Quote:
Originally Posted by Maritime Q-Scout
In all seriousness, debate is fantastic.
Of those that I debated competitively with and against, I'd say 50% became lawyers. A girl I debated with through high school and university has several appearances before the Supreme Court of Canada.
Of those that didn't go the law route, it helped them in their respective fields. One guy who was a below average competitive debater won a ton of scholarship money in engineering because he could mop the floor with everyone there.
It also helps you understand both sides of an issue, and that disagreeing with someone doesn't make them evil. You'd be at each other's throats during the debate, and then get plastered with them afterwards.
By no means does debate = lawyer, doctor, engineer; but it certainly helps and gives a leg up.
Even if you don't travel, or go to the big competitions, it's still a really useful skill to develop.
That said, some of the best lawyers I know never debated competitively.
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Debate is one thing. I'm more talking about the private international debate clubs. These were ultra expensive and required the parent to fork over lots of cash for debate. Like other activities, there are levels that you can get to simply by having the parents show more interest in and pay for the activity.
Law school is actually one of the fields that rarely looks at entrance scholarships for admission (with the exception of UofT/UVic).
I don't disagree that those that show an aptitude/interest in something like debate would be interested in becoming a lawyer later.