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Debate and Law School
Posted: Thu Jan 06, 2011 8:52 pm
by Oracl3
Hey everyone,
Any other debaters on this forum? No one seems to appreciate the activity but debaters and law school admissions reps.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:33 am
by birdlaw117
Oracl3 wrote:Hey everyone,
Any other debaters on this forum? No one seems to appreciate the activity but debaters and law school admissions reps.
Fix't
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:38 am
by 2011Law
birdlaw117 wrote:Oracl3 wrote:Hey everyone,
Any other debaters on this forum? No one seems to appreciate the activity but debaters and law school admissions reps.[/quote]
Fix't
lol.
Some of the debate styles are just so useless to real life skills that I have no idea why they exist. Others aren't so bad. Unless you made it really far in competition, no one is really going to care.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2011 5:43 am
by birdlaw117
2011Law wrote:birdlaw117 wrote:Oracl3 wrote:Hey everyone,
Any other debaters on this forum? No one seems to appreciate the activity but debaters and law school admissions reps.[/quote]
Fix't
lol.
Some of the debate styles are just so useless to real life skills that I have no idea why they exist. Others aren't so bad. Unless you went toe-to-toe with the Ragin' Cajun
made it really far in competition, no one is really going to care.
Fix't again

Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:33 pm
by Oracl3
anyone?
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:49 pm
by pwyoung
I'm a debater. It really doesn't do much for admissions other than something to slap on there under "Extracurriculars".
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:53 pm
by Rand M.
pwyoung wrote:I'm a debater. It really doesn't do much for admissions other than something to slap on there under "Extracurriculars".
This.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 9:29 pm
by Oracl3
any other debaters want to share their takes?
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 10:35 pm
by RelativeEase
nb4 master debater
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:27 pm
by EricBerry
Despite what most people on here will tell you, mentioning debate actually can help your application (assuming you have national awards and what not). Two admissions deans mentioned my debate achievements in handwritten notes on my acceptance letters.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:29 pm
by prezidentv8
RelativeEase wrote:nb4 master debater

NOOOOO I WAS GOING TO POST THIS!!!
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:32 pm
by fatduck
birdlaw117 wrote:2011Law wrote:birdlaw117 wrote:Oracl3 wrote:Hey everyone,
Any other debaters on this forum? No one seems to appreciate the activity but debaters and law school admissions reps.[/quote]
Fix't
lol.
Some of the debate styles are just so useless to real life skills that I have no idea why they exist. Others aren't so bad. Unless you went toe-to-toe with the Ragin' Cajun
made it really far in competition, no one is really going to care.
Fix't again

the ragin' cajun had lunch with my debate team. we had pizza and soda, but he brought his own sandwich. the only ingredient appeared to be mayonnaise. he ate it vigorously while telling us that he was certain bloomberg was going to run for president in 2008.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:37 pm
by nealric
Despite what most people on here will tell you, mentioning debate actually can help your application (assuming you have national awards and what not). Two admissions deans mentioned my debate achievements in handwritten notes on my acceptance letters.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but the way those things work is that they pick something from your resume/PS and put on the acceptance letter that they were "impressed". It's there to make you feel special and want to attend their school. It's not a commentary on their admissions process.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:20 am
by EricBerry
nealric wrote: Despite what most people on here will tell you, mentioning debate actually can help your application (assuming you have national awards and what not). Two admissions deans mentioned my debate achievements in handwritten notes on my acceptance letters.
Sorry to rain on your parade, but the way those things work is that they pick something from your resume/PS and put on the acceptance letter that they were "impressed". It's there to make you feel special and want to attend their school. It's not a commentary on their admissions process.
One of the schools I was talking about was a reach for me. LSP <25% chance, median LSAT, 0.4 below 25th GPA. Doesn't it seem like something other than numbers was at play in their decision, given my sub-par numbers for that school? Don't you think that the soft they picked from my resume to include in the handwritten note would probably be one of my best softs (the vast majority of applicants didn't get a note BTW)? I'm not saying that my debate experience alone was the reason for my acceptance, but it clearly caught the dean's eye.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:22 am
by fatduck
where did you debate/what type?
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:26 am
by EricBerry
fatduck wrote:where did you debate/what type?
policy, national circuit and southeast region
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:28 am
by fatduck
EricBerry wrote:fatduck wrote:where did you debate/what type?
policy, national circuit and southeast region
nice i debated policy for army but obviously nowhere near that level. emory?
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:32 am
by FiveSermon
I debate on the webz
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 1:13 am
by gwuorbust
seriously, all law schools care about is making money. does debate help that? no. but your number do. take from that what you will.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:36 pm
by glitched
mmmm i don't know. have you guys ever just met with a mass amount of people and just started debating? I mean it honestly feels pretty good to mass debate. Anyone else mass debating out there? I sometimes wonder if I should have told admissions officers about my mass debating efforts. I go pretty hard sometimes and well honestly it feels good to be at the climax of an event and just out all I got. Sometimes even just watching others mass debate was enough for me.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:43 pm
by birdlaw117
glitched wrote:mmmm i don't know. have you guys ever just met with a mass amount of people and just started debating? I mean it honestly feels pretty good to mass debate. Anyone else mass debating out there? I sometimes wonder if I should have told admissions officers about my mass debating efforts. I go pretty hard sometimes and well honestly it feels good to be at the climax of an event and just out all I got. Sometimes even just watching others mass debate was enough for me.
Wow. That post is full of so much win. I applaud you and your apparently epic mass debating sessions.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 3:45 pm
by tea_drinker
...
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:07 am
by smittytron3k
to be fair, debate matters weirdly more at some schools (harvard and chicago in particular), and most adcoms know what the NDT is, but generally it's just another extracurricular. getting to triples of CEDA or whatever isn't going to mean a lot to them.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Sun Feb 20, 2011 1:41 am
by TatteredDignity
I debated policy 4 years in high school. It was a lot of fun, and it taught me how to think critically and analyze arguments. I hoped to parlay all of this into attending a top-notch law school.
So I studied really hard for the LSAT and rocked it.
Re: Debate and Law School
Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 1:56 pm
by robotclubmember
0LNewbie wrote:I debated policy 4 years in high school. It was a lot of fun, and it taught me how to think critically and analyze arguments. I hoped to parlay all of this into attending a top-notch law school.
So I studied really hard for the LSAT and rocked it.
Moral of the story: Fuck debate, study for the LSAT in the library. Alone. Because that actually will make a difference in your life.