<p>The ranking system at my large public school is strictly unweighted, and the three valedictorians have taken maybe 1 AP class and two of them are going to the equivalent of community colleges. Other students, who have a high weighted ranking, are going to Cornell, Brown, UPenn etc. and generally have much higher SAT scores (not that this matters). So the question is, should the whole valedictorian saludictorian thing be based on a weighted ranking of A = 4.0 regular, 4.3 honors, 4.6 AP?</p>
<p>OMG this happens at my school!!!! And it's SOOOO annoying. I think they should definitely be weighted. Because if it's not weighted, then it's not a reflection of how smart you are, it's how well you chose your classes...aka all CP and no AP. The AP kids are being punished for taking the hardest classes possible. Since when has our education system been to promote taking the easy way out? Apparently since the salut at my school was chosen....</p>
<p>If you base class rank on weighted GPAs, you create situations where students are afraid to take an elective that they love, such as theater or orchestra, because it isn't a weighted course.</p>
<p>Daughter's school does both, but does not name valedictorian. We recently realized that she will have equal number of weighted A's as other students in her class at end of senior year, but may not have the top weighted rank as other students may have taken fewer classes.
( ie study hall) School weights AP classes only and only has a few classes available.</p>
<p>Valedictorian should be decided by weighted core couses only, in my opinion. Same with class rank. I cannot imagine why the ability to not bring clothes to gym could be an indicator of future college success.</p>
<p>In our school:
A+ for a standard class (i.e art, gym, etc.):4.0
A+ for an academic class (academic level of core subject and some electives) 4.3
A+ for an honors class 5.3
A+ for an AP class 5.8</p>
<p>So yeah, personally I'm in favor of a weighted GPA, but not as steep as this or else, like I did, I avoided taking electives my junior and senior year, since my GPA would drop significantly, so....</p>
<p>I think that the core classes should be weighted and counted for rank, not the stupid electives. That way, there is no problem with people being afraid to take an elective if they have room besides all their core classes.</p>
<p>bt, 1337hax0r, your name ROCKS!!!!</p>
<p>I agree that class rank should be done on a weighted scale, but there should be a limit. because at my school, the capital of competitiveness theres kids taking about 10 dual enrollment classes just to boost there weighted gpa inorder to get into the top10%, my weighted gpa is almost a 5.0 and my class rank is only top12%, so you can see how difficult it is at my school to be valedictorian.</p>
<p>^I agree. However, my school isn't as competitive, so a limit isn't as necessary, but I would like it. I agree that without limits to the weight, kids overload on APs, and it creates a ripple effect of kids overloading in order to rank high. I take debate and ROTC, electives that I love, and as a result can't take as many APs. Weighted ranks are only fair, though. Otherwise. a guy with 2 B's and all APs would be lower than a guy with no aps and all A's.</p>
<p>Yes, I think Tony's weighted system is a bit too much...I think A = 4.0 regular, 4.3 honors, 4.6 AP sounds right. But the problem is, how do i change the system? I'm #1 weighted, so people will think I am doing it just because I want to be valedictorian or something (now it does not even matter...ill be doing it for future classes). What I think I will do is ask the question in the annual AP stats study and then show the results to the principal.</p>
<p>Ranking at my school is based on weighted GPAs. </p>
<p>Regular classes an A is a 4.0, An A in honors is a 4.5, and in an AP it's a 5.0.</p>
<p>4.0 for an A in most classes.
Extra .5 for APs.</p>
<p>It's really frustrating to hear about people with 4.9s when the best in my school have a 4.15.</p>
<p>I agree with aviatrix. Mostly because I go to the same school, but she's right. Anyways, it honestly doesn't matter what your class rank is -- it's too late for seniors anyway, and in 2 years it will just be a number.</p>
<p>I don't think there should be valedictorians or class ranks period. It isn't a good indicator of your performance in many schools like mine. For instance, I have a 4.0 weighted and the valedictorian has a 4.3. I'm not even in the top 10% (almost.. 56 out of 535ish). I have taken harder classes than the valedictorian including 8 courses of Spanish and French... yet since only 2 of those courses are AP, I don't get weighted grades for it. At my school, Spanish 4 and Spanish 6 are more of a workload than any AP class I've been in (other than Spanish 5 and Spanish 7 which are AP Spanish lang and lit respectively).</p>
<p>Kids who want to go to top schools really get screwed over at my school. Many people have dropped theatre because they need to compete with IB students and their automatic GPA boost over everyone else (they are allowed more IB classes than any other students are allowed AP classes). Its a constant battle at my school and it does no one a bit of good.</p>
<p>My school isn't on a 4.0 scale, rather 100 point and it gives weight by multiplying the grade you get by 1.13 if you pass. It does suck that my german and improv kills my GPA.</p>
<p>
[quote]
4.0 for an A in most classes.
Extra .5 for APs.</p>
<p>It's really frustrating to hear about people with 4.9s when the best in my school have a 4.15.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I imagine that that's a bit irritating, but it's all about scale. APs count for 5.0 in my school, but that's just to simplify things. 5.0 = all As APs, 4.0 (might equal) all As regular, or 4 Bs 4 As with 4 APs. A person with a 4.10 at a cap of 4.15 would have a more impressive weighted GPA than a person with 4.25 at a cap of 5.0.</p>
<p>My school's ranking is based on weighted GPAs. Honors classes give 1 bonus point and AP classes give 2 bonus points. One point adds .333 to your weighted GPA while 2 points adds .666 to your weighted GPA.</p>