<p>Lets say I come from a school in Palo Alto that's not only super competitive, but also sends 16 kids to Stanford every year. Would you guys say valedictorian status would give me a big boost? I'm sure Stanford knows about our school, because half the professor's kids go to it, and everyone from my school applies to Stanford.</p>
<p>Are you from Gunn?</p>
<p>it is menlo</p>
<p>Maybe. Hehe, yes I am. Why?</p>
<p>Nothin. It's where I woulda gone to high school if we hadn't moved out of CA in the mid '90s. I dunno. I've heard mixed things about Stanford and it's bias or lack of bias towards local kids. So...not sure. Gunn's certainly good, though. Newsweek ranked it what, #70? in their national poll?</p>
<p>Yeah we went from 50 to 70. Kinda a stupid ranking though, just based on AP test amounts...</p>
<p>Those rankings are absolutely ridiculous. You couldn't find a more idiotic way of ranking high schools. And to answer your question, yes, you'd have an excellent chance if you were Gunn's valedictorian.</p>
<p>Ok thank you everyone</p>
<p>I was valedictory speaker for Hawaii Pacific University's commencement and was accepted into the Stanford grad program. So yeah, it may help a little.</p>
<p>(gunn doesn't designate a valedictorian... or at least, it didn't two years ago...)</p>
<p>but yes. if you're top of the class @ gunn (or pretty close) and you have good EC's & recs, you'll have a <em>really</em> good shot at stanford (even better if your parents work there :p)</p>