North Carolina Students Fight Class Ranking

<p>I am against abolishing the class rank. Partly because I was a high school valedictorian (senior class of ~550 students). There is nothing wrong with having a ranking system and distinguishing hard working students who took the hardest classes from the lazy retards. (not sure if this applies to prep schools where most students are overachievers.)</p>

<p>citygirlmom,</p>

<p>You know what you're talking about. </p>

<p>Enloe is not a typical run of the mill high school. It's not one of those "10 AP classes with bad teachers" or "I graduated top of my class with 7 AP classes."</p>

<p>Enloe is a nationally acclaimed high schoo, ranked in the top 50 of all high schools in the nation. The kids there are extremely smart, and there are a handful of students so advanced in math there that they could have a Master's degree in mathematics in their sophomore year of high school.</p>

<p>Just yesterday, Enloe was first place in the regional science olympiad competition, and they were going up against the North Carolina School of Science and Math, who received second. "Regional" Science Olympiad Competitions may seem insignificant, but Enloe and the North Carolina School of Science and Math....their "regional" devices could probably win the state level in other states.</p>

<p>You don't truly understand what a difficult and challenging school Enloe is. You need to stop being arrogant and pretending to know and understand how the students at Enloe feel. They don't want to abolish class rank because "they believe that rank instills unhealthy competition" or "they want to promote a non competitive school environment" or any other crap like that. </p>

<p>They want to abolish class rank because they know, they KNOW, that they cannot do well at Enloe. Even thought there are three other magnet high schools in the same county Enloe is in, someone who is ranked #1 in their class at any of those other high schools would not last a second at Enloe.</p>

<p>Hearing this from a chick who attends a modest high school, I'll say that right now, I'm against class ranking. It teaches students to compete with each other, rather than relish the learning process obtained when in school. Many people think rank is a measure of your intelligence, so yes, it can be a self-esteem-downer for an overachiever who wants that #1 spot but isn't quite there yet. And really, just endlessly delving into textbooks and racing past others in terms of class rank really isn't going to teach you anything crucial in living a good life.</p>

<p>"they could have a Master's degree in mathematics in their sophomore year of high school." </p>

<p>BS. I know a ton of the kids who go to your school, and i'm sure nobody from your school can achieve a master degree in mathematics.</p>

<p>"Even thought there are three other magnet high schools in the same county Enloe is in, someone who is ranked #1 in their class at any of those other high schools would not last a second at Enloe."</p>

<p>Doubt it. Your school is strong, but not godly. TJ whoops enloe anyday, and S&M has very strong points too. If you want, why don't you start pulling up HYPSM admissions rates for all 4 schools you are talking about? </p>

<p>You need to stop being arrogant and taking word for how all students at enloe feel. You are one student.</p>

<p>Enloe is a good school but there are plenty of better schools in North Carolina. </p>

<p>You cannt just judge a school just by their math competition or regional science device. </p>

<p>If that is the case, East Chapel Hill High has Anrav Tripathy and Jeremey Hun along with a nationally ranked Science and math team.</p>

<p>NCSSM has plenty of names to shine. </p>

<p>Enloe is just a competitive school in Raleigh, dont make more than it is.</p>

<p>Class ranking has hardly any bearing on one's abilities. Some of my teachers still say it's highly important for it to be on a transcript though, as colleges weigh that in.</p>

<p>I would think that a ranking system just needs to be based on more than a weighted GPA.</p>

<p>We only do percentages at our school. And that top 5% is hard to get. WE split it up between magnets and residents, and sometimes the magnets have to share the glory of good gpas etc with the residents (such as junior 10 ) but we do have seperate vals and sals... I think that courseload, ECs, recs, and essays should count more. Who cares about the other people in your school, it's all about you.</p>

<p>This shows to you exactly what class ranking does--</p>

<p>it makes one unbearably selfish.</p>

<p>I am one of those who yearns for people in schools to work with each other rather than against each other to reach their goals. Selfishness is only an impediment to socializing and learning well.</p>

<p>Amen. Competition makes high school less bearable than it already is.</p>

<p>Selfishness is only an impediment to socializing and learning well</p>

<p>Thanks for sharing your indoctrinated Judeo-Christian 'ethics', for the lack of a better word. I fail to see how being selfish would be an impediment to learning well. Also, socializing does not equal learning well. Socializing is just another glittery liberal mantra which is detrimental to actual education. People socialize just fine without schools pushing it as an agenda.</p>

<p>Umm, w1cked, hate to break it to you, but there are different types of socializing. Have you seen Mean Girls? Picture that, but only with giant nerds instead of Rachel McAdams and Lindsay Lohan. That is the kind of socialization that class ranks creates. No, selfishness is not detrimental to ACADEMIC learning. As far as learning social skills, however, well, that's different. We have a similar situation, where the people who are ranked 5-10 in our class are all within .008 GPA points of each other, with some ties, and everyone knows it. Worse, we all have classes together, so we're all just trying to screw each other over as bad as we can. Socializing is a form of learning, but, I suppose, as a conservative you believe we should be more concerned with getting ahead of everyone than forging meaningful relationships in high school that allow us to function in the real world.:mad:</p>

<p>Hi I am not a conservative. No clue why would say that. Well, in retrospect, its better than being called a liberal.</p>

<p>Umm yeah, about that. Sorry, shouldn't make assumptions. But "its better than being called a liberal" and "Socializing is just another glittery liberal mantra"... If it walks like a duck, and it quacks like a duck...</p>

<p>If this was about some religious thing, I would be pointing the finger at the conservatives. (and I still rather be called conservative than a liberal :O</p>

<p>Umm, okay. So basically, you just throw around various political labels at things you disagree with based on who supports them. That's cool, I guess.</p>

<p>Yea I have political stances that angers the maximum amount of people possible; liberals, conservatives, religious nuts, eco nuts, socialists,.. goes on and on.</p>

<p>I'm not surprised. My school has a similar way of ranking (just adding on to the GPA, no cap), but add in another dimension - a great community college (ranked #1 in nation for technology). Our vals and sals usually take on a full load of IB along with a few dual-enrollment courses (online or at night) and end up with 5.6s or so.</p>

<p>Right now, I'm a junior and as of halfway through the junior year my GPA is 5.2 and I'm 2nd, so that just goes to show how competitive it is for the top spots (my school isn't super competitive, the top few spots are usually close within 5 ranks or so, and after the top 10-15 it's the norm).</p>

<p>I guess I do feel the pressure to maintain a decent rank, but I do think that if you're willing to work your but off with a full IB courseload while handling 2-3+ RESPECTABLE (not this spanish I and II stuff that some like to pull) courses, and can manage A's in everything, you deserve valedictorian!</p>

<p>I would have liked for my school to drop class ranking. I have over a 95 unweighted average, which is pretty much a 4.0, and I was ranked 38/449, which killed college apps</p>

<p>My school has no ranking, no percentiles, no percentages nor +/- designations on report cards, just five grades and a +.5 for honors as well as +1 weighting for any APs taken. It is bliss-and the school has no ranking catalogs, either.
And ckmets, you are 6 posts off...</p>

<p>What's ironic is that my highschool is ranked much higher than Enloe according to Newsweek (in terms of AP and IB tests), yet our val and sal GPAs and HPAs are much lower. Our val graduates with a 5.00 HPA. I'm Junior val, and I've only taken 9 AP's so far. </p>

<p>It's not as competitive, though, because it's a magnet school for art. I think we might rank higher according to Newsweek because we have art AP's. When we already take a minimum of two art classes a year, we do pretty well on those, and most peoples priorities arent academics.</p>