<p>Hey, I've posted all my stats before.. talking about trying to get into Harvard and whatnot. The deal now is that Im taking summer classes to be valedictorian, but theyre pretty hard. So, the question is, is it better to take the classes, get Bs or Cs and be valedictorian, or drop em (dont know if its too late to do that or what) or be second with a 4.0 unweighted GPA? I'm really worried that since my unweighted will be going down, they will look at that more than being ranked #1. If anyone knows which is more important, I would love you forever.</p>
<p>Oh god, I am fighting the urge not to put something utterly derogatory, but tragically true so I won't get banned from CC</p>
<p>You realize that every single high school in America has a valedictorian?</p>
<p>screw the valedictorian thing, unless you believe you'll really feel good about yourself for getting it, and that'll translate to you being more confident in your future studies, etc. </p>
<p>as europegirl said, every high school in the country has a valedictorian. If you have to get a B or a C in another class to be it, it's not worth it. Schools (even, HYPS) look at the person (and even the courseload/grades more than they do rank). They'll happily take the #5 person over the top 4, if that person has something outside of academics to offer that the others don't. </p>
<p>Take home point: Make yourself stand out in some other way outside of classes/gpa/class rank. HYPS could easily fill 4 or 5 times their matriculating classes each year with students in their application pool who could go to classes and do just as well, but they select them based on that ability plus what else they may be able to contribute to the university.</p>
<p>I love how everyone thinks Im stupid and wants to be all mean, but whatever. (Really, every high school has a valedictorian? I thought it was just mine!) I just don't know much about what admissions boards look at, specifically in the Ivy League..so I was asking.. what a nice response I got!
But thanks dr_slc, I do have lots of ECs already. Thanks for not slamming me...</p>
<p>You'd be far better off spending your summer creatively following a true intellectual or extracurricular passion than you would be simply taking classes in order to be valedictorian.</p>
<p>Being valedictorian is not likely to tip you into a top college, which get thousands of applications from valedictorians. Having done something creative and interesting relating to a passion is likely to impress adcoms far more than would grade grubbing.</p>
<p>The types of colleges where your being valedictorian is likely to make a big difference are state colleges, which are more stat driven than are places like Ivies. For Ivies, virtually all applicants have the gpas and SATs indicating that they have the ability to graduate from an Ivy, so things like ECs, intellectual interests, character, etc. are what differentiate those who are accepted from those who are rejected. Places like Ivies have the luxury of being able to make admissions decisions based on creating well rounded, very diverse (in all meanings of the word) classes.</p>
<p>The problem with this is I really have no passion.. I am working with my church on some things now, but I'm really not the type to go to a college and do research or something (or anything really impressive like that).
I volunteer at school during the summer and I am doing a couple camps outside school, one for sports and one for church. but its not a question of whether to do EC stuff OR be valedictorian, cause I can do both of those at the same time. I was just wondering if uw gpa was more important than class rank. but thanks anyways, i will be doing lots of crazy extras.</p>
<p>how does going to take Summer classes up your likeliness of being Val? And either way...Salutatorian is very good too!</p>
<p>Moni,
Doing lots of random crazy extras won't help you. </p>
<p>If your passion is getting good grades, there probably are some top 25 colleges that would be interested. They aren't likely, however, to be places like Ivies, which want more than high grades and class rank from the students whom they take.</p>
<p>We get honors points for our high school GPA's for taking them... they count like dual enrollment classes we would take during school. Im salutatorian now and I figure I might as well make a run for it.</p>
<p>They aren't random. I just don't have one specific passion...Ive got a few (okay, like 7 or 8) that I kinda like, so I figured I should do all of them. And Im very good at them all, so I still don't see why that should count against me..
I understand that they want their students to be very devoted to one or two things besides school, but I am devoted to many things.</p>
<p>HEY! I'm salutatorian! I'm actually quite pleased...i think its great...and number 1 and 2 are soo close together, it's not like your number 9 or something like that...</p>
<p>Its just that everyone hates our valedictorian.. and theyre all rooting for me.</p>