<p>My son’s school does not weight GPA’s, so every student who maintains a 4.0 is a val and speaks at graduation. He was one of 18 vals in a class of about 350 or 400. I find this a bit odd, but am not complaining, because if there had been only one val, it wouldn’t have been him. Another thing that’s odd is that all 18 are ranked #1, and I don’t think there’s any way for colleges to know that there were 17 other #1 students at his school. They probably assume he’s the only one, and I have yet to see an application that has any provision for him to explain otherwise. I think the summa cum laude system, combined with auditions for speaker, would be a good way to go. With that said, I wouldn’t have wanted the system different this year, for his sake! :)</p>