<p>no, I go to a public school in a small town.</p>
<p>Actually Yale surprised me. At my son's school, number one applied as did I believe number two EA. However, both were deferred. Both applicants did not have Yale as their first choice but applied anyway since it wasn't binding. Their first choices were ED schools, but they thought they were so competitive that they didn't need to bind themselves anywhere.</p>
<p>my best friend applied ed to brown, he's the valedictorian, got deferred, but another girl who is top 20% but definitely nowhere near the top got in
so, yeah</p>
<p>wow not a single positive valedictorian story...makes me a little nervous</p>
<p>Haha, don't be nervous. Personally, I wouldn't mind being valedictorian. It's a challenge for me, but with some hard work I think I can do it and I don't think being #1 can actually HURT your chances of being accepted. I'm sure there are tons of valedictorians who DO get accepted, but they have other things going for them as well besides their GPA</p>
<p>I agree with spiffystars. I think the valedictorians that I personally have seen rejected, have been only focused on school work with no other significant activities/talents/interests.</p>
<p>gracias for the positivity peeps</p>
<p>de nada, cheercheer and good luck</p>
<p>If I were valedictorian I would not be too worried. As long as you have a manageable slate of ECs, that valedictorian status DOES help in admissions at top colleges. Still, it is likely that a valedictorian can be rejected at many top colleges but still go to a top college simply due to the fact that colleges want diverse, different people - both in academic experience and in other factors.</p>
<p>bumppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp</p>
<p>The only girl accepted at my school was accepted over the val. Over at least one of them. But she was the val until she chose not to be by taking an unweighted class. So, it’s still sorta like she’s a val.</p>
<p>Cheercheer: I’m valedictorian of my class of about 500 and I got into Yale. </p>
<p>And yes, everybody, I find time for sports, music, the arts, family, friends and my rigorous academics. Don’t write off valedictorians, we’re people too! :)</p>
<p>I got accepted over the val and sal 
I am ranked number four in a class of about 350. Both val and sal didn’t get accepted to any ivy leagues, but I got into Yale and Columbia, so I wouldn’t be discouraged those non-val and sals out there!</p>
<p>Congrats for all the non-vals or vals who were successful. Having not read this long and very old thread, I imagine that lots of “in your face” sentiment against vals was expressed here. Why don’t we just let it die peacefully? Really. Who cares? This whole thing just smells of “I told you so”</p>
<p>Our school is so weird. We have like 10+ vals every year. I believe if you have over a 4.0 you’re automatically one.</p>
<p>I got in, but I wasn’t a valedictorian.
Our valedictorian didn’t get in. Nor did our salutatorian. Nor did anyone else who applied from my school, actually, many of whom were “ranked” higher than me (I think, our school didn’t disclose). Take that as you will.</p>
<p>This year we had two kids get into Yale- me (sal) and another girl (top 5%). I got into every school I applied, but I got waitlisted at Harvard, while the other girl got into Harvard. So really, it depends on the candidate, not just grades. :)</p>
<p>I am valedictorian. I didn’t get into yale, nor did anyone from my school but sal did get into penn over me (although he applied engineering whereas I was waitlisted Wharton)</p>
<p>we dont even have our valedictorian yet, but im safely assuming it wont be me… so, by extension, i got into yale over our valedictorian</p>
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<p>I’m the valedictorian and I got into Yale. So I would say that Yale evaluates people as a whole, but it’s not like being valedictorian can hurt you.</p>