<p>My school doesn’t rank and doesn’t have a valedictorian system but if we did, it would be hard as crap.</p>
<p>Well my school doesn’t have geniuses to begin with, but the best in subjects like Math and Science are usually ranked somewhere mid-high top 10 (out of 200), because the top 5 are usually the try hards who are extremely organized, make sure to do every assignment perfectly, study very hard for tests, etc but arent that talented in most of the subjects.</p>
<p>Our ranking is done on the 100-point scale and is weighted, I believe it is +9 for IB classes and +6 for pre-IB classes. My class is a little over 200 kids. We pretty much know the full IB diploma kids are the ones in the top 10% usually. I’d like to think most of us are friends and help each other out. I think we support each other so it isn’t too competitive. Rankings are maybe .5 apart.</p>
<p>Our big suburban high school weights AP and Honors courses the same (five vs. four for an A) with no differentiation between + or - designations. That makes it really hard to judge any measurable difference between the top 15 or 20 kids in the class. As a result, they have stopped class rank this year and are simply designating “Top 5%”. A lot of people are up in arms about it, but, personally, I think it’s a good idea.</p>
<p>At my school, it was around 3 people usually vying for the top spots. The class was around 380, and you pretty much need a flawless GPA to get valedictorian. My school uses Standard=4, Honors=5, AP/GT=6, and you either have to get straight A’s taking all AP/GT (people like this usually take standard art) or take all AP/GT and get a B or two (they take GT art). </p>
<p>It’s sad, because at my school reg vs. GT art is the biggest factor. Most classes are not incredibly hard to get A’s in, but in an AP/GT class you will almost never see over a 92 (there are a few classes that don’t follow this). Still, you have to take 10+ AP’s, get pretty much straight A’s, and max out the QPA value of your schedule to win valedictorian. Next year’s valecdictorian almost didn’t get it because his art and tech required electives were not optimized.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s cut throat, but either valedictorian or saluditorian have 1 or 2 people practically tied at the end of the year. To put in perspective, the max QPA is 5.72/6.0, and I got a 5.66/6.0 to be valedictorian.</p>
<p>Outside of those 3 people though, most people care about top 10.</p>
<p>My Class has 15 people with 4.0s going into senior year right now. 2 dudes. 1 of the dudes is a massive cheater.</p>
<p>At my school, any student who takes a certain list of classes (the usual college prep stuff) plus has a 4.2 GPA (W, 5.0 scale) gets val status. Last year there were ~20. However competition for being the “real” valedictorian isn’t that bad. The people who want the title most are very far away from it.</p>
<p>We didn’t weight GPAs at my high school, and there were no other criteria to being named Valedictorian aside from GPA, so all 14 of us with 4.0s were named val, no sal status at the school.</p>
<p>The valedictoarian race at our school is surprisingly non-competitive, although the people competing in it are competitive anyways (myself included). Our school does not formally rank, but it awards valedictorian status to everyone in the senior class who has a 4.0 unweighted GPA between and inclusive of the first semester of freshman year and the first semester of senior year and a certain amount of honors and AP classes. This means that our school has multiple valedictorians come graduation, and they are all recognized as such at the ceremony.</p>
<p>Although it is very rare, if no one in the class has a 4.0, then everyone with the next highest GPA receives the honor. </p>
<p>The question of who gets to speak at graduation is determined by a vote of student members of the Cum Laude Society (membership requirement is like >4.3 weighted GPA). The ballot has all of the valedictorians on it and each member puts down his/her candidate to speak at graduation.</p>
<p>@wilson007
"Your school isn’t competitive if 50-60 students have a 4.0, sorry. Unless you go to a private school/magnet school. And if 1 out of 14 kids getting a perfect 4.0 isn’t grade inflation…
“I go to one of the best public schools in the state. We have 900+ students; 10ish get 4.0’s.”</p>
<p>The reasons I think my school is competitive are that its students do well on standardized tests (this past year I think two or three kids got 36Ps on the ACT and a few more got 36s; 32 is 99th percentile nationwide but it’s maybe 80th percentile here) and that about 15-20 kids each year attend Ivies (to say nothing of people who get in and don’t attend). Also, my (public) school is ranked in the upper-90s in percentile in the state (including private schools). I can see why it appears, from what I said originally, that my school isn’t competitive; I just don’t think that’s the case. There’s no shame in having 15-20 valedictorians… well, at least no more than there is in the whole distasteful practice of using class rank.</p>
<p>Senior class nominates and elects the valedictorian.</p>
<p>^ Are there any considerations for GPA? Because that seems like it would turn into a popularity contest.</p>
<p>The funny thing is, at my school the val and top 10 have only taken the required non AP/PAP classes due to the GPA weight (and did most of them in summer school, as they don’t affect GPA). Oh and sadly, my year is the most competitive out of every year.</p>
<p>I’m 3rd at my school, but the current 1st is going to do early admission, which means he is taking all college classes at the local community college but still recieving college credit and graduating with us next year, but it means he won’t be allowed to give the speech at graduation. Thus I’m currently second 
I’m actually the only one who still has a perfect 4.0, everyone else in the running has gotten at least one B, but because I take color guard class which is worth only regular credit, it brings me down. I told my teacher this year he had to find a way to make sure I got honors credit or else I wasn’t going to be in it this year haha, and he did, so maybe I still have a chance!</p>
<p>That sounds really interesting! Is he going to enroll in that community college, or has he worked out an agreement with another college he’s been accepted to? I wish I could do something like that…</p>
<p>[For</a> your viewing pleasure.](<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1279698-victory-gambit-masterminded-my-rival.html]For”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/high-school-life/1279698-victory-gambit-masterminded-my-rival.html)</p>
<p>Spoiler: I won.</p>
<p>Not very competitive at all. I would say that most people don’t even care, but possibly a few people in the top 10 do (I’m 8). Our school doesn’t weight Honors/AP classes, so I know there’s a few people in the top 10 who take the “easy” classes and don’t really “deserve” their spot. Off the top of my head, there’s probably 3 people in my grade who I could see being valedictorian and deserve it (and no, I’m not one of them, lol).</p>
<p>In our school their is no weighting of GPA’s. The person or persons with the highest GPA is valedictorian; usually there are 2-6 people with a 4.0. They have to have taken at least 6 Honors or AP classes; that is the only requirement. So a student can be valedictorian with 6 Honors and no AP’s and a 4.0, and his/her classmate with 8 AP’s and 10 Honors might have a 3.98 and NOT be valedictorian! Crazy!</p>
<p>Right now I think there are like 3 people that have been going for valedictorian since freshman year… It can’t really get competitive since my school doesn’t offer any classes to make it competitive. The 3 of us just take the same classes and who knows how they’ll decide who gets it.</p>
<p>@tiger15: Nope. But honestly, it’s not really a popularity contest–not in the traditional sense, anyway. The senior class choses whomever they think will give the best speech at graduation. Vals are generally well-spoken and intellectual [the class of 2011’s Val was particularly good- she writes in her free time anyway]. My school’s so academically competitive, it would be worse if it was based on gpa. Some shut-in or grade-whore would get it over people who really deserve to represent the class in its final moments at the school.</p>