<p>My D was State History Day champion twice, as an 8th grader at the junior level, and as a freshman at the senior level (also placing nationally). She made the difficult decision to drop this competition after freshman year even though she loved it so much, since she knew it would take a bigger hit on her GPA, especially her APs, so I am familiar with your concerns. If you are targeting the top schools and she has the time to devote to a high level competition like Intel or YES, go for it! Otherwise a local competition won’t give you the added benefit relative to the time effort, in my opinion.</p>