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<p>Yes, that would be very interesting. Bring it on. Here is one idea I will throw into the discussion: there is a reputation that a few colleges choose mostly valedictorians, by policy. (I remember that years ago Jerry Falwell's Liberty University offered a full-ride scholarship to any high school valedictorian that matriculated there, but of course I am speaking of other colleges, the kind of colleges we usually talk about here on CC.) I actually rather doubt that most colleges have an explicit policy of "Let's get all the valedictorians we can," because high schools vary so much that to be a valedictorian, alone, doesn't have much prediction value in showing who will thrive in college. BUT, the one thing being a valedictorian shows is top rank in the local context of one high school. If a school's admission policy is, "Let's take the strongest applicants we can, while picking up good diversity and building a balanced class," then the salutatorian and lower-ranked (by GPA) applicants from each high school are at risk of having their schools' valedictorians applying to the same college, while being otherwise undistinguishable on most other admission criteria. They would be outranked, but not by much at all, only in comparison to one other applicant. </p>
<p>My "gut reaction" is that a truly NATIONAL-LEVEL EC, which is rare, can trump several class-rank positions, and can trump 60 or 70 points on the "old" SAT and also trump most "tip" factors. If so, that national EC would put an applicant "ahead" of tens of thousands of other college applicants worldwide. But maybe I'm full of baloney, so I invite further discussion. </p>
<p>Happy Mother's Day to justanothermom (who ISN'T "just another mom" on this day for celebrating mothers) and to all of the other moms visiting the forum today.</p>