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Camps
Attending a summer camp is a great way to level up your debate game. They're a place to meet elite coaches, make like-minded friends, and prepare for the upcoming season. Below are a list of summer camps, in descending order of quality. Beware: Ratings are entirely based off of personal experiences, so do your own research before making a choice!
PF Camps
Public Forum Boot Camp
The Public Forum Boot Camp, or PFBC, offers a 10-day summer camp. Put simply, it's a cut-through-the-noise alternative to traditional debate camps. While it's short, it's intense. Lectures are sent pre-camp, you're provided evidence once you get there to build preliminary cases, and then you jump straight into rounds—lots of them. That's where the most improvement happens.
National Symposium for Debate
The National Symposium for Debate, or NSD, offers two-week summer sessions—it's where most currently participants go. It's ranked highly because you will have the hardest debates just given that the best teams go. However, due to the sheer number of coaches, over 80 currently, many of whom just recently graduated high school, quality may vary.
Institute for Speech and Debate
The Institute for Speech and Debate, or ISD, offers two-week summer sessions. It's a great option because it has a healthy mix of accomplished first-year-outs and experienced coaches.
Victory Briefs Institute
The Victory Briefs Institute, or VBI, offers two-week summer sessions. Similar to NSD, the program is staffed with lots of accomplished high school debaters, most of which are in college. Therefore, while experience is plentiful, beware that success as a debater doesn't always translate to success as a coach.
National Debate Forum
The National Debate Forum, or NDF, offers two-week summer sessions. While it was a prominent option in the past, its prestige has faded over time. It's a good option if it fits your specific geographic or financial needs, but the higher options will generally give you more bang-for-the-buck.
Policy Camps
Michigan Debate Institute
The Michigan Debate Institute offers three-, four-, and seven-week summer sessions. If you're unsure, attend the seven-week session—it's unarguably gold standard for policy debate. It's intense, filled with high quality lectures, drills, and rounds with the best debaters across the nation.
Dartmouth Debate Institute
The Dartmouth Debate Institute, or DDI, offers two-, three-, and seven-week (GDDI: first three weeks at Georgetown, next four weeks at Dartmouth) summer sessions. It offers top-tier lab leaders, separated into dedicated labs where you'll do prep, listen to lectures, and conduct practice rounds.
Gonzaga Debate Institute
The Gonzaga Debate Institute, offers two- and five-week summer sessions. It provides top-tier instructors, intensive practice rounds, and a final tournament judged by debate professionals, held in the scenic the banks of the Spokane River.
Georgetown Debate Institute
The Georgetown Debate Institute offers three- and seven-week (GDDI: first three weeks at Georgetown, next four weeks at Dartmouth) summer sessions. It features top-tier instructors, high-level practice rounds, and a curriculum designed by Georgetown’s championship-winning debate team.
Northwestern Debate Institute
The Northwestern Debate Institute offers four- and six-week summer sessions. Held online and on Northwestern’s campus, the institute emphasizes personalized feedback through small lab sizes, preparing students for top-level competition.
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