<p>From what I learned, I thought a "valedictorian" is defined as #1 student in the school with the highest GPA. I've heard and even seen some speeches when one and only person makes an entire speech on behalf of his class.</p>
<p>For my school "valedictorian" can refer to anyone with a 4.0 unweighted GPA, and taken a total of 8 AP classes (our school offers about 25 of them) by the end of school. So because of that, there's usually more than one valedictorian. For my class (2010), presuming everybody maintains all A's in their senior year, there's going to be about 10 valedictorians.</p>
<p>With 10 valedictorians, each of them says a part of a speech no matter what their rank is. It's not the #1 student who makes the entire speech but it's going to be 10 people making one, getting about 30-50 seconds of talking time. and must be approved by a guy with a very short temper and little patience and humor.</p>
<p>Now, I'm not trying to bash on the other valedictorians or sound pompous, but isn't this somewhat unfair? Here's examples of 3 different valedictorians and their stats.</p>
<p>Ranked #1. Took 15 AP classes. Had some close calls.
Ranked #7. Took 9 AP classes. Cheated his way through by obtaining old assignments from seniors who took the class.
Ranked #11. Took 8 AP classes. Cheated on 6 AP exams (witnessed her, confronted her, she admitted it). Had a friend even impersonate her to take the ACT for her and got her a 35. Sweet-talked 3 different teachers to bump her grades up by 3% to get an A.</p>
<p>My friend took 13 AP's. Got one B+ in AP Calc BC (he's not a math person) and was deprived of his valedictorian status.</p>
<p>Well, there you have it. That's the nature of our valedictorians at our school and how the speech is made. How is it at your school? Does one person say the speech or do multiple people?</p>
<p>My school did not calculate GPA or rank and thus does not have a valedictorian. Instead, the school president, elected by the popular vote of all students within the school, gives a speech.</p>
<p>My school calculates GPA, ranks and therefore has a top ten. However we do not have valedictorians or salutatorians, although every class has those one or two especially bright students. At graduation students audition to make the speeches-- you don’t even have to be in Honors. I like it that way. :)</p>
<p>We have a valedictorian and a salutatorian which are simply the two people with the highest GPA. I’m not sure about graduation speech though, you have to audition for that, but the Student Government President and Valedictorian don’t have to as far as I know.</p>
<p>We had 26 last year O.o
Its just people who have had A’s their entire high school career, reguardless of the level of the classes they’ve taken.
However, every year they always are the ones who’ve taken tons of AP’s and stuff so idk…</p>
<p>highest gpa. that’s pretty much it. i don’t think its fair considering SAT scores and AP scores and ECs don’t matter. but whatever, its not like i have all that either.</p>
<p>All vals have a perfect weighted and unweighted GPA. They all take the same number of AP classes, which varies from year to year, but is usually probably about 10. We always have more than one, and have had as many as 7, which was a really big deal. It’s usually 3-5. It’s taken pretty seriously and usually the vals (or just generally the top 10 ranked people) are considered the smartest in the school.</p>
<p>At my school, you have to have been there at least 3 years, have the highest GPA, and have character and Christ-like behavior. In other words, you cant be a total jerk. Although i would admit, although i have a higher GPA and work harder at school than the sal., she is a much nicer person than i am:)</p>
<p>Same at my school.
I’m #1 at mine and I admit I wasn’t too pleased when I found out that I wouldn’t be the only one saying the speech (just because I wanted to say something ridiculously stupid but funny that some people wouldn’t approve of)</p>
<p>Yeah it’s unfair but you know as they say, life is unfair unfortunately. =/</p>
<p>We have a valedictorian and a salutatorian who have the highest and second-highest GPA’s respectively. One of the two usually makes a speech, and then another “class” speaker is chosen by the students.</p>
<p>Our valedictorian and salutatorian are the students with the highest and second highest weighted GPA’s over the first seven semesters of high school. Neither of them actually makes a speech though; our school begins by announcing the number of people graduating with merit/distinction (3.0/3.5 weighted GPA’s respectively) and then has everyone with a 4.0+ (usually about 25) stand up as their name is called; after that, each member of the top 10 (excepting val/sal) is announced individually and gets applauded. Finally, the val and sal are introduced with 1-2 minute bios read by administrators. Speeches for graduation are selected by a student/faculty committee.</p>
<p>My school always has more than one valedictorian.
The criteria that must be met are:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Highest weighted GPA</p></li>
<li><p>Must qualify for Florida Academic Bright Future Scholarship
-Must have taken Biology, Chemistry, & Physics
-Earn either a 28 on the ACT or 1270 on SAT (Not sure if it’s out of 1600 or 2400)
-75 hours of community service
-Weighted GPA of 3.5</p></li>
</ol>
<p>The Florida scholarship sucks though, 'cause you can only use it towards Florida public schools. Whatever.</p>
<p>val is usually (and almost always) the person who has the highest weighted gpa (and is therefore ranked number one) but a commitee comprised of school staff takes the top 1-2% of students and then determine who is val (by a process unbeknownst to me). then, sal. is usually the next 3 students (rank 2, 3, and 4 respectively). our val this year had a weighted gpa of 4.9 and a perfect SAT score. he was still rejected to stanford, though</p>