NYTimes letter re ranking in high school

Applying to College
1

<p>A breath of fresh air in the frenzied days of test and angst:</p>

<p>Re “The Joy of Graduating: The Frenzied Battle to Be Valedictorian Is Giving Some Administrators Pause” (regional sections, June 29):</p>

<p>As a current medical student and a recent graduate of Yale, I question whether this numbers game is worth the pressure it places on teenagers. </p>

<p>I attended the Fieldston School in Riverdale in the Bronx. Fieldston did not offer Advance Placement courses, calculate grade point averages or rank students. Instead of having the school choose some overachiever to speak at our high school graduation, the class elected three students to give speeches, regardless of their grades or what college they would be attending in the fall. </p>

<p>My high school experience was enjoyable and certainly less stressful than that of the students mentioned in the article because I did not measure my self-worth and define myself by a number. Without A.P. courses, I was able to take classes I was genuinely interested in, and my teachers had flexibility with the curriculum instead of being obligated to “teach to the test.”</p>

<p>When I entered Yale, I soon encountered students with 10 or 12 A.P. credits, while I had one (I took the Calculus BC A.P. test independently). Almost everybody in my class at Yale had been a high school valedictorian, while I didn’t even know what my G.P.A. had been. </p>

<p>I may have been intimidated at first, but in retrospect, I see that it made absolutely no difference with respect to my success in college. I enjoyed high school and worked hard because I loved to learn. Shouldn’t that be what education is about?</p>

<p>Marissa Cohler
New York, June 29, 2008</p>

2

<p><em>claps hands</em></p>

<p>Thank you for demonstrating that one can be exceptionally successful without playing the "game." In the end, the high school and college experience needs to be just that... an experience. With your nose buried in a book the whole time and receiving the "honor" of being valedictorian at the expense of your social life, you can't live to the fullest and get the most out the years that should be some of the best of your life.</p>

3

<p>oh please...yale grad saying how she 'didnt even know her GPA' is just a passive aggressive form of bragging</p>

<p>its like saying 'I didnt care and i still beat 99.9% of everyone who worked harder"</p>

4

<p>While it's nice to hear of someone who didn't feel the pressure, the letter was a little disingenuous. Fieldston is one of the top private schools in NYC, and adcoms are well aware of the rigor of the curriculum. Many private schools don't rank or calculate GPA, and choose their commencement speakers in ways similar to the one described in the letter. Quite a few schools are even eliminating AP courses as such (but most students still take the AP exams anyway.) There's plenty of pressure nonetheless.</p>

5

<p>In terms of commencement speakers we have our Val speak AND we choose two speakers... seems like a good compromise to me.</p>

<p>As for the ranking thing... I think some people like it - it motivates them. Our school does rank, but most people don't pay too much attention to it...</p>