<p>Hardest working but definitely not the smartest.</p>
<p>We had several vals this year, as we do every year, and the one I know well enough to pass judgment on was not only a hard worker in difficult classes, she was naturally brilliant, too. And she managed to find time to help our varsity Quiz Bowl team crush its competition at the state level, play varsity tennis, and rack up a whole bunch of other accolades in addition to an internship. She definitely deserved valedictorian honors.</p>
<p>We have more than one val, and they are all pretty smart.
Although I wouldn't neccessarily call them smarter than everyone else in my class. Some of them are just really good at taking tests, or have been forced into taking shoot-me-dead schedules all years of high school. I find it hard to actually have conversations with some of them, and they aren't very well-rounded.</p>
<p>Naturally, they may not be the smartest of all people. But they know how to work the system. Whereas people like me and a lot of my friends just take classes that are actually of interest to us, and participate in extra curriculers we actually like instead of spending all day studying.</p>
<p>Our Sal is smarter than our val. #2 blew off an exam freshmen year and got a B, so he is #2. Our val goes home and studies. I don't think he has a life.</p>
<p>our val is #1 because he took a bunch of easy classes... sure he took the 2 APs we offer but while #'s 2-8 (me included) were taking advanced chemistry, he was taking chorus... and when we signed up for physics, he chose earth science... def. not the smartest.</p>
<p>We don't even have a val... it's kind of depressing.</p>
<p>DEFINITELY not. he loads up on ap's and pushes for a's, that's how he got there. he's really average, really.</p>
<p>They are smart as hell. At least compared to me. Both had 4.67 and one is going to MIT and the other Boston. MIT one is going for nuclear engineering and Boston is for English or something to do with becoming a writer</p>
<p>The val at my school is smart- he gets the highest grade on every test we have no matter how hard it is. On the other hand, the ex-sal is dumb, literally. He's become so lazy and he pays more attention to his Gf and he's slacking off a bit so i doubt he's #2 anymore</p>
<p>Well...its really hard to say when you had 4 in the last class and should have 6-7 in 2009. That being said, if we want to go by actual class rank, #1 is not the smartest, nor is #2. They took aide periods that didn't affect GPA, so their weighted GPA is higher than others. I don't know who is actually smartest; vainly I would like to say me. It definitely isn't the val and sal based on the traditional definition.</p>
<p>At my high school the recent answer to that question was yes (which you could attempt to tell from 2006 = Harvard, 2007 = Brown, 2008 = Harvard)...but most of the time this isn't true. Even the last two (before this year) were mainly hard workers, not too "intelligent."</p>
<p>Simply put, no. Most valedictorians are either the most industrious or the most calculating, in terms of knowing how to work the system. It is a shame, really, when those with the greatest intellectual capacity are indolent.</p>
<p>interesting</p>
<p>Quixotic, I definitely agree with your statement of vals knowing how to work the system.</p>
<p>But, from my experience, the most intelligent people I know aren't neccessarily indolent...but rather selectively interested. I find more people would rather not define their intelligence solely on grades and systemic measurements.</p>
<p>My school doesn't actually have the normal Valedictorian system. Actually to be completely honest I can't figure out my school's current system since we had several "Valedictorians" this year. Like usual I had to sit through the graduation since I'm in the band. One of the "Valedictorian" speakers just sounded ignorant and stupid. It could have been nerves, but his speech was horrible, and he didn't seem to be a bad speaker in general. If it was nerves, it don't show in his physical appearance. </p>
<p>The ones at my school I've seen either have taken cake classes and score high in them, or just can work the system, which isn't too hard here.</p>
<p>2legit2quit, I agree about the most intelligent not necessarily being always indolent. Perhaps I should have said that it is a shame when they turn out to be indolent. On the other hand, I do agree with your statement about the most intelligent being selective of their interests. I have seen that happen.</p>
<p>I was val, and I know I definitely wasn't the smartest person in class. One kid in particular was quite intelligent, but simply didn't care enough about classes to try, though he'd won both the geo bee and spelling bee in middle school, and advanced quite far. Strange.</p>
<p>Not really. Not the Valedictorian, but the saultatorian at my brother's school was appearently really dumb. She acted like an airhead when she was giving her speech at the graduation & according to my brother and many other people, she is. She appearently took all really easy classes and aced all of them.</p>
<p>anything else?</p>
<p>I'm a rising junior and can really only talk about members of my own class. We have three top students that consistently earn the highest GPAs.
1st. Japanese Girl. Works really hard and gets all As in a bunch of honors/ap/adv. courses. Though far from stupid, also far from smartest. Does well enough to get an A in every class, but rarely gets a really high percentage, like above a 96%. PSAT score was 181 or so. People generally like her because she isn't super-competitive with grades. Incidentally, she dates my friend who is not even in the top 20% (school ranks in quintiles, we just all know the top three, lol) and scored a PSAT score of 80, ??, and 7?, for a total of 2??, enough to become a semifinalist if he was a junior. He takes hard classes too but he struggles with math though and is a slacker.
2nd. Half-Jewish, Half-Asian Girl. Works really hard and gets all As. Pretends to not work that hard at times, but is so obviously lying nobody really cares. Overachiever and brown-noser, but nice. Scored a PSAT score of around 190s. Slightly competitive about grades.
3rd. Korean Guy. Works really hard, but pretends that he doesn't and lies about his grades to everyone. New students are typically deluded until grades come out and his lies are revealed. Scored a PSAT score of 22? though after lots of prep. Will quibble a lot about grades and has anger management issues when failing. Ran for Student Council and since nobody liked him, failed miserably and then flipped out and started crying, and pounding on walls. Highly competitive about grades, to the point of searching people's desks and backpacks for graded papers and such. Smart though.</p>
<p>Smartest out of school is probably #3. Second is probably the boyfriend of #1. Should be noted that on an IQ test, the boyfriend might beat #3, but never paid attention in class during middle school, getting Fs, and D-s quite often.</p>