Photo: Pariticpants during a 2025 Final Round, taken by Eli Durst and Appearing in the New Yorker magazine. 

Held in Cambridge each Presidents’ Day Weekend, the Harvard National High School Invitational is the largest and most prestigious high school speech and debate tournament in the world, drawing more than 7,000 competitors, coaches, and judges from across the country and around the globe. The tournament offers competition across a comprehensive range of formats — including Policy Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, World Schools Debate, Congressional Debate, and a variety of individual and duo speech events — with divisions spanning Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Novice levels to ensure meaningful competition for students at every stage of their development.

Hosted on the campus of Harvard University, the Invitational represents the pinnacle of high school forensics competition, bringing together the nation’s most accomplished student debaters, world-class judges, and coaches of national and international renown. For competitors, an invitation to Harvard is more than a tournament — it is a benchmark of excellence and an opportunity to test their skills on one of the most celebrated stages in the activity.

Register and learn more.