High School > Recruiting

The state of Kansas produces more amazing high school talent than any other state in the nation. There is more debate per capita in Kansas than in anywhere else. Here at KSU, President Wefald generously supports the debate team with the intention of ensuring that talented Kansas debaters may continue to hone their craft and evolve into nationally ranked college debaters.

Click here to fill out the online scholarship form.

K-State Debate scholarships range between $400-1000 a year. Please make sure you have also filled out the academic scholarship form.

Priority will be given to students who apply to Kansas State and submit a scholarship application by November 1st.

Click here to fill out an oline form that will go to the Director Justin Green.

He will contact you via email within 2-3 business days. Feel free to contact him directly at jmgreen@ksu.edu

What if I am not the best debater in the state?

That’s fine with us. We believe that the college years are a crucial turning point in young people’s lives. You are capable of becoming a nationally competitive debater if you want to be. Many of KSU’s best debaters were not even on the radar screen in high school.

What if I have no high school debate experience?

The KSU debate team began an on campus recruiting initiative to train people who have never debated before. Collegiate debate offers a robust novice division and to-date we have successfully fielded several novice debate teams. Our coaching staff has unique experiences training novice debaters. If you are interested in thinking then we are interested in training you to debate.

Is your debate team diverse?

Yes, the KSU debate team attracts people from all walks of life. We are finding more and more that incoming first years and non-traditional students are attracted to debate. People from all different socioeconomic backgrounds, experiences and ages represent Kansas State on our debate team.

Is it going to cost me money to debate?

Absolutely not! Because of the generous support of our university, K-State debate will provide you with the majority of your debate supplies, and pay for all of your travel expenses including housing and all of your meals. K-State debate is committed to maintaining the health of our debaters while traveling, in this vein we try to avoid fast food and attempt to make sure that all of our meals are diverse and healthy without asking you to put forth a dime.

How much time will I have to spend on debate?

Your time commitment is based on your personal goals. Our coaching staff will work with you at the beginning of each year to identify your personal goals in debate. After discussing your goals we will work together to find a plan that helps you achieve your goals. In addition to our two practices a week, most of our debaters find that the squad room is a cool place to come in between classes.

How big is the debate team?

Currently the KSU debate team has fifteen active members, but this number is always increasing as we have begun a much more aggressive on campus recruiting initiative. We intend to grow our squad with each semester.

With a debate team that big, how can I be sure I will get personal attention from the coaching staff?

K-State debate is lucky to have a full time director and assistant debate coach. In addition, we have 2-3 graduate debate assistants per year. This means that we have one of the largest coaching staff’s in our region. In addition to meeting with you at the beginning of the year to identify your personal debate goals and developing a strategy to help you reach your goals we also have weekly one on one speaking and research sessions with debaters. If you asked some of our debaters they might say they get a little too much personal attention.

Are scholarships available?

Yes, the Kansas State debate team offers various scholarships to debaters. We try to divide our scholarship funds between as many debaters as possible believing that giving as much money as we can to as many people as possible is better than giving a lot of money to one or two people. For our scholarship application click here.