<p>This is, or hopefully will be, a discussion thread. </p>
<p>I'm of the opinion that it should negatively affect a students GPA. The point of a weighted GPA is to make sure that students are rewarded by taking the hardest classes possible. The current Val at my school has 4 AP classes and 3 study halls - but only the AP classes count toward his GPA. </p>
<p>I get angry at that - if you want to be Val, you should have to work for your GPA! </p>
<p>Anyway. Maybe I'm being to militant. I'm still a little miffed this is the strategy for most kids at my school. A penny for your thoughts?</p>
<p>Definitely not. Think about the kids that can’t do much work at home for some reason (home problems, lack of stability, library shut down) and need a free period to get their work done. Why punish them?</p>
<p>I’m sorry that your valedictorian cheated to get their #1 spot. Life will go on, especially if you have a high class rank.</p>
<p>So because of this one extreme example that ONLY affects you, we should penalize everyone who has a study hall? Why should anything have a negative effect on your GPA? Makes no sense.</p>
<p>I know where you’re coming from-- kids with 5 APs and 3 study halls can have higher GPAs than kids with 6 APs and two elective courses, and it’s not fair, but hopefully colleges recognize that.</p>
<p>I’m not being negatively affected by this. If I am not able to become Valedictorian, it will be because I earned a final grade of a “B” in English One my Frosh year. There are other reasons, of course (it’s never just one reason), but I won’t bore anyone with them. I am not personally hurt by people who take advantage of study hall. That is not the reason why I started this thread. </p>
<p>I just find it…detestable? that people can and will cheat to improve their class rank. I agree with what IIyana said about some students having special circumstances that would necessitate school time to finish work. </p>
<p>On the other hand, emeraldEvi pointed out what I’m annoyed by. There are people who need it and people who “abuse” it. My question is: if you could change the current system, would you?</p>
<p>If there are any people out there who need a study hall to do all of their homework in one day, then it should be mandated for everyone, or the people who need it should take it at their own expense. Otherwise there is a bias against people who are taking actual classes when they have the chance.</p>
<p>People who take 4 APs and 3 study halls are stealing others’ class rank in order to achieve a meaningless title. They’ll still get rejected from competitive colleges because they have weak schedules (hopefully), so they’re just screwing their classmates over.</p>
<p>No, it shouldn’t count negatively toward your grade because some people actually NEED them.</p>
<p>I suffer from ADD and need my study hall in order to focus on my work without any nearby distractions. My study hall has saved my life in the past 2 years, though I won’t have it junior/senior year.
I think 3 study halls is a little much, though I’m sure colleges will make that decision, not you. So relax and don’t worry about other people’s courseloads. The school Val isn’t going to influence your admission into college, nor are they choosing where you go.</p>
<p>I take one study hall, because I just get blatantly distracted! I mean, I am much more motivated at school because hey, what else is there to do?</p>
<p>I don’t see how someone gets a higher GPA and takes more study halls but life goes on as someone else said.</p>
<p>At my school, you’re required to maintain a minimum of five academic courses a year. So technically, you should only have a maximum of two study halls per day… but due to scheduling conflicts, there are some kids in my grade this year with three study halls. They’re nowhere near the top of the class though.</p>
<p>I’ve always been the kid to overload on classes, but this year I made sure that as a senior, I had two study halls. I feel like I deserve it though. In 10th grade, I took nine classes and in 11th grade, I took eight. Most kids only took five or six. This year I’m taking five, but I still have four APs and that’s considered a high course load.</p>