*All eligibility waiver requests are handled by the Vice President, Mikaela Malsin from Emory University

ADA Eligibility Rules:

Novice: Intended for students with no prior debate experience. Novices may have no more than 50 total competitive debates over all formats, with fewer than 24 policy debates. Debaters with more than 24 policy rounds (but not more than 50 overall) may compete in novice until they advance to elimination rounds and win an elimination round twice. Debaters who have advanced and won an elimination round at two or more college policy tournaments in a previous academic year are ineligible for novice.

JV: Open to students in their first two years of collegiate competition beyond novice. Debaters must progress to open If they advance to the final round of three JV, open, or varsity tournaments (no matter where) in which there are 20 or more teams in the division, or if they qualify to the NDT.

Eligibility Waivers:
To request a waiver to allow one or more of your debaters to debate in a division they are not currently eligible for, please email the ADA Vice President (currently Mikaela Malsin from Emory University).

The waiver is voted upon by the ADA Executive Committee. Typically the ADA grants a one-tournament waiver that is potentially renewable upon request. (Remember: we can only grant ADA waivers—for a tournament sanctioned both by the ADA and CEDA make sure to contact CEDA as well.)

Please include the following information:
1. Name of your debater
2. Amount and type of previous experience—estimated number of rounds or years of competition, high school or college, LD/PF/Parli etc. Please note win-loss record or other types of experience (camp, etc) if available.
3. Reason for the waiver—especially if there are special circumstances (for instance a division collapse at a particular tournament, etc)