The top of the college circuit is fiercely competitive. U.Penn celebrates one of its many victories here.
Which college Model UN teams are the best in the world? The Best Delegate team decided to answer this question with our Top 25 Standings. We had to separate the college circuit into two divisions and devised methodologies for both divisions. We recommend reading the two links before jumping into the standings.
The standings are based on results as of March 21, 2011 which allowed us to capture results from WorldMUN. The standings reflect only team performances at conferences and not the overall quality of the program (i.e. it does not measure if a program hosts conferences or have any other special activities).
Here is the list of the top 1-5 college Model UN teams. These five teams — along with West Point — each have a team of all-stars and consistently win and contend for multiple best delegation awards each season. They have the results across several of the most competitive conferences to demonstrate their success. Check out which colleges made our Top 25!
The Best College Model UN Teams – World Division: North America Top 1-5 Standings (as of 3/21/11)
1. Yale University
Yale won Best Delegation awards at Harvard HNMUN and WorldMUN
Yale can claim to be the best Model UN team in America and in the world. The team started the season in danger of falling out of muncircuit.com’s Mid-Season Power Rankings but won Outstanding Large Delegation at U.Penn UPMUNC over Harvard and Georgetown to boost its profile. The second half of the season was a completely different story — Yale turned up its game to win Best Large Delegation at Harvard HNMUN and Best Small Delegation at Harvard WorldMUN. To paraphrase one of their delegates, “we go to the Super Bowl and win every time.” Yale essentially went undefeated at the two most competitive conferences on the circuit and own head-to-head victories over each of the top five teams at the most competitive conference where they faced off. The strength of their delegation awards put them at #1 just ahead of the University of Chicago. Yale’s head delegate is Eesan Balakumar and their star delegates include Filip Savatic, Alex Klein, and rising star freshmen Frankie Costa, Ali Friedman, and Seth Kolker.
2. University of Chicago
U.Chicago celebrates one of its many Best Delegation awards with the SCSY Secretariat at Yale
The University of Chicago absolutely dominated in the first half of the season and won Best Large Delegation at U.Penn UPMUNC, Best Large Delegation at Georgetown NCSC, and Best Large Delegation at Yale SCSY. The team took its first head-to-head loss to Yale at Harvard HNMUN but still captured Outstanding Large Delegation at Harvard HNMUN. Chicago also won awards at Berkeley UCBMUN. They placed a very close second to Yale in these Standings — the strength of their total delegation awards were nearly equal but the real tiebreaker was Yale’s more heavily weighted head-to-head win at Harvard HNMUN. Nevertheless, Chicago is still widely recognized as one of the powerhouse teams on the college circuit and they have plenty of accomplishments to celebrate this season. Their head delegate is Sean Mirski and their star-studded team includes ChoMUN Secretary-General Aynur Taskan, Ben Smithgall, Rohan Sandhu, Mrinalini Ramesh, and Nick Duque.
3. University of Pennsylvania
U.Penn attends the most conferences and has plenty of awards to show for it
The University of Pennsylvania is tied with West Point for scheduling a season-high nine conferences. The team earned plenty of accolades this season — they placed 3rd in terms of overall awards won at Harvard HNMUN, won an Outstanding Large Delegation at Georgetown NCSC, won an Outstanding Large Delegation at Yale SCSY, and won Best Large Delegation at Berkeley UCBMUN. The team also performed well at smaller conferences: they won Outstanding Large Delegation at Boston University’s BarMUN, placed 2nd at Princeton PicSIM and won awards at Columbia CMUNNY. While their overall score is not as high as Yale’s or Chicago’s at the moment, they do own head-to-head victories against both at some point in the season, and will challenge for a higher placing in the final, end-of-year Standings when results from Virginia VICS and NYU’s NYUMUNC get factored in. Their head delegate is Roashan Ayene and their star delegates include IAA President Poorvi Kunzru, Brittany Elliot, Manfred Collado, and Alex Haber. Alex is also a front runner for muncircuit.com’s HeisMUN award after winning Best Delegate in the competitive KGB committee at HNMUN and winning Best Head Delegate at VICS among other awards.
4. Georgetown University
Georgetown won at McMUN
Georgetown is widely respected as one of the best teams on the college circuit — and teams are familiar with Georgetown’s “Hoya Saxa” chant due to their consistent wins. Georgetown won Best Large Delegation at McGill McMUN, Best Large Delegation at Columbia CMUNNY, and placed tied for 3rd at U.Penn UPMUNC in terms of total awards won so far this season. The team will get a chance to boost its overall resume with results from Virginia VICS and NYU’s NYUMUNC. Their head delegates are Eitan Paul and Arun Avva, and their team of all-stars includes NAIMUN Secretary-General Jagmeet Singh, GIRA President Brandon Butterworth, Grant Gibson, Dalton Dwyer, and Max Stoiber.
5. Harvard University
Harvard won Best Small Delegation at NCSC
Harvard barely edged West Point to make it into the top five on the strength of awards won. The team won Best Small Delegation at Georgetown NCSC to give them a head-to-head victory over West Point, and augmented its resume by placing tied for 3rd place in terms of overall awards won at U.Penn UPMUNC, placing 3rd at Yale SCSY, winning an Outstanding Large Delegation award at Columbia CMUNNY, and winning awards at Berkeley UCBMUN and Boston University’s BarMUN. The team will have one more chance to solidify its standing when it competes at U.Chicago ChoMUN later in April. Their head delegates are Peter Bacon and Keshava Guha, and their star delegates include Rodolfo Diaz and Carlos Bortoni.
Check out the rest of the standings: top 6-10, top 11-15 and top 16-25, and international top 20!
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Congratulations to all the schools for their success so far this season, and good luck with conferences in April and May. We’ll be releasing our final 2010-11 season standings after all major conferences have taken place at the end of May.
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What do you think about the schools that made our Top 25? Let us know in the comments! We’ll also start an open thread to hear feedback on methodology on Friday.
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