If you’re a middle schooler looking for extracurricular activities, consider participating in debating competitions! Debating will also help you become more perceptive to others’ points of view and respond to them in a structured manner. 

Moreover, preparing for these competitions requires you to do thorough research for the given topic, improving your research and analysis skills, which come in handy in all fields of work. Through practice, you become a better communicator and start making persuasive arguments, thus paving the way for you to become a good leader!

In this blog, we have covered 10 popular debate competitions that encourage participation from middle school students. 

1. National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA): Debate Events

The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA), founded in 1925, is the largest speech and debate organization for middle and high school students. There is an annual debate tournament for middle and high school students, who can participate either individually or as part of a team, depending on the event type. 

For the 2024 debate tournament held at Des Moines, Iowa, these events were offered for middle school students - Big Questions, World Schools, Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, and Congressional Debate. This is an open tournament with no qualification phase, and the only prerequisite is that participating students and their schools should have NDSA memberships. You can learn more about each event in detail here. 

Debate topics can be from fields such as science, philosophy, public policy, religion, and more. These events allow participants to present their side on the assigned topics and engage in rebuttal and refutation of their opponents.  

Location: Des Moines Area, Iowa (2025 will be the Centennial Year)

Date: June 15 - June 20, 2025

Cost: Solo entry: $75, Partner event entry: $150, and for each entry in the World Schools Debate entry: $225

Eligibility: Open to all students 5th to 8th-grade students who have NSDA memberships

Application Deadline: May 15, 2025 (tentative, based on previous year’s dates).

2. Harvard Middle School Congressional Debate

Harvard Congressional Debate is one of the tournaments that follows the Congressional Debate format, which simulates the U.S. legislative process. Do note that this competition is a part of the Harvard National High School Invitational Forensics Tournament. 

Participants were expected to study the docket and prepare brief speeches for either support or against the various bills present in the docket. The legislative docket for middle school students from the 2024 competition can be found here. As only one bill is discussed per round, you are expected to prepare for positive and negative arguments for every bill proposed in the docket. 

Location: Middle school students can only participate in the online format

Date:  Presidents' Day Weekend, February 15 - February 17, 2025

Cost: $70 per participant

Eligibility: Open to all middle school students

Application Deadline: February 13, 2025, 6:59 PM EDT

3. Annual Stanford Invitational

The Annual Stanford Invitational is an online national-level speech and debate tournament organized by the Associated Students of Stanford University’s Stanford Student Enterprises division. As with most debate competitions, participants can participate in the following event categories - Policy, Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, Parliamentary, Worlds Schools, and Congressional. 

Although there are grade divisions in each debate category, middle school students are eligible to participate in all, so you will have the flexibility to participate in an event of your choice. Read more about the tournament rules here. 

Location: Online

Date: February 8 - February 10, 2025

Cost: $100 Squad Account Maintenance fee, which is mandatory irrespective of the events. Fees for events are as follows:

• Policy entry - $125

• Lincoln Douglas entry - $75, 

• Public Forum entry - $125

• Parliamentary entry - $125

• Worlds Schools entry - $125

• Congressional - $75

Eligibility: Open to all students middle school students

Application Deadline: February 3, 2025, 11:59 PM PDT

4. JW Patterson Tournament of Champions

The JW Patterson Tournament of Champions, known widely as TOC, is an annual, national-level debate competition hosted at the University of Kentucky, Lexington. The competition's first edition was held in 1972, and it has emerged as one of the top national-level debate programs for school students.

This program was offered online for the 2024 edition and will again be conducted online in 2025. All middle school students below the age of 14 years are welcome to apply for the following debate categories: Policy, Lincoln–Douglas, Public Forum, Congressional, and World Schools. Unlike the high school program, there is no cash prize for winners, but a good finish in this competition will help boost your profile, and the experience will be useful for future competitions!

Location: Online

Date: May 9 - May 11, 2025

Cost: $100 Administration fee per school, which is mandatory irrespective of the events. Fees for events are as follows:

• Policy entry - $150

• Lincoln Douglas entry - $100

• Public Forum entry - $150

• Worlds Schools entry - $175

• Congressional entry - $100

Eligibility: Open to all students middle school students who are 14 years or younger by May 9, 2025

Application Deadline: April 30, 2025 (tentatively, based on previous year’s dates)

5. USA Forensics Olympiad Sessions

The USA Forensics Olympiad open series is part of the United States of America Forensics Olympiad (USAFO) National Championships held in April every year. Monthly tournaments have been planned for the 2024-25 tournament cycle, and applications are currently open for events in October, November, and December. 

These monthly tournaments will help teams earn bids for the Gold and Silver divisions at the National Championships, and the top participants in these divisions compete for a spot in the US IOF(International Olympiad in Forensics) team. 

As with most debate competitions on this list, the following debate events are available for middle school students - Policy, Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, Parliamentary, Worlds Schools, and Congressional.

Location: Online

Date: Monthly sessions until the National Championship in April 2025

Cost: $100 Administration fee per school, which is mandatory irrespective of the events. Fees for events are below

• Public Forum, World Schools, and Policy - Early Bird: $65; Regular: $80, Late: $120

• Lincoln-Douglas, Congressional - Early Bird: $50; Regular: $65 Late: $100

• Parliamentary - Early Bird: $50; Regular: $65; Late: $100

Eligibility: Open to all U.S. school students who are younger than 18 years

Application Deadline: The early registration deadline for each monthly session closes on the 1st day of the month (For instance, October 1, 2025, for the October session). The final registration is open until two days before the session.

