for the applicants who were ACCEPTED...so it's safe to say that at the VERY least 40% of Stanford applicants do debate too...you're nothing special, sorry :(
But good job on making nationals...that is a unique accomplishment in itself. The accomplishment WILL help you in admissions. But the point of my post is that the new Stanford debate program will not affect admissions. Individual accomplishments like yours are still obviously going to be valued as part of your application but the school is not going to "Recruit" high school debaters (Yale's debate team has a similar statement on its website) and considering a vast number of applicants do debate it's not going to set you apart.</p>
<p>stanford being a "competitve and highly successful" debate program is up to well debate. However, one thing is clear: it is nowhere as successful as other schools such as Harvard, Northwestern, Berkeley, USC, etc., etc. The only reason I decided to email the coach was because he was advertising the squad and was basically recruiting. Anyways, I've decided that this can only help me and can't hurt me, and thats good enough for me.</p>
<p>"so it's safe to say that at the VERY least 40% of Stanford applicants do debate too"</p>
<p>I don't see your logic, and theres a difference between being a debater and a successful debater, just like the fact that you can do cross country all 4 years in high school, but thats different than being one of the 3 best cross country runners in the state, for example.</p>
<p>Unless you're one of the best LDers/policy teams/pf teams in the country, being a successful debater/national level debater will not drastically improve your chances of getting into Stanford.</p>
<p>but hey...they'll improve them to some point. don't be discouraged daonlykid. none of us work in admissions, it's just all in our opinion.</p>
<p>good luck</p>
<p>"I read a statistic on Claremont McKenna's website saying that 60% of the Claremont McKenna class of 2010 did debate in high school...and that's only the percentage for the applicants who were ACCEPTED"</p>
<p>And I'm willing to bet that the percentage of kids who applied and did debate was much, much lower. So it seems to me that this indicates that debate is a BIG boost for applicants.</p>
<p>I agree that you won't be recruited, but doing debate is a boost, and being nationally successful in anything is as well.</p>