<p>Seems like being that loose with the selection criteria kinda dilutes the value of the honor down to the level of meaninglessness.
The selection criteria was four years of straight As. They also have a very high number of students achieving NMS SF/F status & going on to top colleges.
It is easily considered the most desirable school in the district.</p>
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<p>I’d say it depends on the student’s academic interests and personality type. Some students thrive under cutthroat competitive conditions or rise above the pettiness. A reason why several classmates transferred in from more nurturing private schools as they felt “too stifled”, had strong math/science interests, and actually wanted that pressure. </p>
<p>Others like a younger cousin needed a more cooperative nurturing environment so in her case, I didn’t recommend it. </p>
<p>As bad as it was, it did force me to grow up quickly, develop a thick skin/personality type which actually derives strength from the disdain/petty insults of others, and girded me to the point that my classmates and I were more than ready for the academic and social challenges of college. </p>
<p>I’d also prefer that to attending a crime-ridden local high school or over what happened to many suburban public/private school educated college classmates who graduated top 10% or even #1 or #2 without doing much work only to crumble academically once in college. All those awards, honors, and high class ranks from high school are meaningless the moment one enters college…especially if their college academic performance leaves much to be desired.</p>
<p>D’s high school takes the students with the top 5 weighted GPA’s in spring of senior year and asks them to write and give their valedictorian graduation speech. The student who gives the best speech to a group of teachers and administrators is selected, ensuring a decent speech at graduation. Not sure whether this is the right way to do it, and not sure how they decided on selecting only 5. However, the students all know the process.</p>
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<p>Yes, he did – and he needed it: two years straight of work 12-14 hours a day 7 days a week including vacations and holidays. By the end, he was burned out and his health was starting to suffer. Trying to finish high school in 3 years AND qualifying for top colleges turned out to be much harder than either of us ever expected. Managing ten classes at once was doable (given the extra college/online classes had differing deadlines), but managing ten classes while maintaining EC leadership roles and community service projects and while applying to multiple colleges was just too much.</p>
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Interesting. What is he doing during his year off, if that isn’t too personal. I recall he had a unique public service project he wanted to establish but didn’t have time. Does he still intend to attend Brown? Did they let him take the gap year and keep his acceptance? Or is he planning to reapply elsewhere?</p>
<p>If you’d rather not say, that’s also understandable.</p>
<p>Best of wishes to your son, LoremIpsum.</p>
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<p>Of course he filled out the necessary paperwork and received approval. </p>
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<p>He’s been working on his community service project over the summer. He’s now doing volunteer math tutoring. He volunteers at the animal shelter. He’s been learning more php functionality for advanced website design and may soon begin work on a commercial project. He’s planning to learn Objective-C (which is the programming language for Apple’s iPod Touch and iPad) and to develop a couple of apps/games with his older brother. </p>
<p>What I most treasure is that we can now “waste time” together – take a walk along the dog beach, go out for gelato, have a TV-show-on-DVD marathon (White Collar and Castle have been our two big ones these last two months).</p>
<p>^^^That sounds really great.</p>
<p>I also treasured the time we had with S while he was just “hanging out.” He had been hired & was waiting many months for the paperwork. It was a pleasant time to get reacquainted with him as a an adult and he was very helpful at decluttering our home & grandparents. We all enjoyed the togetherness but he was happy when he started his new independent life as well.</p>
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<p>It may well be a wonderful school, but they have still taken most of the distinction and recognition out of being named valedictorian at their school by having 44 of them. Seems like little more than a glorified Honor Roll.</p>
<p>Our school grades on a 100 pt. scale and weighs AP classes X .11 for class rank purposes only. Our val., sal., & class president give speeches at graduation. I’ve been at this school for 20 years & we’ve never had controversy over it. Worst thing that happened was two years ago our val. bombed his first AP bio test senior year. Mother was worried it would cost him val. & made him drop the class. He ends up being val., goes off to college, bombs his first exam in college & she tells everyone in the community that the school “didn’t prepare him for college”!!!</p>
<p>It may well be a wonderful school, but they have still taken most of the distinction and recognition out of being named valedictorian at their school by having 44 of them. Seems like little more than a glorified Honor Roll.</p>
<p>You are probably right. Then again the kind of students this school attracts, they don’t need an title like Val/Sal to have their accomplishments acknowledged.</p>
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<p>I’m surprised, sort of. Best wishes to your son. A smart kid like him will do just fine whenever he wants to.</p>
<p>Op I understand your pain, D has wanted to be Val since she attended a HS grad in 6th grade and we always knew she would be a contender. Well last yr as a Fresh, she was #1 (and still is) but then talk of graduating a yr early started developing…after a long meeting with her Guidance Counselor last spring D decided to stay with her class of 2014, because moving up a grade eliminated her chance for Val. After a long summer D has reconsidered and is opting to graduate early(2013), it was a very difficult choice but in the end she realized Val is just a title and in 2,5, 10 yrs won’t have any meaning in her life.
