NU debate

Colleges and Universities A-Z Northwestern University
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<p>If anyone has the answers to my questions, I’ll greatly appreciate it. I know it’s a lot of questions, and many of them are lame. Sorry!</p>

<p>I’ve done debate (policy) for some time now, but am not necessarily spectacular at it. I know NU has a great squad.</p>

<li><p>Do I need to try out?</p></li>
<li><p>Does everyone on the team have some sort of legacy (national champion their freshie year of high school—yeah, I’m exaggerating)?</p></li>
<li><p>Is the stereotype that debaters tend to have really low GPAs true (because of all the traveling and dedication)?</p></li>
<li><p>Would it be realistic and smart to do debate & journalism? (I’m assuming both are time consuming?)</p></li>
<li><p>I know some schools that don’t support their team very well, debaters have to pay for their own entry fees and so forth, is that the same with NU?</p></li>
<li><p>Is there a stigma of “ew, you’re a debater?” at college? lol. This one’s just for fun because there seems to be one at HS—at least within my league.</p></li>
<li><p>Any other stereotypes of debaters?</p></li>
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<p>Hmm.. can I delete a thread? I can't find a link to do so. I put this in "Sophomores taking questions"</p>

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<p>I'm a freshman in Medill... not on the debate team, but a few of my best friends are.
If you haven't been recruited, you can still try to join the team....I'm not sure how this process works, the three people I know who are on it were all recruited because they did well at NFL nationals...but they have told me that i should "join", and I've never done debate before, so I'm sure you could get on the team in some capacity if you'd like. </p>

<p>I don't think they have low GPAs... often they are some of the brightest and most succesful students in school... smart people at this level are also smart enough to manage their time to succeed in debate and in school... its do-able, but not easy... but its not supposed to be easy.</p>

<p>It's perfectly realistic to do journalism and debate... journalism isn't terribly more time-consuming than any other major...in fact its a lot less than Engineering majors and probably less than many WCAS majors, just because only 1/4 of your classes all 4 years will be journalism related. That said, most of the people on the speech and debate teams, i believe, are Comm studies or speech majors, not that thats encouraged, just that it goes hand in hand. </p>

<p>Our team is Very well supported. The team has a huge endowment... the school pays for pretty much everything... probably pays for more than they ought to (in my opinion as somebody who is not on the speech team.) The team is like national champion, of course the university wants to support them to make sure all these students and coaches want to be at NU.</p>

<p>No, theres no stereotype of "ew, you're a debater"... everyone at NU is successful at something... in HS you might be considered a Nerd just cus you do something which involves your brain. At NU (and any elite college, really) everyone has high mind capacities, and they are embraced.</p>

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<p>Wow, thanks! That was so informative! I greatly appreciate it!</p>

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<p>is there just debate, or do they do speech topics that high schools do as well (i.e. extemp)</p>

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<p>I'm not particularly into posting, but the original poster of this thread won my heart =) Debate is why I came to NU, and somehow or another I ended up dabbling on both the speech and debate teams this year and know about both...sooooo--here goes:</p>

<p>1) You do not need to try out to join either the speech or debate team. For the debate team (CX), you should e-mail the coach early next summer after you're accepted and inquire about the practice session. Practice starts in summer about a month before school starts because the res. is posted August 15. For speech, practice starts once school starts, though the res for LD is posted on the same day (I think?) as CX. LD in college is one-on-one relatively slow-delivery CX, by the way. </p>

<p>2) No--I never did CX in high school but was welcome to join either the speech or CX team. It helps to have experience, as you will delve into the material, and you may feel pressure to eventually prove yourself, but many successful college debaters were no-names in the NFL.</p>

<p>3) This one is tricky. Debate is extremely time-consuming if you want to do well. I know of people who have quit because they knew that they couldn't commit as much as the coach would like them too. Of course, the pressure is well placed--there are people being paid to cut cards for you and judge for you and you're being flown all over the place, so you should be doing well. With that said, some debaters struggle with grades. Failing classes is of course discouraged, and academic probation exists on the squad. It is possible, though, to get decent grades and stay on the team. Speech is easier, as there are no pressures to compete a lot and the research load for LD is low in comparison. In summary, Northwestern hands out lots of bad grades all the time, so you should just do what you want to do and ease up or quit if you feel that you're struggling.</p>

<p>4) The journalism core is surprisingly scarce...of twelve classes your freshman year, only two will be journalism classes, unless you take unrequired "Topics" classes. Medill is into a well-rounded education. The labs for Editing and Writing the News are loooooooong, though, and that may interfere with practice. Everything is manageable, however, not gonna lie. You can do it.</p>

<p>5) NU is debate heaven, world-renowned (there was a public debate between our ntl champs and the British national champions) and has the biggest budget EVAAR. No worries.</p>

<p>6) hehe, everybody loves debaters. At NU, it's cool to be smart. There are tons of people who will be interested in your debater-status. It's funny though, it seems that NU has the largest proportion of NFL alums in existence. (At least my year, there was a specific question on the application about interest in inter-collegiate debate, and they definitely seek that critical thinking mind-set). Chances are that you'll be friends with lots of quite successful high school debaters. That status is valued by the admissions staff and thus by the students that end up here.</p>

<p>7) Stereotypes of debaters...talk fast. Busy. Successful. Nothing too obscure.</p>

<p>Wow, that was fun! =) If you have any other questions, please feel free to post again. And apply to NU, because it's more or less a former-debater or current-debater's paradise.</p>

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<p>Oh, and for the other speech events (extemp, etc) see nuspeechteam.com</p>

<p>Look under events or whatever. The res for LD is also posted.</p>

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<p>hahaha...hi jacob!! =) who knew?</p>