<p>...Im ranked 2 in my high school class, decent sized high school with 1500 students. I have taken all the honors and AP courses that were available in my high school and ended with 2 B's, rest A's. The #1 student took all easy classes and a few honors classes to get a perfect GPA. Even though my weighted GPA is much, much higher than his weighted GPA, our school doesn't weigh the GPA's. But it seems obvious by just looking at the transcripts that the difference in the difficulties of the two students' course load is significant. I've been more actively involved in the community and have much better SAT scores. So why then doesn't the school take into account all these details?...Im just wondering if this is common.</p>
<p>My school bases rank on our weight GPA because of that reason. You'll probably get into a better college than him/her because of your classes. Your still #2.</p>
<p>That's just the way life works. Sometimes, a system is designed in a way that benefits us and other times in a way that hurts us.
Also, the valedictorian title ispurely based on grades, and taking into account other things would undermine its purpose.
You know you're a great student. Do you need a title to prove it? Do you need a pat on the back to feel good about yourself?</p>
<p>We're ranked by weighted GPA. Your school's ranking system sucks. Mention that in your college apps.</p>
<p>i don't think extra-curriculars and test scores should factor into GPA, but it's awfully stupid that your school doesn't weight. There are quite a few kids at my school with straight As but no honors classes. I couldn't imagine them being val!</p>
<p>Val systems will never be completely fair though. The most objective way is numbers, even if it does screw people over somtimes. It leaves less room for argument though on objectivity.</p>
<p>Yea, it's true that factoring other things into the award will undermine its purpose. I am really not concerned about not getting the award; it was just that I felt that a student who doesn't know the feeling of studying all night for those difficult AP classes doesn't deserve to represent the class. I truly hope our school changes the system to weighted gpa for those students of the future classes...</p>
<p>In our school some of the top ten people wimp out on classes, and, though I love my friend to death, she doesn't take many advanced courses, despite the fact that she could handle my AP-heavy course-load easily if she wanted to, but the top two deserve their stance and work so freaking hard. They also do many, many extracurriculars. I wish course load mattered more in rank, still. I would be more than 5 steps higher. I'll be graduated high school with 12-15 APs (currently finalizing schedule and resolving conflicts) and I never took the regular version of a course if I could help it.</p>
<p>At least it'll look good on college applications.</p>
<p>My school doesn't have a Val, and this sort of issue is exactly why I'm really glad we don't.</p>
<p>In my school, there are 4 types of students:</p>
<p>A) Students w/high GPAs who take challenging classes and do well on the SAT.</p>
<p>B) Students w/high GPAs who take easy classes and don't do as well on the SAT.</p>
<p>C) Average students. Not that bright, but not totally stupid either.</p>
<p>D) Students who are just dumb no matter how you slice it.</p>
<p>Many times, the students in group B are ranked higher than those in group A. One student who is in the top 5% of my class didn't even break 1700 on the SAT (he was obviously was in group B). However, colleges take courseload difficulty into consideration, so I don't think you have that much to worry about. The #1 and #2 stuents in my school both fall into group A, as I'm sure is almost always the case since my school calculates rank w/the weighted avg.</p>
<p>Like the OP's school, my high school doesn't weight. As a result, about four of the eight or nine projected valedictorians for next year (class 2008) fall into what Hepstar classifies as type B or type C students and are similar to the OP's school's current val. It IS annoying for those of us who will have taken 15+ AP's, college courses, and honors courses throughout the four years to have to be considered of the same calibre, at least grade-wise, as those who didn't take many (or any) honors or APs, let alone college courses. But it IS also gratifying to know that we who do challenge ourselves will be much better prepared for the competitive world of college admissions, and more importantly, college academics.</p>
<p>My D is one of three students at her HS who have taken the most demanding possible schedule. None of them will be valedictorian. The Val is a very bright young woman who set her sights on being #1 and scheduled accordingly (i.e. the easiest possible college prep schedule). It worked. That's life!</p>
<p>Basically, my school uses w. GPA to determine rank. I like it; to put it in a nutshell, they rank in tiers, as in the top with certain honors classes and at least 2 APs, middle with certain honors classes, and regular with the most basic.</p>
<p>All schools are different in terms of ranking. My school knows that ranking by GPA, even weighted GPA, is an inaccurate method of measuring academic ability. Thus, my school doesn't rank.</p>
<p>Valedictorian by weighted GPA is perfectly fair. It's a competition of grades, not overall...</p>
<p>I have also been angry at people who take the easy route through high school and end up at the top or higher than me in rank.</p>
<p>The big question though is: Would you rather just be named valedictorian or be named salutatorian, get tons of scholarships, have an outstanding transcript and know that you had one of the toughest courseloads in the school?</p>
<p>I would venture to say that you'd rather have the second. Valedictorian is just a name. You don't get your name in the sky or anything. People don't know that you're valedictorian all around the country (unless you boast about it). You should be proud of your accomplishments. Don't let this person get the best of you. You will get into better schools because really good schools look at the courseload, not just the GPA. The easy courseload that the other person has will not look as amazing as your hard courseload and the fact that you are graduating second in your class.</p>
<p>My best friend is graduating second and believe me, she is one of the smartest people I have ever met. Being second is awesome and you need to realize that a well-rounded person who challenges themself is a much stronger, wiser person than some easy-going person who doesn't challenge themself. I took 5 APs and 2 advanced classes and am graduating 10th in my class. There are people in the top 10 who I don't think deserve to be, since I worked my butt off, but I have let it go. I have realized that colleges look for people who take much harder classes and succeed.</p>
<p>Congratulations and be glad of where you stand! You don't have to be first to be the smartest!</p>
<p>Know that the valedictorian at your school might just have that name as she graduates, but she may not know what a derivative is or mitosis, because they settled for the easy classes. This will hurt them when they enter college and don't know what challenges are or what they are going to face. You, on the other hand, are ready for anything since you challenged yourself a lot in high school and obviously succeeded.</p>
<p>my school have 20+ Val this year... everyone have like 4.0 GPA and took a couple AP classes and honor classes</p>
<p>Lol, my school has a GPA cap so we had SIXTEEN valedictorians this year.</p>
<p>15+ w/ 5.0s as far as I know.</p>
<p>We had 12 vals last year. They have to have a 4.2 senior gpa (we do 4.0 A+, only a few classes are weighted) along with a certain number of ap classes you have to make.</p>
<p>Don't worry. The award comes after college admissions are done and you'll have probably gotten into a better school so anyone who matters will know which of the two of you is more qualified. Valedictorian awards that don't differentiate between course loads are a joke.</p>