Around the Circuit: The Academic Benefits of Speech & Debate

Andy Charrier, the extemp and debate coach at Lakeville South High School in Minnesota, recently posted an interesting Yale University study about the academic benefits of forensic and debate activity.  With his permission, we have reposted his summary of the study below.

Professor Minh Luong of Yale University published a paper titled Forensics and College Admissions in which he explains unique benefits of being on the debate team — benefits you can gain only from debate — for admission to a selective college.  Debates vastly improves your thinking, processing, expression, organizational and communication skills.  These are the very qualities that college seek in potential applicants.  Luong cites a study by the Wall Street Journal on the impact of debate on college admission:

The Wall Street Journal report did specifically highlight a ‘consistent trend’ – one that forensic coaches have known for a long time – that dedicated participation in drama and debate has significantly increased the success rate of college applicants at all schools which track such data.  State and national award winners have a 22% to 30% higher acceptance rate at top tier colleges and being captain of the debate team ‘improved an applicant’s chances by more than 60% compared with the rest of the pool,’ according to the report.  This is significantly better than other extracurricular activities that tend to recruit from the same pool of students as forensic teams such as school newspaper reporter (+3%), sports team captain (+5%), class president (+5%), and band (+3%).  Even without winning major awards, participation in speech and debate develops valuable skills that colleges are seeking out and that is reflected in the above average acceptance rate for forensic students (+4%).

The benefits of debate extend beyond admission to college, they pave a path for success as a college student. Emory University in Atlanta awards scholarships to debaters and collected data on what those students achieved.

From the period 1988-89 to 2004-2005 there were 197 finalists (12 in most years), of whom 90 matriculated at Emory for a yield of 45.7% 46 of the 90 students were selected Phi Beta Kappa.  12 of the 90 were selected as Woodruff or Callaway Scholars, 8 were selected as Martin Luther King Scholars, and 20 attended Harvard or Yale for law or graduate school.  Additionally, 20 of the 90 students received Rhodes Scholarships, 2 received McMullen Awards, and 2 received Truman Awards.

Colleges must sort through pools of well qualified candidates for admissions.  On paper, many of these candidates are indistinguishable. Luong reports that Harvard rejected about 50% of applicants who had perfect scores on the SAT test.  80% of  valedictorians who applied to Harvard were rejected.  So lots of smart, qualified students don’t make the cut.  You need to offer a school like Harvard more than just good grades and high test scores.  I looked at the profiles of admitted first-year students at Harvard and found that 10%of admitted students were high school debaters.  The skills you gain from debate are the difference-maker. Here is the question to consider: How will you make yourself a desirable candidate for admission to a selective college?