Okay, so my D is a junior who is currently ranked 2/475 at competitive public HS. She believes there are 5 other students also ranked at 2 (same GPA). Therefore, the next ranking number is 8. We also do not know who is number 1 which is very strange. Over the summer my D attended a 5 week Governor’s School Program. When she returned she came back way more mature. Seriously. I think all of the time allocated to classes, homework and studying did a number on her. She was enrolled in 3 college classes- Bio, Stats & Lab and received 7 college credits. During the week, Monday - Friday from 9am - 6pm it was all academics and then homework/studying into the evening. There was NO free time during the week, only on the weekends. Pre-Gov School, my D did not care about being a valedictorian. Post-Gov School, she now does care. In fact, she contacted her counselor over the summer to drop an Honors class and to replace it with another AP Science class (taking 2 science APs) in order to stay competitive for a top ranking. She now will be taking 5 APs and 2 Honors classes junior year. This is the highest rigor she can take based on graduation requirements.
Fast forward to yesterday. Schedules are officially released. My D has an idea of who are the top ranked students. One of the students will be taking 5 APs, 1 Dual Enrollment Science class, and 1 Honors. Not 100% this girl was a rank 2 previously. However, let’s assume that this student is also a 2 ranking. Assuming all As for everyone, this will keep this girl at 2 (no one knows who is #1) and drop the rest of the 2 ranked students including my daughter to a ranking status of 3.
Most likely, my D will not make valedictorian based on this girls higher gpa potential for junior year. We are not worrying about the other currently ranked “2” students. They are either taking similar course loads or slightly “lighter” course loads.
BTW, the girl who will most likely bump my D in rankings, took an online math course over the summer (not to be factored into the gpa calculation and it is a Honors class for everyone else this junior year who is currently ranked 2) to give herself the edge to take one more advanced course than everyone else in our grade. I guess that makes her kind of smart:) My D knew about this before school let out, but with Gov School and her HS’s summer assignments, I dissuaded her from thinking about taking this class online as well, especially since pre-gov school she didn’t want to be a valedictorian! Aargh.
By the time college apps roll around next year, if she is ranked 3 or 4 out of 475 will this still be considered valuable as long as she remains in the top 1%?
Thanks in advance for everyone’s insight.