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<p>1) Valedictorians aren’t exactly a dime a dozen, but they’re nonetheless fairly common. There are roughly 30,000 high schools in the U.S. That means roughly 30,000 valedictorians. True, some schools don’t name valedictorians, but others name multiple valedictorians, so 30,000 is a good ballpark estimate. That’s a large number.</p>
<p>2) The 30,000 valedictorians aren’t necessarily the 30,000 most academically qualified candidates, considering GPA, test scores, the school’s academic profile, and the individual student’s curricular rigor. Some schools are more rigorous than others. Some schools have more “top” students even in a smaller class, so the competition for valedictorian may be tougher; and many top schools no longer rank. Sometimes the salutatorian, or #3, #7 or whatever in the class got edged out for val because they took a more demanding course load and came in with a slightly lower GPA.</p>
<p>3) At many (most?) high schools, the valedictorian isn’t known until senior year grades are in. This makes it pretty much impossible for colleges to use valedictorian as an admissions criterion even if they wanted to do so.</p>
<p>4) Highly selective colleges usually care about more than GPA and class rank, which is what valedictorian reflects, and they care about more than those things plus test scores and academic rigor, i.e., purely “academic” predictors of college success. They like essays that indicate the ability to write well, to tell a compelling story, to convey an interesting thought that reveals something interesting about the writer. They like strong extracurriculars, special talents, and non-academic achievements. They want a diverse and “interesting” student body. Most of them give a boost to legacies because multi-generation old school ties are important to their sense of identity and continuity. Many now give a boost to first-gens or economically disadvantaged students. I’ve heard more than one admissions officer at a highly selective college boast, “We could fill our entire entering class with class presidents if we wanted to, but then we’d have an entire entering class of class presidents, and who wants that?” I imagine they might feel the same way about valedictorians. Nothing wrong with valedictorians–like class president, it’s an admirable accomplishment, but the elite colleges don’t want cookie-cutter anything. </p>
<p>5) All that said, I do think the bias in elite college recruitment of students is clearly toward the strongest private high schools, and secondarily toward the strongest public high schools which tend to be in the most affluent suburban districts. Every year, admissions reps from all the Ivies hold information sessions at all the top private high schools in our area, and they visit 3 or 4 of the top suburban public high schools as well. You can’t exactly blame them; they have limited time, and those schools represent their most fertile recruiting ground. But in the process they make no effort whatsoever to connect with the top students (future valedictorians or otherwise) at the many other urban and suburban public high schools across the metropolitan region. And as a consequence, they pass over many diamonds in the rough–or just outright diamonds, because some of the most accomplished kids in these overlooked schools are just as accomplished as the kids to whom the college recruiters are making their pitch in the top private and affluent public schools. </p>
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