<p>Who was valedictorian or salutatorian of their class this year? I was just wondering how many of you out there were ranked up there...and if you could answer some questions. Did you always want to be val or sal? While in HS did you have no social life at all, or did it come easy to you? And lastly, where you always ranked #1 or 2 since the beginning (fresman year) or did your grades vary each year?</p>
<p>I'm not graduating this year, but I think I'm garunteed sal next year. I know it may be a bit cocky to assume so, but everyone is just dropping in grades, while I seem to be improving -- heck, even the val in dropping, but she had such a big lead it's be impossible for me to catch up.</p>
<p>Honestly, I think I'm a bit socially awkward. I never liked going to parties, unless it was a close-knit gathering. But I always enjoyed studying with friends, grabbing lunch, talking after school, going to school functions, getting invited to parties (although I might've not enjoyed the whole thing).</p>
<p>For all through junior high and freshman year, I did no studying at all and mangaged to maintain a 95 average. Sophmore year, when my brother was graduating and when I noticed how hard everything really was, I stepped it up. My average went from a 94.stuff, to a 97.stuff, to a 98.stuff this year, and each year I took more classes (and weight), and drove my grades up. Soph year I reliezed I could get a top 5 rank.</p>
<p>I was #2 for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade but I pulled ahead first semester of senior year and ended up val. i thought overall it was actually pretty easy to achieve for me, but i don't go to a very good school, so its hard to say. as for having a social life, i don't really have one, or at least, not a very exciting one. though i don't think i would have had one even if i wasn't val, i just am not that sociable of a person. as for always wanting to be val, i always basically assumed that i would be. i had one minor setback caused by a scheduling conflict that forced me to be #2, but i knew i could make it up eventually and i really didn't doubt too much that i would be val. i'm quite competitive and even though i don't really get any scholarships for it, simply having the title and being recognized as #1 was motivation enough for me.</p>
<p>Like Sungchul, I'm not graduating this year. Unlike her/him, I have enough of an inflated head to say I know I'll be #1 at the end of next year, lol.</p>
<p>But in all seriousness, it's not that I've always wanted to be Val (in fact, our school's "Val" system selects the Top 3%, which ends up being about 9 kids, so the title really doesn't count for much), it just happens. I'm tied for #1 with a good friend of mine, and it'll probably stay that way next year. I'm happy to share. =)</p>
<p>I assume the second question is asking about how much work I do each night, in which case I'd say not much. Max maybe an hour average a day (because I'd have 2 hours one night and none the next, random variation like that). My friend who's tied with me does much less, but his grades are also lower. Our GPAs are based off of just As/Bs/Cs, so I'd be getting 96+ while he'd be getting 93+. I go out with my friends every once in a while, but not every weekend. Definitely not a social hermit. =)</p>
<p>I was #1 my freshman year, tied with every other freshman who had 4.0 UW. My soph year I was pushed to #2, tied with about 4 others, because we all had 4.0 UW but a summer class on our transcripts, which brought us a little further down than the #1, who hadn't taken a summer class. Junior year brought me back up to #1 with aforementioned friend. Next year will be easier than this one, so if I slip I'd be pretty surprised.</p>
<p>Thanks for everyone who responded. </p>
<p>Anyone else?</p>
<p>I'm graduating this year and I'm val. It was easy as long as I did my work. I hardly ever spent more than an hour on homework a night and most nights did no homework whatsoever (I did take the most rigorous schedule my school offers though.) As for social life, I definitely had one. I played three sports which helped because you bond with people on your team. I would go out all the time with friends in hs, but not to the point of drinking and stuff like that. You've just got to know your limitations and what you can handle. High school is partly about enjoying being young in my opinion. I would much rather have had the social life I had than be val, but hey val doesn't hurt either.</p>
<p>Well, as of last semester, I was my class's valedictorian and I believe I've maintained that so I guess I can answer your questions. I go to a small private school (class size: ~60) so getting named valedictorian isn't as difficult as at a larger school in that it's a bit less competitive. Anyway, on to questions.</p>
<p>Personally, I've never really thought about being val/sal all that much. Sure, it was cool to look at my transcript and see that my GPA is the highest one listed in the range of GPAs for my grade, but I didn't try extra hard to be it or anything. I just worked as hard as I usually would (I have a bit of an obsessive drive to do well) and ended up doing the best out of my class, I guess.</p>
