<p>@SaveOurSkin, you’re just wrong. It’s not that people are mad that they didn’t get to be val. I’m a parent. I honestly have no idea who was val in my class decades ago and I really didn’t care at the time either. When you are young and you lack perspective, things like this can take on way more importance than they deserve. You can make up stories accusing other people of sour grapes, but you’d be wrong and I think those false accusations just further show how damaging this obsession with rank is. There’s a big difference between challenging yourself and working hard vs. planning your high school program around this and devoting your summer to taking classes just so you can get this award. More and more schools are abolishing rank and valedictorian because the system is really flawed and it is being gamed by students such as yourself in ways you describe for really no constructive purpose. I post on these threads because it makes me sad to see what these adult-created ranking systems are doing to young people.</p>
<p>@saveourskin thank you so much. You are totally 100% right there are so many people trying to demotivated me when I have a pretty good shot at winning valedictorian. I don’t even think I really have to take summer classes to get it I just have to stay focused during the school year.</p>
<p>@mathyone I just want to know why a parent of someone else’s child is trying to give me their opinion. You probably went to school years ago, things have changed now and you keep attacking people who are competitive. Sorry if you needed up at some community college but you keep attacking me and others and I’m sorry if this is coming off as attacking but I can’t stand for what you are doing.</p>
<p>In our state, the 1st & 2nd ranked students from each school get 4 years free tuition to the state university…so, yeah, it matters. 
</p>
<p>Well, I don’t think many states follow this? It’d be a whole other story if my state did that.</p>
<p>It’s interesting that those of you who buy into this idea of trying to game the system to become val are so quick to make assumptions about other people. I’m not trying to demotivate you, I’m trying to direct your energy into something more worthwhile than cramming APs over the summer so that you can secretly jump ahead of someone else. As far as the obviously intended insult about the college I attended, you couldn’t be more wrong. I applied to several colleges I was interested in, and was admitted to all of them, so whatever you may like to believe about me, you are very wrong. I don’t want to speak for specific institutions on this site, but I will say that I got a National Merit scholarship in a very competitive state. So assume away, but it’s unfortunate that even valedictorians these days apparently don’t know when they are drawing completely unfounded conclusions.</p>
<p>If you’ve looked at the parent forum at all recently, you will see that there are several threads about the excessively competitive/obsessive high school environment in some communities/schools and how damaging that is to young people. </p>
<p>It’s immature of people to argue about something like this. Some people are competitive and some aren’t. Honestly, I think it’s best to maintain a balance between trying for the sake of coming out on top of others, and trying for legitimate goals. I have one friend who has an ego bigger than the world. Yes, he’s brilliant. But that attitude and disposition about life and achievements isn’t helping him. People should be more concerned about developing their personal interests rather than just trying to beat everyone else. I think it would be cool to be Salutatorian because I go to small school and I know everyone, and it would be amazing to be able to give a speech at graduation. However, I wouldn’t let this get in the way of what I care about the most, like my scientific interests. (I want to go into biomedical science/molecular biology. <3) </p>
<p>@mathyone if there is a parent thread, why are you in the high school life thread because obviously you aren’t living this life anymore. Besides, the more classes you take, the more knowledge you gain, and knowledge is power right? Why are you saying I shouldn’t take more classes if I am given this opportunity to soak up knowledge that so many people in the world could only dream to have. I don’t want to take things like these for granted and that’s why I think all the work is worth it, I’m using the resources that I am so thankful for to further my knowledge.</p>
<p>@Mebehold Excuse me, but “why are you in the high school life thread” is an outrageous thing to ask. Yes, this is the high school life thread. No, high school teenagers aren’t the only ones that contribute here. The great thing about an internet forum like College Confidential is that we can hear from the experiences of all kinds of people. It’s ignorant of you to single out a parent because they “aren’t living this life anymore.” @mathyone has experiences that you don’t have. Also, a lot of college students post in the High School Life section as well. If you don’t want to hear what other people have to say, don’t go on a forum. </p>
<p>Look, I’m all for taking classes if you’re interested in learning the material. That’s not what you said. You were asking about ways to game the ranking system to become valedictorian. There’s a world of difference there. </p>
<p>I sometimes look at this forum to see what students are saying. Some of them have good ideas or just interesting things to say about their schools. </p>
<p>I’m not a random person randomly posting. I’m the parent of high school and college freshmen. I’ve been through admissions just last year and will be doing so again in a few years for a rather different student, so I’m keeping my eye out for info that may be helpful to her. And much as you might like to turn your nose up at us, my daughter is also a National Merit scholar and was pretty successful with her college applications. But, you know best, and I won’t trouble you further.</p>
