my son is a rising senior and goes to a private school. the GPA calculation is used for class rank and ultimately Valedictorian and salutatorian. my son has been ranked +2 in his class for 3 years in a row, having the highest grade available at this school in each class.
I asked him about how this other student could have a higher GPA (currently the other student is higher by .0298) as it seems like a mathematical impossibility. we compared class schedules between the two and realized that the only difference in the 2 is that the other kid takes “Curriculum assistance” also known as a study hall class. no grade is given for this class and it does not appear on a transcript. therefore the total scores are divided by a lower number of hours and all other things being equal, the GPA of the curriculum assistance taking kid is higher than the one that takes a regular class.
has anyone ever noticed this? my so now has no chance to become valedictorian even though he actual grades are higher.
any suggestions? should he just accept that “that’s the way it is”? that’s what his principal said to me when I asked about this.
I guess colleges don’t see any difference between the V and S designation??
That’s the way it is is was the correct answer. V, S, X, Y, or Z., no college cares. Their are 35,000+ Vs every year in the US. Some schools have V’s in the double digits.
First, how in the world were you allowed access to the other student’s transcript? That’s a major violation of his privacy unless he shared it directly with you.
Second, this is the way it is. In many schools with weighted averages, the top spot goes to the kid with the study hall, while the “lower” ranked kid was in band or chorus, which ultimately pulls their GPA down. But that same class is looked upon favorably by adcoms, who are fully aware of how the system works. Our local HS list the GPA on the transcript weighted, but ranks based on the unweighted GPA. So a few foolish kids every year try to get high ranking by taking less rigorous courses. Of course, that has an impact on their college acceptances, so it’s not really worth it.
It’s not going to matter. I would also argue that schools are going to care more about the rigor of your child’s course load rather than if they are #1 or 2. My daughter’s salutatorian got into schools were the valedictorian was wait listed.
nobody shared the other transcript. the 2 kids are best friends and have had the same classes all 3 years except for the study halls. my son took no study halls an instead took engineering class. I don’t think he would have changed his coarse load had he known it might have a negative affect on his chance to be V. its just sad the one that got a couple of higher grades cant get the V. thanks so much everyone!!!
If you already spoke to the principal about this and he/she said “that’s the way it is,” what else can you do, complaint to the Board of Education? Probably wouldn’t do any good and may blow up your kid’s friendship with the V. Best to drop it and move on.
This is why schools should stop ranking students. It creates perverse incentives. It is also seriously unhealthy psychologically. Why should any kid need to know exactly where they fall compared to every other student in the class. Its insane.
In addition to what everyone else has said, for most high schools. the V/S announcements are made after college acceptances have been made. It’s just not that big a deal, IMO.
Our high school doesn’t rank for this reason. Everyone with a 4.0 unweighted is a valedictorian, and I think there are usually around 8 or so. They only report whether you are top 9% (UC admissions) and top 10%.
It’s the way the math works. There is no real solution to this, other than getting rid of weighting entirely. So it is what it is. And being valedictorian matters for 10 minutes in a person’s life.
Instead of getting caught up in it, I’d suggest you take a step back and teach your S about what is important in life. As others mentioned being HS val is not a big deal in the long term. It sounds to me like S has is health, has good friends, is smart, hardworking, took courses he cared about and did extremely well in them. That should all be celebrated and you should both try to push aside the less meaningful stuff (like being val).
Colleges will look at the transcript and see his outstanding record and they do understand the oddities of schools ranking systems.
it does. he had a goal, he earned that goal and will be denied that goal at the graduation ceremony. its a tough thing to accept. but he will of course
I can understand that you (and he) feel that way, but the math says he didn’t earn the goal, as seemingly unfair as it is. His GPA is lower because of the unweighted class(es). What would your solution to this be? I cannot think of a mathematical formula which will undo this, other than not weighting any classes higher than any others. In which case the two students would be tied. But lots of people would not like to open up a tie to every single student who never got anything other than an “A”, even if they never took a single higher difficulty class.
I would suggest the weighting be changed to offer a “C” grade for anyone taking a pass fail/non graded class. if a student chooses it they will do so knowing that it might affect their GPA slightly negatively which is as it should be.
