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i have become interested in joining academic decathlon next year and would like some advice to see if there is a way for me to get in. here's some background info:
i'm now a junior. i'm ranked in the top 12 percent of my class. i have a collective GPA of 3.7. i love to learn and feel a motivation that is really strong. i missed a chance to get into ap classes because of not getting all a's, but got into AP Biology. I do well in my cp classes and had a 3.833 GPA last semester. i am well read and eager to learn. i recently took my SAT's but my results didn't please me. i got a 630V and 620M. i had bee preparing for my second testing and hope to get a 1350.
i would like to know if it is possible for me to get int academic decathlon and if the coach wil look at my SAT scores that i will receive in may(my 2nd testing).
i want to join academic decathlon because of the challenge and will to learn, but i also want to know what colleges think of members and if there is any awards.
thanks for any help

By Dadster on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 10:13 am: Edit

Hi, happy, I can't answer the question about what the coach will look at, but I would say that many colleges will look at participation as a plus. Like any competition, strong results are good, too. (I.e., it's a plus to be involved in swimming, but it's even better if your team wins the city championship, and better still if you swim the anchor leg for the state championship relay team.)

I'd base my decision to pursue academic decathlon not on what colleges might think, but on whether you will enjoy the activity and are interested in making the time commitment it will require.

By Lynn on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 03:01 pm: Edit

The criteria for Academic Decathlon varies from school-to-school, so you need to find out what your school is looking for. My daughter competed on the Honors level at her high school this year. At her school, only seniors could compete. As a matter of fact, the interested seniors this year practically had to beg the sponsoring teacher to have a team this year. Seems he had burned out because, although the team usually won the county meet, they never placed higher than fifth at State in 20 years of competing.

Last year, he had talked the school district into allowing an Academic Decathlon class, but funding was cut before the year was over. This year, he just felt no one was behind his efforts to field a successful team. There were more seniors than spots this year, so he had them all meet and finally held an in-house competition to choose the team. This was in December--which is quite late for team formation. Again, the coach was not very interested in pursuing this. There were few study sessions leading up to the in-house competition. Once the team was formed, they met a couple of times a week in the evening until the county level meet.

There were no other schools in our county to compete against, so my daughter's high school was guaranteed a state spot. However, the rules state that a team must compete in a county meet, so a neighboring county was kind enough to include our local high school.

My husband and I attended the SuperQuiz at that meet in Feb. Now this was an eye-opener. It was obvious which schools were doing the best. They tended to be from the wealthier suburbs. We sat in the midst of one high schools' booster cheer club (can you imagine a cheer club for academics). They told us their team had been together since August, and that they had a class that met daily. In addition, their school had purchased all the best prep materials offered by Academic Decathlon including the online, interactive tests. Our school had purchased the smallest, least expensive set of materials because our school is poor. Though our team was young in terms of time spent together (and my daughter had mono), they finished 5th out of 18 teams. Not too shabby!

On to the State meet. Ours is a Division III school in California. You've probably guessed that this story has a happy ending. My daughter's high school team won first place among the Div. III schools, first place in SuperQuiz, and brought home 39 medals in all. More medals were won by the scholastic and varsity level students (competition is extremely tough at the Honors level), but my daughter did win a bronze for the written art exam and everyone but one scholastic level student won at least one medal for an event or written test.

Needless, to say our town, high school, and school district are proud as can be of these kids. The coach is pumped about forming next year's team during the summer and there is talk of having a AcaDeca class again. The newspaper ran a big article and the team has appeared at city events to standing ovations. I love seeing academic achievement in the limelight!

Hope I didn't bore you with that story, but I thought it was a good example of a team winning when they don't have all the perqs of a wealthier school. As far as requirements were concerned for her team, my daughter and one of the other Honors level students (which would be your level) are both ranked #1 in the class and have unweighted 4.0's. Course load for all 3 Honors members has been rigorous, my daughter being the one of the 3 with more experience in the fine arts and less advanced math (she completed through pre-calc, the others AP Calculus). Otherwise, they were pretty evenly matched. The 3rd Honors member beat out a 4.0 unweighted gpa student who is also ranked #1 (the senior class currently has 8 students at #1 rank). I'm not sure what her unweighted gpa is, but I'd guess somewhere between 3.8 and 3.9. Her courseload was equally rigorous as all the other A-students who were vying for a team spot.

My advice to you is to seek out your team's advisor and let him/her know that you are interested. Motivation is a big factor because much leisure time is given up to be successful on the team. If your team allows juniors to compete, find out what the topics/theme is for next year and get a headstart on your classmates. That info is available on the national Academic Decathlon site. For example, you could read next year's novel in advance and start reviewing the art pieces and music.

Best of luck to you!

By Lynn on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 03:05 pm: Edit

I forgot to mention that in California there are no monetary awards for winning Academic Decathlon. I believe in some states (Texas?), money is awarded to top competitors. Also, it will probably look good on a college app that you are on an AcaDeca team, but county and state competitions do not occur until after college apps are sent in, so colleges will not know how well you did. Academic Decathlon is a lot of work. I think you have to want to do it for the breadth of knowledge it will give you and for the love of good competition.

By Roger (Roger) on Wednesday, April 17, 2002 - 03:41 pm: Edit

Great post, Lynn, and a great story - congratulations to your daughter and her school! Sort of the Milan High (the tiny school that prevailed in "Hoosiers") of academic competition! It's exciting to see schools that value this kind of competition and try to support it as much as athletic competition. (I'm trying to visualize how the cheerleading worked!)

For those who want more info about this competition, check the Academic Decathlon web site.

Thanks for enlightening us, Lynn!

By happy to learn on Thursday, April 18, 2002 - 12:37 am: Edit

thank you all for the help!!!!

By Lyndsea on Friday, May 31, 2002 - 08:48 pm: Edit

At my school, we didn't have to compete to be on the team (Texas, where academics aren't as good as football). We had a class, but the subjects were lousy. Our team got a lot of medals, but we didn't advance to state. We spent the rest of the year roleplaying. I look forward to doing it again next year (I started as a fish), and subsequent years.

By eric anderson on Monday, June 17, 2002 - 10:30 pm: Edit

congrats all...

it might be a bit late, but i cant see a coach turning someone down who REALLY wants to do decathlon. i know that we start with around 20... and the final team isnt selected until february, when the rosters are sent in for states.

and since were going with success stories, my team finished third among large schools (were a SMALL large school) in pennsylvania. personally, i won the overall scholastic championship with a score of 7852.

i can tell you this. all four of our scholastics (3.0-3.75 gpa) had sats above 1400. two of our honors (3.75-4.0) had 1400s as well- the third had a 780 math and a weak verbal score. but i really dont think that a test can completely represent your abilities. its all about how much you study for the events. cant wait for my senior year- personal goal is 8500!