A little bit of background info: I used to be very involved in competition math, but after a bit of soul-searching, I switched over to focusing more on debate because I found it more interesting, as I can explore both sides of big issues in society.
I haven’t regretted the decision, and I have accomplished a lot in my debate career, qualifying twice to the Tournament of Champions (~100 of the top teams in the event nationally qualify) and placing in top 16 at another one of the big national tournaments. However, I’ve received conflicting reports on how prestigious ToC qualification is. Some say it is around the level of qualling for USAMO, and others say it is not that big of a deal.
How helpful for college admissions is it exactly?
My kid was a debater and put on her application that she was a TOC qualifier, as well as a 2x NSDA Nationals qualifier, and an NSDA Academic All American. Hard to say how much it’s weighted, but I think most adcoms have enough knowledge of debate to know that you have to be competitive on the national circuit to qualify for TOC. Depending on where you are from, qualifying for TOC can be harder than qualifying for NSDA nationals. I don’t know how it compares to USAMO, but it definitely shows that you were diligent and successful enough at debate to excel beyond the local level, and that has to be a positive. Nobody can really quantify how much, and it may vary from school to school, but it shows that you went far above and beyond the person who just “joined the debate club.”