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It seems that among elite-school admissions, debate/speech/forensics team members are a dime a dozen. However, isn't the point of debate and speech to compete, and therefore win? Also, for every school with a debate team, there obviously is a head captain or president. I am currently vice-president, being groomed for president next year on my defending state champion team. I am very passionate about debate...I spend numerous hours a week doing readings and researching articles. As one of the team's officers, I have taken it upon myself to help groom our novice debaters for competition. How can I go around distinguishing my numerous local/state awards (with a little national recognition) and team involvement from the other debate team captains with few awards to their credit and do it to pad their resumes?

By monica on Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 11:44 pm: Edit

as a debater myself, one as committed as you say you are, i find it irritating to see people post "debate club" in their list of ECs when CLEARLY (to me) they can't be serious competitive debaters and still do all the other nonsense they do.

i don't know where you debate, but when i think back to all the kids who did well nationally, like from the glenbrooks schools, greenhill, st marks, etc (i'm in texas so i know the dallas and chicago teams the best), they're A debaters all tended to go to good schools.

my teammate who took second this past nationals in LD went to princeton. i think maybe the caliber of the tournaments you include? specifically, i'm writing "tournament of champions qualifier" to let them know these were _national_ tournaments i broke at...

i'm putting:

won about 14 regional tournaments

top 10 at the university of texas tournament, twice

top 15 at the st mark's toc qualifier

top 30 at the glenbrooks toc qualifier

qualified for the nfl national tournament in congress

elected presiding officer at nationals

By Debater on Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 11:51 pm: Edit

Hey, I'm not a policy debater, because from where I come from (NC), policy is pretty much dead. Congress is my main event, and I dabble in extemp on the side. Some people think Congress is a joke, but I must say that I disagree. Congress is the synthesis of ALL the debate/speech events, and is one of the most powerful events when seen at its best.

You qualified to nats in Congress? That's wicked cool. I barely missed the Congress qual cause I was too busy double entering in Extemp. Argh...finals in Extemp, top alternate in Congress and nothing to show for it :-(. I live in Charlotte, where Nats was held this year. The Senate final round was one of the best I had ever seen...Scott Jacobsen is the man!

By Debater on Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 11:53 pm: Edit

So far, all I have to show for my national experience is my Harvard Congress Semifinal break...

By monica on Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 11:54 pm: Edit

in retrospect, i appear to have missed the point of your post

your committment to debate should be clear from the number of hours you say you've spent in it per week. (also, don't they ask you to rank your ECs in order of importance to you?)
mine:

policy debate
20/42
team captain & tournament director

and then put the awards in the award section. on the additional sheet they give me to explain some of the ECs and misc other information, i'm writing what tournament director entails, and my duty of teaching the novices singlehandedly.

By monica on Sunday, September 15, 2002 - 11:56 pm: Edit

oh hi! in my district, congress is the activity that good people who didn't qual for nats in debate or extemp get to go in my partner bailed in january and i startled all the lders by getting a spot in the house.

north carolina was so pretty! i LOVE congress as well, though cxers tend to look down on anything that isn't CX

i might go to a national tourney in congress again since my partner this year is sketchy as well. where are you applying?

By Debater on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:01 am: Edit

Thanks for the advice!

I'm only a junior right now, so its a little early for me. However, I'm currently looking at schools near NC and schools who have a good parliamentary debate team, because I would love to continue debate in college, but I doubt that I'll be able to pick up policy fast enough . My short list right now is Swarthmore, Columbia, UNC, Duke, and Emory.

By Debater on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:04 am: Edit

LoL...that's the reason policy died in NC. Nobody can find a good partner. My school (Myers Park) used to be a pretty big policy powerhouse, but then peoples' egos got in the way. We've had people try to pick it up, but the partners usually end up bickering and getting nothing accomplished, plus our coach absolutely abhors policy...