6. Annual Jack Howe Memorial Tournament

The Jack Howe Memorial Tournament is one of the biggest speech and debate tournaments in the USA. This in-person event takes place at the California State University, Long Beach, in September every year. While multiple debate and speech events like World Schools Debate (WSD), Policy Debate, and Lincoln Douglas, only the congressional debate division is open to middle school students.

In the 2023 edition of the tournament, the middle school congressional debate took place in a single day, with two preliminary rounds, in which the chambers or groups were limited to 16 students. In this round, there will be two sessions not longer than two hours each and an equal number of students from each chamber or group will progress to the final round. You can check the legislative docket for the 2023 congressional debate here. 

Location: California State University, Long Beach, CA

Date: September 28 - September 30, 2025 (tentatively, based on previous year’s date)

Cost: School entry fee $100, Independent entry fee $75, Academy entry fee $150. The Parliamentary Debate event fee is $100 

Eligibility: Open to all middle school students

Application Deadline: September 24, 2025 (tentatively, based on previous year’s date)

7. National Online Forensics - Middle School Championships

National Online Forensics is an annual debate competition for elementary, middle, and high school and college students conducted every summer since 2020. The competition is conducted in both synchronous (the live online format), and asynchronous format, in which you are required to record and submit your speech, preferably a YouTube video. 

These debate events were offered to middle school students last year:  Big Questions, Congress, Lincoln-Douglas, NOF Parliamentary, Policy, Public Forum, and World Schools. NOF has launched a website, Tournament Topics, with all the resources required to prepare for the debate events. However, note that these resources are not free and must be ordered online. 

If you cannot participate in the National Championships in the summer, you can see the list of regular season competitions running throughout the year here.  

Location: Online

Date: May 27 - June 2, 2025

Cost: School Fee: $50; Individual Event: $30 per entry; Congress event: $30 per entry; 1-Person Debate Event: $60 per entry; 2-Person Debate Event: $70 per entry; 3-Person Debate Event: $80 per entry 

Eligibility: Open to all middle school students

Application Deadline: May 20, 2025

8. California Middle School State Tournament

The annual California middle school speech and debate state championship, hosted by the California Middle School Forensics, is another online competition. This is a state-level program open to all middle school students from California, and middle school students can only enter one of the following debate events: Lincoln-Douglas Debate (NSDA Nationals topic), Public Forum Debate (NSDA Nationals topic), Congress - Docket will be given in advance and Policy Debate. 

This is an online synchronous event and will be held on the NSDA Campus platform. The debate events consist of six preliminary rounds, and there will be three preliminary rounds for the Congress event. You can find the legislative docket for the Congress event here. 

Location: Online

Date: May 2025 (tentative)

Cost: School fee: $20. Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, and Parliamentary: $30 and $20 for Congress. 

Eligibility: Open to all middle school students from California

Application Deadline: TBA

9. Public Forum Invitational at Northwestern University

This is another online debate competition that will take place through the NSDA Campus. The competition focuses only on public forum events across middle school, junior varsity, and varsity divisions. This competition follows the Public Forum Rules as defined in the National Speech and Debate Association 2024-2025 High School Unified Manual. The public forum event will be centered around the NSDA September-October topic. 

The event is divided into two days and the first day will see the initial five rounds in each division. The second day begins with the sixth round and will conclude with the finals to determine the winner in each category. To book your place for the middle school event, you need to make the payment on this website and then share the invoice with debatenorthwestern@gmail.com for verification. 

Location: Online

Date: October 5 - October 6, 2024

Cost: $30

Eligibility: All middle school students are eligible to apply for the middle school division

Application Deadline: September 27, 2024

10. The Philhistorian Middle School and High School Invitational

The Philhistorian Invitational is an annual debate and speech competition organized by the Philhistorian Debating Society, which traces its origins to 1863. The competition originally offered only the Congressional debate event but has evolved into a comprehensive tournament with multiple age groups and even categories. Middle school students can participate in the following divisions: Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, Congressional Debate, and Public Forum Debate. 

Like most of the competitions on the list, the competition takes place virtually on the NSDA Campus platform. Student double entry is not allowed, which means that a student participating in a debate event like Policy cannot apply to any other category like Public Forum. While you can participate in the competition through your school, independent entries are also welcome, and such participants need to provide details of an adult coach or parent, who can be contacted for official purposes. 

Location: Online

Date: March 29 - March 30, 2025

Cost: $50 School Fee. Congressional Entry - $20, Lincoln-Douglas Entry, Public Forum Entry, and Parliamentary Entry - $45 each. Discounts and fee waivers are available on a case-by-case basis.

Eligibility: All middle school students are eligible to apply for the middle school division

Application Deadline: March 28, 2025 (tentatively, based on previous year’s dates)

If you’re looking for a competitive mentored research program in subjects like data science, machine learning, political theory, biology, and chemistry, consider applying to Horizon’s Research Seminars and Labs! This is a selective virtual research program that lets you engage in advanced research and develop a research paper on a subject of your choosing. Horizon has worked with 1000+ high school students so far and offers 600+ research specializations for you to choose from. 

You can find the application link here.

If you’re looking to build a project/research paper in the field of AI & ML, consider applying to Veritas AI! 

Veritas AI is founded by Harvard graduate students. Through the programs, you get a chance to work 1:1 with mentors from universities like Harvard, Stanford, MIT, and more to create unique, personalized projects. In the past year, we had over 1000 students learn AI & ML with us. You can apply here!

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