Here is the rub, D will have the exact same number of credits as the other graduating seniors and can still be ranked number 1 when she graduates but just not have the title. I really don’t understand the logic, wish they would consider co-valedictorians in D’s case like they do if there is a tie.</p>
<p>One year at our hs there was a bit of a controversy, because the Val and Sal give graduation speeches, but the girl who earned Sal had only been at our hs for 2 years (which is the minimum to be considered for the title). In a gracious move, she invited the boy who was 3rd to give a co-Salutatorian speech with her, and they were both listed as Sals in the program. They wrote the speech together and delivered it together, trading off paragraphs. </p>
<p>To the OP - let it go. NMSF has nothing to do with a GPA calculation. Echoing all others who are wondering how you know exactly what this girls grades are, down to her “barely” holding an A. Is this what you’ve “heard”? Do you have a friend feeding you grade reports from inside the guidance department? And who says APES is “clearly the easiest AP”? I know some science teachers who would beg to differ.</p>
<p>The value of education is in the learning. Don’t teach your son that it’s all about titles. And don’t demean the other girl - it just makes you look petty.</p>
<p>Would it be so bad for you son to be able to say 20 years from now that he was his hs’s Salutatorian? Seriously? And others are right, once he gets into college no one will care.</p>
<p>Here’s another secret - colleges really don’t care either. If you are #1 or #2, you are clearly at the very top of your class. How many kids are in his class anyway? 100? 500? What is the potential difference in GPAs - .002? Colleges are smart enough to see past this. I highly doubt any college that was going to accept your son if he were Val would decide to turn him down because he’s “only” the Sal.</p>
<p>My brother has been frantic because my niece is currently ranked #2 and he says she’ll get a full ride at UGA is she stays at val or sal…had to go look up said award to tell him to back off. The only thing this award (which, BTW, is full tuition, not R&B) gets her is that she doesn’t have to meet the 1250 CR/M and GPA requirement – both of which she has already significantly exceeded.</p>
<p>My kids’ school system did not rank. Heaven knows it is competitive enough here already.</p>
<p>I am SOOOO glad DS’s HS did not rank! What a waste of energy worrying whether your child is # 1, 2 or 3 or 5? All are great positions to be in!! Thank God most colleges don’t care about such minuscule differences between students.</p>
<p>“Worst thing that happened was two years ago our val. bombed his first AP bio test senior year.”</p>
<p>Which no one would ordinarily know about, so presumably either kid or mother was a blabbermouth. That’s called “creating your own problems in life.”</p>
<p>I haven’t read the whole thread, and don’t know if anyone has commented on this but wishing ill on someone else (that the girl will bomb one of her classes) is soul-destroying. </p>
<p>We can support our own kids, but hoping that someone else suffers a disappointment (whether bombing a test, getting hurt in a varsity sport, not getting accepted to a competitive school etc.) is mean-spirited. </p>
<p>Then again, I understand that sometimes we post something anonymously that we would never express anywhere else. We’re only human.</p>
<p>Re: having or not having class rankings. I think that there are pros and cons each way. </p>
<p>However as a parent of a child who sat through four years of being ignored at academic award ceremonies while earning A plusses in honors and APs and having the regional scholarship she received ignored at the scholarship honor ceremony, It meant a lot to her (and me) to be announced as one of the top ten at the graduation ceremony.</p>
<p>YMMV</p>