In my kids years:
'10 - Princeton (my DS)
'12 - Williams (my DD)
'14 - Harvard
'15 - Cornell
'17 - Amherst
Our local public high school does not announce valedictorian and salutatorian until a couple of weeks before graduation, and does not tell students their ranks for college application purposes- they have kids check off “school does not rank.” But the high school profile they send to colleges indicates the GPAs at the end of each decile, so you can figure out which decile you are in, at least, and the person whose GPA matched the highest number in the top decile knows she is in the running for val if all goes well the rest of the year.
The likely valedictorian, who is also this year’s only National Merit semifinalist/finalist, will be attending BRANDEIS.
The likely salutatorian will be attending SUNY STONY BROOK.
Daughter’s valedictorian is going to Texas A&M (full ride) and the salutatorian to U. of Michigan.
UChicago
RIT and Siena.
Duke
At my D’s school: Val-Swarthmore; Sal-UVM.
To be honest, I don’t know now and I don’t think I ever cared. That was his life. I was too busy living mine.
My D19’s small (30 in the graduating class this year!) school:
[ul][]Valedictorian: Wellesley
[]Salutatorian: University of Alaska Anchorage (the local open-admissions college)
[*]The student who was on track to be val or sal in the class of 2019, but graduated a year early: Scripps[/ul]
Val: MIT
Sal: UPenn
Stanford, Stanford Law, was a lawyer now a justice for Court of Appeal.
The top ten were announced last night. Otherwise, our high school does not rank (they make the kids say “unranked” on their college applications), but it puts the top ten’s names on a plaque on the wall and in the district newsletter in the spring of senior year.
Valedictorian: Brandeis
Salutatorian: UC Berkeley
3: U of Chicago
4: SUNY Stony Brook
5: Vanderbilt
6: Williams (my son! 
)
7: Fordham
8: Cornell
9: Brown
10: UVA
@TheGreyKing Congrats to your son!
My son’s val friend was accepted to Yale, Princeton, Cornell and Williams but he only considered Duke and Rice as he didn’t qualify for financial aid and couldn’t afford full payment with contribution his parents were able to make. In the end, he enrolled at Duke since their merit offer was best and he’ll be able to graduate with no loans.
His parents didn’t see enough diffrences between Duke and ivies to sacrifice family’s financial stability.
I know the top three ranked students at my school, they’re going to
1st: UCF
2nd: New College of Florida
3rd: UF
Me and the student who ranked third were the only students in the graduating class to get accepted into UF, excluding two students accepted into Gator Engineering.
No super prestigious colleges but most students at my school typically stay at the technical school we DE at or attend CC, with few out of state. For my school UF is the prestigious school! I’m not attending but Go Gators!
Many valedictorians are from less rigorous and less competitive schools and don’t have SAT scores, AP courses, SAT 2 tests, extracurriculars and awards so even though they are number 1 in their small bubble, may not be competitive enough against rank 20 or 30 from a top public or private schools.
And many of them are competitive enough to do so, but don’t come from a community that lusts for prestige (or they simply have that attitude themselves), and so they don’t target such colleges.
^ Exactly and even if you are a valedictorian with a universally competitive resume, financing your education is still a hurdle. Unless, you are rich or poor, its not easy to afford expensive colleges.
Living in his mom and dad’s basement. College didn’t turn out too well for him.
The most financially successful didn’t finish college. Dropped out, started his own business, sold it for 18 million dollars before he was 40, bought a farm in Hawaii and vanished. :))
2018:
There are always male and female co -valedictorians; this year they are headed to Princeton and Yale.
This is the first year in many that one is not UVA.