Valedictorian financial aid

Colleges and Universities offering full or partial tuition to Valedictorians in New England?

Check UConn (if you are CT resident).

I think Lynchburg (VA) and U of South Carolina do.

But they are thin on the ground. The value of val/sal status has tanked outside the HS community.

5 Likes

@MrsLetourneau what state is your state of residence.

1 Like

Yes, the value of the Val from the higher ed perspective is not there for merit aid alone, but that top 1 to 5% ranking helps with the collective stats for admission and merit where merit is offered.

The schools awarding Val and Sal ties for 50 kids with top GPAs within .0000% begin to evolve our understanding of what it means. The stress and competition created is at times not healthy…there are even cases where kids dial it down a little so they are not in the running for the top two just to stay out of the drama.

And remember the final “standings” are awarded after applications are due, after admissions, after scholarship applications, after merit, after the yearbook is printed, etc…and kids look at their transcript this time of the year as it is being sent off for initial applications and will say something about “I guess you meant it when you said junior year matters” :slight_smile:

I survived being the mom of a Val - luckily at a high school where there was a healthy sense of not that big of a deal, but there was self pressure created.

3 Likes

In my class many years ago, the same girl had been #1 since sophomore year. A few weeks before graduation, a girl from the class behind us decided to graduate early and she became the Val. I don’t know if a school would have revoked a Val scholarship from the first girl. It was really just a few weeks before graduation when all this happened, or at least when the school realized the younger girl was bumping the #1 back. Pretty sad all around.

Of course, this was long before schools gave everyone a Val or Sal designation. There was one winner, no ties.

1 Like

hadnt thought about that type of drama before. but i could see it happening at our daughter’s small school.

wonder what would happen if a kid added on one weighted extra semester class spring semester of senior year, and changed the rankings from the first semester? would colleges still honor Valedictorian if that kid was dropped to Sal?

Our high school restricts APs, and there were a couple years when my kids were there (not my kids year) that someone moved into the district from a high school that allows many more than ours does. They kept the weighting the same so all of a sudden there is a new kid with a weighted gpa that is higher than anyone in our high school could have gotten making the new kid valedictorian. They made some changes to the system after this happened twice.

But, of course, being valedictorian means nothing outside your high school so it doesn’t really matter in the long run. I’m not aware of any scholarship money tied to being val.

2 Likes

Elmira College used to have a full tuition scholarship for valedictorians but it’s been replaced by a competitive scholarship and being valedictorian is no longer required (although I assume it would be a criterion since it’s been one for so long and because there are only 5 of them now.)
Some universities have a “deal” with the town’s public school so look into that, your GC would likely know.

1 Like