<p>My school eradicated this competition completely. Between the BS that goes along with weighted vs. unweighted grades, Pass/Fail, and whatever other gimmicks, it becomes less about being the best a student can be to being the best student there is.</p>
<p>Most students care about their grades, so it’s often very close, especially among the top 3 spots. </p>
<p>The “competition” is at times absurd. I could lose a spot in the top 2 (or 3) by taking Journalism since it’s not an Honors class (I’ve discussed doing extra assignments for Honors credit, but it’s not possible.) Band and Chorus classes actually do have Honors versions available for juniors and seniors…so if my “competitors” choose to go into Honors music, I’ll be at a disadvantage. I wish electives didn’t count toward rank.</p>
<p>Only person in the top ten to have all quarter grade A’s. My school bases GPA off of semester averages (an A and a B average to an A). Because of band in school and unweighted high school classes I took online for fun, I will unfortunately never have the chance to be valedictorian. IB/AP/dual enrollment school we started out with 700-ish frosh and now we are down to 530 entering junior year.</p>
<p>In my grade, there’s already one person guaranteed to be valedictorian. She’s incredibly smart and nobody is even going to attempt val with her there.
However, we usually have two Co-Sals and currently myself and a few others are fighting for this spot. But we are only entering junior year, yet the competitiveness is starting to show.</p>
<p>It was a battlefield this year. I go to a top NYC public and the two candidates both got into Harvard early (sal chose MIT instead, though), but still want recognition of val. Candidate A was a few deciles behind in terms of gpa (we’re on the unweighted 100-point system) at the beginning of senior year and worked relentlessly to catch up but with no avail. Val ended with had like a 97.8412302130 and sal had a 97.5130032 or some crazy numbers in the 97-range. I’m pretty sure they hate each other, but I don’t care; they’re both pricks who think they’re better than everyone else, refuse to help others in order to get ahead, and do nothing but study. </p>
<p>Funny story though. Had physics junior year with the val. He was lab partners with a great friend of mine. Val looked down on him the entire year. Then my friend got into Harvard. Ha.</p>
<p>In my class, the top thirty or so are the ones who are really competitive. And the top five is terrible, you are either in it or sleep every night. I’m proud to be #3 in my grade, but I could definitely be Valedictorian. After all, the current one is one of my best friends and it’s pretty easy to get the same grade or better in the classes we share. The problem comes in the classes that we don’t both take- hers are a lot easier than mine.</p>
<p>We don’t just have one. It’s whoever has a 4.0 after 1st semester senior year</p>
<p>Not competitive at all because we don’t have one. My school doesn’t rank… which sucks for me.</p>
<p>There are tons of 4.0/4.0 but 4.0/5.0 students at my school.
But there are a few 4.0/4.0 and ~4.8/5.0 students at my school. Valedictorian goes to the latter and there is almost no hope for anyone except the HYPSM people.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t rank but the highest GPA possible is a 4.0, and there is no such thing as a weighted GPA. I have no idea how many people get a 4.0 by the end of junior and senior year on average (my guess is 1-2). There is little to no competition even though my school is a well-known (within the state) college prep private school. </p>
<p>We have discreet ways of pointing to valedictorian/s (who have A’s in honors classes). School awards are given out to certain seniors and sometimes the principal mentions that they have a 4.0.</p>
<p>Huh…I care about and the unofficial #2 in my class cares about it but that’s about it! My school doesn’t rank so there is no real “valedictorian”. Anyone with a high enough GPA can apply to give the speech. The counselors pick.</p>