<p>Socially, I guess I've made some sacrifices for doing as well as I've done. I'm not the type of kid who's partied on weekends... although I'm not sure that preserving my GPA has had anything to do with that. Maybe I'll go out with friends once every couple of weekends, but I don't really hang out with friends a lot due to the amount of work I do for school and whatnot (Sunday is homework day, for the most part, and weekdays I'm busy with scholwork as soon as I get home). At the same time, however, I wouldn't say that I lack a social life: I have plenty of friends and have also had a boyfriend.</p>
<p>And lastly, yes, I've been valedictorian since first semester of my freshman year.</p>
<p>Haha yeah i'm val (graduating this year) but I didn't really care that much, as long as I was top 10%. I had a great social life and never felt like hard courses impeded my life. I was in probably a dozen ECs, all of which I absolutely loved, and to be honest those probably took up more time than my homework!!! (Plus I enjoyed them a LOT more, hahaha). I'm not into the whole partying thing, though...so if by "social life" you mean hardcore partying, I'm just not into that, though I have nothing against it. I was not ranked no 1 at the beginning either...my grades did improve throughout high school! Honestly, as I chilled out more about school my grades went up...you don't have to be super-intense to do well...wish I had figured that out about 5 years ago haha.</p>
<p>Well, I'm sal right now (but I'm a junior). Hopefully I'll be val by next year (my CP status in band freshman and sophomore years is killing me!), but I like the valedictorian... so I'd be okay either way.
Freshman year I was ranked first.... sophomore year I was third... and now I'm second. I'm definitely doing much better this year than I have in the past (6 A+s and 1 A... I -don't- know how that happened....). Next year, though, I think that AP Bio is going to kill me... haha. While I loved my bio teacher freshman year (she was a crazy environmentalist, and was HILARIOUS), she barely understood molecular biology. So, that will be an experience! (yikes!)
I definitely have a social life. Sure, I'm very competitive and I work a LOT... but I get together with my friends during the week and hang out/go to parties on the weekends. I think that the social aspect of high school is very important as well. Some on CC scoff at those who go out, wondering why we don't do "more valuable things with our time," but I personally would go mad without my friends. Sure, I like to read Faulkner and teach myself Spanish... but I wouldn't be able to do all of that stuff without some sort of outlet for my silly, outgoing, seven-year-old side =)</p>
<p>lol, my school doesn't have a val or sal. Everyone is so close to each other in terms of GPA (I go to a very good school) that a val title would be worthless.</p>
<p>Rather, we have a system in which people who graduate with a 4.0 or above are honored as "elite." Those who get 3.5 or above are graduate with "honors"....or something like that.</p>
<p>sal :) :) :) :) :)</p>
<p>Valedictorian w00t!!!11!1</p>
<p>I wasn't always ranked first as I was in band all the way up until last year. That prevented me from taking extra AP classes in 10th and 11th grade, allowing others to get ahead. Also, I have a very busy EC schedule, so I wasn't able to dual enroll to get ahead either. I have maintained all A's and taken 10 AP classes with several other honors. There is one girl ahead of me with a 4.65, and three of us are tied at 4.60. They truncate GPA's to one decimal place for val/sal ranking, so that's why there will be four of us this year.</p>
<p>As for social life, I definitely did have one! It was hard to maintain, as I always had swim meets, club meetings, band festivals, or I had to play at football games, but whatever time I had left on weekends I would go hang out with my friends. I made friends with a lot of older kids during my sophomore and junior years, so that set me up for having not as many friends this year, but I still had a good group to hang out with. It was kind of weird though since I hung out with the "cool" crowd of older kids (HC king and queen, star quarterback, SGA prez, blahblahblah) but this year my friends have been more of videogamers/poker people. They had been my friends all along so this year they were shocked when I hung out with them a lot, saying that "why aren't you hanging out with your COOL friends."</p>
<p>I am not graduating this year but our val had a 98% GPA UW in like 20 AP classes.</p>
<p>I'm val this year (assuming my ranking holds...). I go to a tiny, underperforming school with ~25 kids in my class, some of whom are not attending college at all. It was pretty easy to get ahead.
I've never been a party person, but I do have a social life. I play three sports and have had some friends in my class since kindergarten. I'm also student body president and have other leadership roles. This obviously doesn't constitute a social life, but it just means I'm not holed up doing homework all the time. I never really had that much anyway.
Also, while I never checked, I've probably been number one all throughout high school. I might have been briefly overtaken, but I'm not sure.</p>