By Californio on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:33 am: Edit

Hey Debater what did u think of the guy who placed third in Senate, From Leland High School in California, Faris M., anyway, I'm from Leland and I'm actively involved in a lot of interp events, HI, DI, Duo, its good to find some people on CC that know about speech and Debate. I also dabble a bit in congress on the side and I love the Cross-ex portion of he speeches. I qualified for our state tourney, in HI in sophomore year and DI in Junior, year, ive won various awards in regional comps. and Im the treasurer of our team. Last year I was so close in getting to Charlotte, I placed third in our Nat. Quals in HI, and Im so mad, cause the guy who did go didnt even break in HI at Nats, and Im sure i wouldve broken becuase of some info given to me by an extremely well regarded national speech coach, sorry for rambling but congrats to everyone, BTW Leland Rules, last year we produced the LD and Team State champs, and 4th place nAT House Congress, and 3rd Place Nat. Senate Congress...Go Chargers!!!

By Debater on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:43 am: Edit

Californio...Faris was one of the best "good extempers in a Congress chamber" I've heard. You could definately tell he knew his stuff. Some people can do debate and not be clearly informed on the issues they are speaking about. People who are hardcore congressmen can usually discern our likes from the extempers/LDers. I know that California isn't big on Congress, and that can turn off many people. But, at Nationals, there is a good mix of everything. Here, on the East coast, we tend to focus on the Parliamentary aspects and using Congress-like actions and rhetoric. But yea, California has a knack for sending extempers/LDers into Congress and having them do well. Well, it's late, and I've rambled on for too long...so I'll take my leave.

By Debater on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:44 am: Edit

He had a cool last name too! It was like "Mohueddin" or something. LoL, "Senator Mohueddin"....very cool.

By monica on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:46 am: Edit

yeah my sophmore year we had an OUTSTANDING policy team, they were in quarters i think of the TOC (as i realize i'm talking to people who aren't cxers...)

but jealously pretty much destroyed my team from then on, and i'm left to try and rev up the novii.

anyhow. i hope adcoms know how much time it takes to do debate right.

By Debater on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:48 am: Edit

Aww...good luck with that. And yes, I am familiar with the Tournament of Champions, we sent a L/Der last year...and Congress had their Inaugural TOC. We sent 3 people out of 5 who qualified; 2 made it to the final round, and one got 6th. That's one of my goals this year...to make it to the Congress TOC. Last year, they had a pretournament cruise...I heard it was sooo nice!

By monica on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 12:53 am: Edit

wow!! my teammate and i (who also went to nats in the house) learned we each had a bid to the congress tocs and laughed forever.

it's so hard to think that people do congress as their MAIN event, even though i love it. and had the worst PO ship in the history of the activity at a national level, i am SURE.

shiver. the only national level congressperson i remember from nats was rep. denton, from regis, who was cocky like nobody's business in the end so we formed a 10 person voting block to keep the ass from getting to be PO.

i feel bad now...

By Debater on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 01:00 am: Edit

Yea...that's one of the negative aspects about Congress...it's the only event done in front of a group, and the way you conduct yourself is immensely crucial as well. I hate people who politick too much. It gets REALLY bad sometimes...some kids have already started to politick for Finals PO at Harvard next FEBRUARY...pretty sad. However, Congress does seems to be making a gradual progression towards being a respected event. Nationals is still a bit diluted at the moment. The majority of the national circuit congressmen is top-notch, but they all seem to hail from Florida, hehe. Of course, you will always have your cocky bastards who make Congress look bad . Part of my duty on my team is to help quell the flaring egos of some of our stellar young debaters. One of them got into too much trouble for his arrogance at Congress camp. It's a scary job, lol.

By monica on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 01:22 am: Edit

congress camp!!!

i giggle. i just flirted and acted a touch ditzy and they all thought i was benign and nice until i gave a speech on tactical nuclear weapons, which happened to be my aff this year.

then the denton fellow was REAL nice to me.

By Jane on Friday, November 29, 2002 - 09:57 pm: Edit

Hey! It's great to hear so many of you were at Nats in Charlotte! Wasn't it beautiful? I qualed in LD. In response to the first post, I was wondering the same thing. When is debate a hook? I qualified my sophomore year (and hope to qualify again), I go to a really really really small school, so we only go to regional tournaments. I am also self taught (we didn't have a debate team before me, so i was also the first person to every qualify for nats from my school). But is that enough to be a hook at all? I've never been to a TOC or major tournament besides state and nationals. What do you think? And how could I make this more of a hook?