<p>So I am a sophomore and am thinking about joining Speech and Debate next year? The only problem is college applications... I honestly am not doing this at all for college, I just thought it would be a good activity for me to do (I already have other extracurricular activities). I really don't know why I didn't start earlier. The only problem is that I think it might actually hurt my college chances, because joining an activity as a junior would look like I am blatantly doing it to strengthen my application. I just want to do it for fun (but I will take it seriously), but I don't want it to HURT my college chances... What should I do?</p>
<p>Do it if you like it. I love forensics.</p>
<p>SSRS</p>
<p>Debate is an AWESOME activity…!</p>
<p>I started my junior (only because that’s when we got a coach at our school) </p>
<p>and since then I got 2nd place at districts and got into finals at regionals. </p>
<p>It’s a lot of work but fun and def. gives u that rush of adrenaline if you are a competitive person.</p>
<p>Ack! I had the exact same question.</p>
<p>Will it take time from your schoolwork or other ECs? If not, I’d recommend joining–it’s awesome, and if it clicks with you, you may have some impressive awards (and perhaps senior year leadership) to add to your apps. But if it means diverting effort from your established priorities, stick to what you’ve got and focus on making an impact there.</p>
<p>Debate taught me to organize my thoughts, understand how to support my arguments with evidence, learn to do research and speak persuasively. I was also offered debate scholarships to two universities my junior year as a result of high school debate accomplishments (one of which I accepted, skipping my senior year).</p>
<p>Back near the dawn of time, before word processing, I organized all of my college papers in my head, with note cards of evidence to back up my points. As a result, I never wrote a second draft: I sat down at the typewriter and typed my 10-page paper, and that was my final. I made almost all A’s. I was able to transfer skills learned from debating to all of my college classes as a result.</p>
<p>What you can learn from debate outweighs any question an admission officer might have as to why you didn’t start until junior year.</p>
<p>If you do well at debate your junior year and onwards, I think the awards will be impressive enough to balance out the fact that you started out late. And honestly, with SO MANY different events, there’s many opportunities to find your niche and figure out what event you like the best…</p>
<p>I’d say go for it. You can spend 20 hours or 2 hours a week on debate (we have kids at our school who are at both ends of the spectrum) but in the end, you get out of it what you put into it. It’s been invaluable to me, and I personally recommend it to ANYONE who even has a slight interest 
GL!</p>
<p>Do it!
I do speech and debate and i love it so much I would probably say its one of the top 3 best things that happened to me in HS.
junior all the way.</p>
<p>thanks guys</p>
<p>another question though: i doubt i can get any awards/recognitions, so if i don’t, will it still hurt my chances? see, i could join the team unofficially but i don’t think i could go to competitions in that case. i really don’t want to hurt my chances of getting into college at all as i’ve been working really hard, so if it will make a negative impact, i may just join unofficially or not at all</p>
<p>I say join it because you want to and if it worries you just don’t put it down on your applications. I am a senior and I do not know how your school works, but we make our own one page resume that our counselor approves and then gets sent to colleges. So for instance if I did a sport for only two years and thought it would look like a lack of commitment I don’t have to put it. I would think you would have the same choice.</p>