<p>Is it fair that one student with outstanding grades in easier courses could become valedictorian over someone with similar grades(but slightly lower) in more rigorous courses? What do valedictorians at your school usually have a GPA of? Are any of you in the running for valedictorian or are valedictorian?</p>
<p>My school doesn’t have a valedictorian, but it does rank. The whole discussion of whether or not what other students do is fair baffles me - it doesn’t affect me at all if other people take easy classes and inflate their grades. It’s not a competition and I don’t get anything if my classmates do poorly.</p>
<p>I don’t really think it’s unfair. If someone was concerned with becoming valedictorian above all things they shouldn’t have taken classes they couldn’t do well in.
A lot of schools figure out the valedictorian based on highest weighted GPA, which is in fact the person with the highest grades in the most honors classes. But I don’t think ranking on unweighted is “unfair” either.
In general, people who aren’t willing to take a single honors class probably won’t be putting too much into the regular classes either. People taking challenging classes realize that rigorous transcript is more important to colleges than being the valedictorian. My school ranks on unweighted GPA and all the people in the top 10 have taken honors classes. The lower-ranked people have generally not.
The top three students in my class have 4.0s. I know this because I have the highest possible non-4.0 (B in gym) and I’m ranked fourth.</p>
<p>We rank on weighted GPA, so the people who get a 4.0 without any APs don’t have a chance.</p>
<p>So I will (most definitely be) valedictorian and my GPA is 4.16, which translates into a 96. We don’t have honors classes at my school, and generally all of the high achieving kids take one AP (APUSH) junior year and one or two of the four offered senior year. Every other class except for certain ones (like physics or senior English electives) are offered on an a, b, and c level, with a classes being for the highest achieving students, b for the second highest, etc. but these classes aren’t weighted. So basically, everyone takes the same classes that end up having the same rigor. If you want to be val, then you just do well in the classes you’re taking. I have had a near identical schedule to the probable sal for the past for years. Neither of us have taken classes to boost our GPAs.</p>
<p>And in response to your question, I have worked for my grades and feel that I have earned my rank. At other schools, I know that that isn’t always the case, but that’s how I feel at mine.</p>
<p>Yeah, people at my schoo boost their GPA through easier courses…but those people aren’t generally the people that care enough to strive for valedictorian anyway. Of all the people I know with a high GPA (we only rank top 4/5), all of them take rigourous courseloads.</p>
<p>I wish I could be valedictorian, but right now, my chances aren’t that great. I’m probably only ranked ~8/116 with a cumulative UW GPA of around 95.8. Current top-ranked student has a GPA of just under 98.</p>
<p>At our school it’s based on weighted, but I have once friend who’s a junior and he’s ranked #3 with only two ap classes this year while other people in his class have taken 4</p>