<p>Princeton has had great success in parliamentary debate since the founding of the Whig-Cliosophic Society, the oldest college debating society in the U.S. The total number of active debaters at Princeton has remained smaller than the numbers found at most of Princetons competitors but the achievements of those students has been impressive.</p>
<p>The following information, written in 2001, gives some idea of the quality of the program:</p>
<p>The Princeton Debate Panel is the most successful debate organization in the nation. The Panel is consistently home to the top-ranked debaters in the nation. The winners of the American Parliamentary Debate Association's Speaker of the Year award from '94-'95, '95-'96, '96-'97, '97-98 and '99-'00 were all members of the Panel. In addition, in 2000, Princeton took home the award for Team of the Year. Over the past five years, Princeton has had teams in the final round of the North American Debate Championship, the finals of the National Championship, and the Quarterfinals of the World Championship in Melbourne, Australia. Princeton has also qualified more teams in the past few years for the National Championship than any other school--including an unprecedented number of freshman teams.</p>
<p>At regular tournaments, Princeton typically walks away with top speaker and team awards. Princeton's all-freshman teams have also consistently outperformed other all-freshman teams; many have broken into final rounds or received team or speaker awards. At the 2000 National Championships, Princeton made up half of the teams breaking to quarterfinals, and the eventual winners were from Princeton. At the 1998 Championships, Princeton broke five teams into elimination rounds, which was more than any other school had sent to the tournament, and also had the Top Novice Team. The year before, Princeton had not only the Top Novice Team but also the Top Novice Speaker. In addition, in 1996, a Princeton team made it to the final round of the Oxford University's intervarsity tournament--the largest and toughest competition in the British Isles.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Edebate/general.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/%7Edebate/general.html</a></p>
<p>This year, Princeton won the National Title, came in second for total team points (behind the College of William and Mary) and had the second ranked Speaker of the Year (behind a winner from Johns Hopkins).</p>
<p>Last year, Harvard won the National Title and took the Speaker of the Year Award. Princeton took second in the Speaker of the Year category.</p>
<p>In the past five years, the title has been won twice by Princeton and twice by Harvard.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.apdaweb.org/index.php?option=com_oty%5B/url%5D">http://www.apdaweb.org/index.php?option=com_oty</a></p>
<p>In the 2003-2004 academic year Princeton had:</p>
<p> 8 tournament champions (out of 21 total = 38%);
14 teams in final rounds (out of 42 = 33%);
38.5 teams in outrounds (out of 168 = 23%);
42 teams placing 10th or above (out of 210 = 20%);
4 top speakers (out of 21 = 19%);
48 speakers placing 10th or above (out of 210 = 23%). </p>
<p>Of the 20 tournaments Princeton has attended, Princeton has...</p>
<p> won 8 times
reached finals 10 times and;
been in the top 10 teams at every tournament </p>
<p>Princeton also had APDAs top two Teams of the Year, as well as the top two speakers at Nationals.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.princeton.edu/%7Edebate/success%5B/url%5D">http://www.princeton.edu/~debate/success</a></p>