<p>
I agree with this. It's the systems of ranking that I call into question, not the val students themselves.</p>
<p>Cur,
No, it makes no sense at all. We unfortunately have experience with that scenario also. I know kids in my son's high school class who had far lower numbers (ie, far greater than the difference between #1 and #10) and no notable EC's, and got full rides because they did better on PSAT day. Not surprisingly, they aren't doing as well in their college classes either. </p>
<p>I only talked about the val/sal issue because that was the title of this thread. If I had come across the NMF = money thread, I would have put my 2 cents in there, too.</p>