Do you want
to judge?
We run online scrimmages twice a week: Thursdays 3:30–5:30pm and Fridays 6:15–9:00pm (EST). We'll also need in-person judges around NYC, mostly on Saturdays.
Right now most students compete in either Congressional Debate or Extemporaneous Speaking, basically either debating legislation as a group or speaking individually with limited prep time. Occasionally students compete for the Coolidge Cup, a one-on-one style of debate similar to Public Forum.
Please note that we run background checks on our judges since you'll be interacting with minors; see here for our student safety policies.
Which best describes you?
Thank you for judging and bringing some real-world experience into our rounds!
Submit your availability using the schedule below. If your schedule changes, you can come back here and update it.
Welcome Coach Fellows!
Our debaters probably listen to you over everyone else, so we thank you deeply for your ballots.
Coach Fellows are required to judge 24 scrimmage nights, basically every week from October to March. If you're coaching in person this season, you're also required to judge 7 in-person local tournaments.
Submit your availability using the schedule below. If your schedule changes, you can come back here and update it. (For example, if you don't know your Spring semester schedule yet, you can leave those blank for now.)
Judge for us as a volunteer or for pay
If you're looking to judge for us, either as a volunteer or for pay, we ask that you fill out a sample ballot as an application. If you were part of the Judge Lab in a previous season, you're already in! You can submit your availability using the schedule below, and if your schedule changes you can come back here and update it.
We'll post the sample ballot by September 25. If you're a new judge applicant, please wait until then.
A note for paid judges
We can only pay US citizens residing in the US. Here's our pay scale:
| Thursday judging stipend 3:15–5:00 | Friday judging stipend | Full-day judging stipend | Fri–Sun overnight judging stipend | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HS junior or senior | Judge online | volunteers | n/a | n/a | n/a |
| Judge in person | n/a | volunteers | n/a | n/a | |
| HS grads | Judge online | $50 | n/a | $100 | $250 |
| Judge in person | n/a | $75 | $125 | $325 | |
Help us raise these kids!
We occasionally need judges for middle school debaters, both online and in-person, and we can give you credit for volunteer hours if you'd like to help.
We'll post more details here in October. Check back then!
Thank you for judging!
It's great for the students to hear your perspective on their speeches, and we hope it helps you understand their work better.
Submit your availability using the schedule below. If your schedule changes, you can come back here and update it.
Want to sample a debate round first?
You can try writing ballots for Alyssa & Trinity using the videos and links below. (By the way, this bill was debated in elimination rounds at the New York State Championship…and was written by BDL camp coach Louis of Stuyvesant HS!)