<p>@Mebehold, wow, way to be rude to @mathyone. There’s nothing wrong with going to community college, first of all.</p>
<p>Secondly, I’m a val at a big public school. Yeah, people do the APs-over-the-summer thing. I didn’t do it, and I don’t plan to do it because where I am it’s very expensive and 1) I can’t afford it, 2) I like to do more meaningful things during the summer, and 3) I think it’s unethical to buy credits, which is essentially what it is because there’s no financial aid involved. </p>
<p>Also, being val? You have a lot of expectations to live up to and people never leave you alone. Being val used to be a big deal to me, too, but not so much anymore. All it means is that you took the most courses that are weighed most heavily and got, on average, better grades in the courses than the other people in your grade did. The title doesn’t confer intelligence on you, nor success. Correlation does not equal causation.</p>
<p>My public school is big, but 97% of people in each grade are stupid. Not being mean, I’m just being honest. It’s hard to fill honors/AP classes, so they usually bump up non-honors students to honors just to fill them. They obviously fail, but hey, I’m not complaining. Valedictorian isn’t bad. :)</p>
<p>The only thing I really have to say in this thread is that OP, you are being a brat. Why are you being so unnecessarily rude to @mathyone? He/She is just trying to give you some perspective, especially seeing how he/she is an adult and definitely knows more than you. And no one is trying to “demotivate” you. If you want to go for Valedictorian, go ahead but it’s not something to kill yourself over. </p>
<p>OP: IMO, there’s nothing wrong of aspiring to be a Val and setting it as one of your goal. My daughter did when she was in 8th grade. </p>
<p>If you need to game the system a little bit, go for it, to a point that your whole HS life should not revolve around it. Heck, the whole college application is about gaming the system. Again my opinion. You need to know how your HS select the Val, then go from there.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated as Val in a big SoCal suburban HS (660+ on her class) and now attending an Ivy. Did she game the system? Maybe, but not more than the top 10% of her class. Her HS doesn’t consider classes that was taken outside her school from the GPA calculation so kids can only take AP pre-req classes during summer. She didn’t do this since she was already advanced in Math. The only classes she took during summer is her Foreign Language. She made a mistake of not taking any FL during MS, so was way behind on those.</p>
<p>My school has ~30 valedictorians a year. We don’t use weighted GPAs; so someone can take all nonhonors and still be a valedictorian. But it is extremely competitive, because the majority of the valedictorians take a lot of hard courses.</p>
<p>My school doesn’t accept summer credits for GPAs or even to fulfill prerequisites.</p>
<p>By the way, our school is ~2200 people (so it’s pretty big, especially in our area). We’re probably one of the most competitive public schools in our area (like, we have 107 NMFs this year in a senior class of 530). Honestly, I don’t think it matters much. There are a lot of really smart people who don’t get 4.0s because they got a teacher who gives one A a class period (yes, we have teachers like that), or who had issues during the school year.</p>
<p>I guess it’s a little different if your school ranks, but mine doesn’t. They got rid of the ranking system a little while ago for exactly that reason–everyone at my school is really smart. If they take AP courses over the summer, it’s to self-study for the AP test or even just for fun.</p>
<p>It all depends on your school. </p>
<p>Summer classes here actually dilute GPA. If I take 3 AP classes and have 8 or 9 classes today, it will lower the effect of the AP bonus points compared to someone who had 7 classes. </p>
<p>My school actually stopped ranking, sadly, so I don’t know where I am in my class.</p>
<p>I just wish we would rank because it would probably help my college admission chances.</p>
<p>I have taken an online class (FLVS is free to FL residents yay!) every summer since 7th grade. I took classes I was interested in and when I got into high school I took interesting classes that were also AP classes so they would help boost my GPA. I don’t think there is anything wrong with acknowledging that you are taking a class somewhat for the GPA boost but make sure you actually like the subject. I discovered I had a knack and a passion for language and computer science because I took those extra classes. Also don’t let the fact that a class is non-weighted sway you from not taking it. I really enjoy band which is unweighted at my school and I would have missed out on a lot if I didn’t take it simply because it wasn’t weighted.
Also, don’t secretly take these classes. You should let people know what you are doing. It looks kind of shady if you don’t tell anyone. And if you don’t tell anyone you are probably taking that class for the wrong reason.
Finally, my goal before I got into high school was to be valedictorian. I thought it wouldn’t be possible because of the unweighted classes I took. But currently I am ranked number 1. And it doesn’t feel any different. Its not as fulfilling as one would think. I mean yes, I think I deserve it, but at the same time it becomes irrelevant after high school.</p>
<p>@outlander545 Yay for FLVS! </p>
<p>flvs is literally hell on earth @awakeningvenus</p>
<p>@Mebehold I feel you. I’ve taken classes on it a few times, so I’m kind of used to it, but the format is pretty awk and there’s no motivation to stay on pace. I’m actually in a computer lab period right now and I’m supposed to be working on FLVS Latin 2. Whoops. </p>