<p>thanks coskat!</p>
<p>My cousinâs high school val from last year made the local newspaper because of his unluckyness. He had a 107.something weighted GPA, took a boatload of APâs, got a 2390 and all 800âs on his subject tests, extensive research work, loads of community service, all-state musician, and his class president, with other ECâs thrown in. He was rejected from the six ivies he applied to + Stanford, MIT, Cambridge, Duke, WUSTL, and U. Chicago. He ended up at Emory - a great school, but itâs no Harvard. He only applied because of his double legacy. That and his safety (SUNY Stony Brook) were the only two schools he was accepted at.</p>
<p>^ If there is a story like that every year (and I think I do read a story much like that every year), everyone else can breathe easier when the thin envelopes come. I got to be philosophical about admission decisions after class of 2009 got its news, when I heard about some BRILLIANT friends of my son who had surprisingly blah results from their applications. But everyone gets lots of second chances, at least here in America, so keep up your spirits. You may like to read </p>
<p>[Amazon.com:</a> Stumbling on Happiness (9781400077427): Daniel Gilbert: Books](<a href=âhttp://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427]Amazon.com:â>http://www.amazon.com/Stumbling-Happiness-Daniel-Gilbert/dp/1400077427) </p>
<p>to get perspective on how your college admission goals match your personal pursuit of happiness.</p>
<p>Iâm from Canada, so there isnât so much of this valedictorian business at my school, but I do want to know, how big of a deal is being a valedictorian? At our school, valedictorians are chosen based upon student vote, so Iâm tempted to think that itâs all just a popularity contest, in which case the entire thing should be scrapped. Whatâs with American HS kids and being named valedictorian? How are they chosen?</p>
<p>In most American schools, the valedictorian is the student with the highest GPA. Valedictorian just sounds cooler than âranked #1â.</p>
<p>I think one of the problems is that people who score above 2350 tend to relax a little too much when it comes time for college apps. My friend scored just under 2400 early in our junior year. I scored a 2240. Everyone from our teachers to our administration to our family and friends kept telling my friend, âWell, you can name your school now.â I was told to work hard on my app. We both listened. Last April I began writing my college essays and worked on them all summer. My friend paid much less attention and began about three weeks before they were due. If you ask her, she will tell you that her essays were excellent but I read them. They werenât excellent. They were wordy and stuffy. </p>
<p>I was accepted into my dream school ED. My friend has received 7 or 8 rejections or waitlist notices so far, including a rejection from my school. I think this phenomenon is why tomorrow we will see on April 1st that a majority of Ivy acceptances scored between 2200 and 2300 on the SAT. That range is very good but just low enough to make many students work extra hard on their essays. </p>
<p>Itâs just a theory.</p>
<p>@AnalysisModePEG: Itâs really not that big of a deal.</p>
<p>If the valedictorian(s) in your school are chosen by student vote, then I guess the title will count little in terms of college admissions. Just out of curiosity, is the âvaledictorianâ over there like the âclass presidentâ? 
Although the class presidents in my school do occasionally do something meaningful besides holding the positionâŠ</p>
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<p>Lol, two days before some major decisions come out is definitely not the time to reopen this thread.</p>
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<p>I would think that there are simply more people who score between those 2 thresholds than there are who score above 2300.</p>
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<p>Thatâs plausible but may not be the only factor.</p>
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<p>Hahaha I donât even know who my class president is. Wait I think I do. I donât know if he has done anything besides holding the position though; Iâm not as involved in school affairs as I could be.</p>
<p>
[Princeton</a> University | Admission Statistics](<a href=âhttp://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/]Princetonâ>http://www.princeton.edu/admission/applyingforadmission/admission_statistics/)
The thing is, as dismal as hearing some of these stories makes the admissions process seem for high SAT scorers, they will still be at an advantage. The general point is that nowadays, no matter who you are or what your qualifications are, expect the worst.</p>
<p>LOL at a lot of private/prep schools, the valedictorian is determined by a class vote. so it just seems ilke a meaningless position (albeit you get to make a speech)</p>
<p>um, Iâm class president and I can tell you there is hardly any meaning in that title too 
all we do is plan prom, which is fun, yes, but trivial</p>
<p>Class president can be an important job if a student uses it as a way to implement some important things. From what Iâve seen, though, most student government officers are content to only plan prom and to use the title to decorate their resumes.</p>
<p>The best example of someone using their office to accomplish something meaningful was a student whom I know who got all of the local high schools to participate in building a Habitat for Humanity house. He had to go through lots of red tape and meetings in order to accomplish this because the school board administration didnât think what he planned was possible.</p>
<p>He did this because he cared about homelessness, not because he was trying to get into a top college. He happily went off to a state flagship.</p>
<p>^Thatâs superb, and I applaud such student government officers, but at my school, the student governmenr adviser (teacher) is extremely controlling and gives us no freedom/power. Time after time, we have recommended âcreativeâ ideas for events and fundraisers, and each time she has denied us and made us focus on prom. She doesnt even let us choose prom fundraisers!!</p>
<p>So weâve given up. Iâve been trying since sophomore year</p>
<p>Perhaps, Stupefy, another organization at your school would have allowed you to implement your ideas. I know that itâs probably too late now to do that, but that typically is a way that students and others rise above narrow minded, controlling advisors and supervisors.</p>
<p>What I did was just quit student government and wrote up a nice little reform document for my school district and went straight to the superintendent with it. Thatâs how you get things done. Student Government, in most schools, is pretty useless, so itâs better to just bypass it entirely. Honestly, I was able to get many things implemented and a lot of it was debated by the school board. Unfortunately, I wasnât allowed to go there and argue for my ideas and, as such, some of my favorite ideas fell flat because no person would agree to them without understanding my rationale for coming up with them.</p>
<p>Virtually everyone I know â adults and students â who has implemented an innovation for an organization or school has not taken ânoâ as a final answer, and has searched and found someone in power who agreed with their plan. Doing this takes a great deal of persistence, persuasive and collaborative skills, and dedication. College admissions officers know this, and thatâs why they are so impressed when students have demonstrated leadership by implementing something new instead of settling for whatâs expected.</p>
<p>well for asians i heard a near perfect score is a necessity for top schoolsâŠ
one admissions officer from Columbia told me that they use SAT scores to rank Asian (international) applicants who have similar ECs, essays, etc.</p>
<p>^^^^^When I wanted to revamp my schoolâs newspaper, I just pretended like my advisor wasnât there and did the recruiting, cajoling, and wheedling myself. In the end, he couldnât object, since the work was already done. And I managed to implement student council reforms through student-written articles in the newspaper, too. So that was like killing 2 birds with one stone. :)</p>
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<p>Clearly one of the most valuable traits that anyone can have. Not something that can be readily assessed using traditional measures.</p>
<p>Iâd like to point out here that âbreak the mold and do something unexpectedâ isnât really that. Sure, if you do it well and people like the result, you get a lot of benefits. But the funny thing is, you never hear the stories of the people who had dumb ideas, and/or got unlucky and never ended up getting anything done about them. Then youâre just another subpar Ivy League applicant who thinks that grades and test scores donât really matter.</p>