My class valedictorian, who was a Presidential Scholar, chose Harvard real early on last year. My school sent students to all Ivies (except Brown), UChicago, UC Berkeley, UCLA, etc.
At my daughter school, the valedictorian is going to UGA and the salutatorian is going to GA Tech. The valedictorian got into Vanderbilt but chose to go to UGA. I’m not surprised because most of the top performing students are either going to UGA or GA Tech. It’s hard to turn down HOPE I guess.
Ohio State.
My daughter (valedictorian) will be attending Cornell. But we recently attended a dinner for the top kids at each school in the state and many of them will be attending the University of Delaware. I imagine cost has a lot to do with that.
I was val and went to UT-Austin engineering school. It was one of the top-ranked civil engineering programs in the country, and it didn’t make sense to spend more money elsewhere. Tuition was $4 a credit hour. That’s not a typo.
When our kids first started attending a top-ranked (I know, that sounds silly for me to even say it now that I’m older and wiser) georgia high school I couldn’t for the LIFE of me understand why their top kids weren’t going to fancy schmancy colleges.
I totally get it now. The Zell pulls a ton of them to Tech and UGA, and the local ivies (Duke, Vandy) get a few more, but other than that most of the best and the brightest are chasing the money, not the prestige.
In my public HS in MA back in the dark ages, the val went to Harvard, the sal went to Cornell, then Georgetown, and Dartmouth. I remember because they were my good friends. The val burned out freshman year, never to return. Left me with an irrational dislike of the ivies.
Back in the 80s, I was the val of my small town HS and I went to Rutgers because I got a full ride.
DS is val- going to UT Austin.
As we say on another thread “love the one that loves you back”
Our school’s 10 valedictorians feed into UIUC Engineering/CS if not HYPSM
Our valedictorian went to West Point
I believe UCLA, Claremont McKenna, and Yale
I was the valedictorian, I ended up at Cornell (love it there so far, just finished the first year!)
The valedictorian last year went to UPenn
I’m not sure about the specifics, but a few of the vals and sals in my school’s history over the past 5 years or so ended up in Cornell too.
This year - Harvard, although last year our Val went to the local community college, with plans to transfer to an engineering school.
We don’t rank, but I do suspect a certain girl in our grade would have been ranked Valedictorian. She’ll be attending Georgetown.
An obscure Christian liberal arts college in Pennsylvania. I’m guessing that most valedictorians across the country don’t go to particularly selective colleges—not because they couldn’t get in, necessarily, but because most people don’t care very much about prestigious colleges.
On the other hand, my dad graduated from my high school in 1970 and the valedictorian went to Harvard.
My daughter is Valedictorian and she will be attending MIT this fall.The second Val wIll attend UChicago.
And a lot of people couldn’t afford them even if they did care about prestigious colleges.
Valedictorian of my class in the 80s got into Harvard but it would have cost him something like $20-25k/year to go. He went to Oberlin on a free ride. Works for NASA now.
I wish her the best at MIT! Congrats! :-bd @anitram
Impressive @thefloridavegan
Thats awesome! Your school must be proud @Coldsummer123