Hello, everyone! Recently, it has been announced at my son’s school that he will be salutatorian. Although this is already a great achievement, he finds it unfair because the person who was chosen valedictorian took less advanced classes than him. Can someone please help us come up with a good argument to bring to the school? I know many of you will say that he looks bitter and immature for doing so, but this isn’t only fighting for his right, but also for fairness to all other students who have been in these advanced classes for all 4 years. Thank you.
P.S. Please be polite in your responses.
a. I really don’t think the school is going to do anything about this. I understand it can be frustrating, since I’ve been in your son’s shoes (to an extent) and it does suck, but if it helps, sal vs. val makes no difference w. regards to college admissions.
b. If you really must appeal to the school, I guess show them your weighted GPA is higher (at least that is what I am assuming you mean by harder classes, if they are subjectively harder classes, the school definitely won’t do anything) and claim that this is a more accurate representation of GPA.
Since it’s already been announced, I would recommend that you just accept it. It will make your son look bad and potentially create a lot of bad feelings.
Before you make you argument, I think what you should do first is to know why he has been chosen as the valedictorian. Taking advanced classes isn’t the only standards of being selected. For example, our school not only considered student’s GPA, but also leadership roles and responsibilities he had taken.
Hi. Thanks for responding. His school bases valedictorian purely on average.
No one cares who valedictorian was after graduation. Highest achievement isn’t always about being (numerically) #1.
The other way around, some people complain that the valedictorian just gamed the system by taking more AP classes. Presumably your #1 earned more A’s, if their unweighted GPA is higher. If they were second, wouldn’t “But Fang’s son got lower grades than me!” be a valid complaint? Either way somebody thinks it’s unfair.
Our goal is not to dethrone the current #1 of his position, but fight for my son to be covaledictorian at the least.
Why? What would doing that accomplish when he’s already salutatorian? It just seems petty imo and you should let it go. He didn’t have the highest GPA, and evidently the other person did.
If “I’m just as good as you” is the goal, then the “It helps all of the other kids too!” platitudes are disingenuous. Call it what it is: sore losing. Salutatorian is quite good. At my school he’d still get a speech at graduation.
I wouldn’t do anything about it.
If you knew the “rules” of the “game” at the beginning, then you don’t have an argument at this point. If you thought the rules were unjust at the beginning (i.e. freshman year), then you should have said something then. The school will know that you’re staying something now because the result didn’t favor your S when you could have said something 4 years ago.
If the school changed the “rules” to the “game” in the middle of the “game,” then you have a legitimate gripe.
You’d get a more sympathetic ear from the administration had you brought this up 4 years ago.
If it were me, then I’d forget about it especially if my kid got into the school of his/her choice.
If the current Val has a higher weighted average, then that is fair, regardless of how challenging the classes were. It is unfair, however, to appeal the school to ask to take the title from a student who has worked hard to get to where they are (not saying your student hasn’t).
If the situation was reversed, would you want the other parents to appeal the decision (which is based purely on average, which is fact…)? Would you want your child to share valedictorian with someone else if it was rightfully theirs to begin with?
Also, it is not your son’s “right” to be valedictorian, it would be an honor, but the school does not owe him anything. I’m also sorry if this comes off as rude, but you are not doing this for the students. I guarantee if your son was not 1 or 2, you would not be fighting for the Val and sal to change.
Do you mean less advanced classes as in they took calc AB while your son took calc BC or less advanced classes as in they didn’t take all AP classes and your son did? Either way, I don’t think you have a very compelling argument. Like some other posters said, if you really take issue with this policy the time to voice that concern would have been 4 years ago.
You also posted this same question over three months ago. Time to accept the fact and get over it.
The fact of the matter is that you did not do well enough in your classes for the extra weight of your advanced classes to make your GPA higher than the student who did better than you in more classes that were not necessarily advanced. Such is life.
Reminds me of Olympic silver winners who cry because they missed gold. It helps to look at the accomplishments for themselves. Presume you got into college. Now you look forward, not backwards. Character.
You need move on.
After graduation, only an ex-val parent who wants to nag his/her kid to study harder gives a rat’s patootie about valedictorian.
Once you’re in college, the relative importance of HS accomplishents fades. Once you’re in the workforce/grad school, the relative importance of college accomplishments fades.
@FangsDizzydorf
I agree with those who say that if the rules for choosing a Val are the same now as they were when he started high school, then there is really no room for complaint other than to be making suggestions for the future for the sake of others, if you think they are truly unfair. For example, if your school does not weight grades for advanced difficulty, such as a 4.5 or a 5.0 for an A in an AP class while an A in the regular track gets a 4.0, I would personally consider that unfair and suggest it be changed. BUT!!! If that is the way it has been since he started high school, then let it go. Everyone “played by the rules”.
If that is not the case and you are truly mystified as to why he was not chosen Val, then I also agree with the person that said or implied that rather than going into this with a confrontational attitude, simply make an appointment with the principal and ask why the final decisions are what they are, what the criteria are. They won’t (or shouldn’t) tell you the other student’s record, but if they lay out the choosing matrix and it seems to you that something doesn’t make sense, you can ask them to explain it in detail. Beyond that, I would let it go unless there is some scholarship that depends on his being designated Val. Then you have to decide if the value of that scholarship is worth whatever fight and publicity might ensue.
This is really not something you should be obsessing about. I’m guessing this student also took more study halls, or else how did they get a higher weighted GPA with fewer advanced classes? Most schools use a fundamentally flawed weighting system that penalizes students for taking electives instead of study halls. It’s a stupid contest judged by rules that don’t make sense. Many schools have dropped it entirely because it encourages students to make bad educational choices.
@mathyone , if the student got significantly higher grades on the lower weighted classes than the student taking higher weighted classes, it is possible for
him to have a higher GPA without taking study halls.
Leave things be.
NO one will care in a couple weeks.
It’s a title for high school kids. It’s as if you wanted to fight for a kindergarten gold star or a chocolate medal. What matters is whether your child goes to college and whether he enjoys learning.
If the process bothers you, don’t attempt to change it for your child. It’s too late and it’s just high school.
Bring it up to the principal and ask for a commission to be formed to reform the process for the Hs class of 2019.