THE ULTIMATE QUESTION

[Josiahzacks]

The counterargument to a HS championship being less impressive than a college one is, obviously, the effectiveness of that award.

A HS championship will get you scholarships, acceptances, etc. at colleges.

A College championship will get you.......well, maybe a job in forensics?

[Cinderella]

Here's another argument for a HS championship: I can tell you (probably in a great deal of unecessary detail) about all of the NFL and CFL final rounds I ever watched - who won, what pieces there were, etc. I cannot, however, tell you much about about the AFA and AFA final rounds I've seen aside from my agreement with Ryan and others that these rounds were FAR SUPERIOR to the high school final rounds I saw. Maybe this is because there are more events in college, and because you can enter in several, its a lot of the same people that you're seeing over and over. Maybe its also because for me, forensics was LIFE in high school and in college I've had other interests - so when I got back from nationals in high school, they were all I was talking about for months, and in college, most of my closest friends don't do forensics so I sort of push the rounds to the back of my mind unless I'm working on forensics. Just a bunch of speculation.

[nirorivers6]

If Ryan doesn't mind, I'm going to post something he said.

"The biggest difference in how tournaments work from high school to college is that, in high school, you can win a tournament like Harvard or Crestian (at least in past years) and everyone knows your name. You don't even have to go to NFL Nationals for you to be considered a top competitor. However in college, everything is about Nationals. Once you qualify an event, you stop competing with it (except at showcase tournaments) until nationals."

and

"NFA is supposed to be more accessible tournament. To qualify for NFA, all you have to do is final an event at a tournament. But to qualify an event for AFA, you have to have 3 "legs" (or ranks) that add up to less than or equal to 8. Like a 1st, a 2nd, and a 4th add up to 7 so that would qualify, but a 3rd, a 5th, and a 6th equals 14 and wouldn't qualify that event."


In AFA, it seems like "flukes" are eliminated as you have to display consistency.

[Cinderella]

Eh. There are certainly exceptions. Easy districts and such. But yeah, that's pretty much accurate.

[Ryan]

In AFA, it seems like "flukes" are eliminated as you have to display consistency.

Nic, I don't mind you reposting my comments as long as you don't mind me doing the same.

While AFA's more rigorous qualifying procedures do ensure less flukes, they also make it harder (esp. in tough districts) to qualify a new but strong event late in the year. Case in point, a couple years ago there was an excellent duo that didn't qualify for AFA but ended up taking 2nd at NFA.

[Josiahzacks]

Maybe its also because for me, forensics was LIFE in high school and in college I've had other interests

Yeah, this is definitely true.
Forensics, for me, has always been something I've enjoyed, but it's secondary to my work as an actor. In high school, it was maybe 45-55 speech/acting. I would usually use this site to keep up with who was doing well around the country and what pieces were running well, but it was never a real obsession.

Now, it's more like 98-2, and I dont really know anything that's going on when I'm not actually AT a tournament, but that's also just my own professional and college situation.