<p>So I have a question regarding valedictorian status, since my high school typically only allows one valedictorian. I’m currently in 11th grade, and by the end of this year, I will have finished a total of 8 AP classes, including ones from freshman and sophomore year. Next year, I am going to be taking 5 AP classes (I’m currently taking 5 and have all A’s), and I am confident I can get all A’s next year. However, I will be taking a total of 7 classes next year, including Journalism and Jazz ensemble (those 2 are unweighted).</p>
<p>The other person who can potentially become valedictorian has the same amount of weighted classes as me (7 APs, 1 honors precalculus, which is weighted at my school). He has all A’s, and is taking just 6 classes next year, 5 APs and one unweighted class. If we both get all A’s by the end of senior year, is it possible that I won’t become valedictorian? (Since we both have the same number of weighted classes, but I happen to have one or two more unweighted, but still have A’s in everything which can drag down my weighted GPA)</p>
<p>At my school, bizzarely, any senior whose weighted GPA at the end of their 7th semester exceeds 4.1 becomes a valedictorian. As a result, my school had 43 valedictorians last year and the district had 177. When the policy was first instituted, I emailed the superintendent of schools to complain about the fact and his response was that the policy would “reward” students for their hard work and “benefit” them in their future lives.</p>
<p>wow thats crazy. my school only has one valedictorian, but they do it in a different way, using the 100 scale instead of 4.0 scale. it was working just fine, but they decided to get rid of class rankings altogether, so im my schools last valedictorian. it really bugs me cuz now my little brother will never have a chance to be valedictorian… but both situations (no val, multiple vals) are crazy in my opinion.</p>
<p>Although many of the valedictorians at my school are hard-working and successful (this year we had acceptances to Harvard, MIT, Princeton, etc.) and have great accomplishments (writing books, research internships at state flagship universities, etc.), I think it devalues the title of “valedictorian” if you share it with 42 other students, many of whom may not be as well-qualified. I don’t believe the number of valedictorians is listed on the transcript, but I’m sure college admissions counselors are familiar with this kind of inflation.</p>
<p>For the record, I’m only a sophomore, so I won’t be going through the process quite yet.</p>
<p>Usually, there is only 1 person with the highest weighted GPA (the val) and 1 person with the second-highest (the sal). When there’s a tie (to the very last decimal point), both (or all 3 or 4 or 5) win. But as far as I know, a val can beat the sal by 0.00000001 at my school.</p>
<p>My school always has several people with the top GPA possible (it’s weighted), but ACT is factored in, as are the state mandated standardized test and the AP tests. So the latter three (usually the ACT and AP, because the state mandated standardized test is really easy) almost always break the tie.</p>
<p>teriyarki - The reason our school gives anyone with a 4.0 uw gpa val status is that the mathematical quirk can otherwise let someone who took fewer classes have a higher weighted gpa than the student who did more. Out of 500+ per class, our school is so rigorous that I can only think of once that there had been 4 vals, often it ends up 2/3 but most frequently just 1. School thought this was fairest compromise for best students. But even if school didn’t do it this way, colleges can see if 2 apps from same school have straight a’s and different uw gpas. They are aware of the mathematical quirk and it won’t hurt you. Find something else to worry about.</p>
<p>We have around 15 each year, although my year is abnormally full of ridiculously smart Asians, so I’m estimating around 25. Since I’ve pretty much already guaranteed valedictorian status (scholastic GPA of 4.65, which is + .02 for an A of semester of an Honors/AP class, + .01 for a B), I’m looking forward to sitting in front of the mass of graduates instead of the back by last name.</p>