The guidance counselor explained that they will tell colleges that ask about it what the highest GPA in the class was, and the colleges may be able to deduce how far from there the student was, but that just seems ridiculous to me.

We had 2 with straight A's in all honors/AP courses but one had .001 higher... I don't recall the reason. The highest was the valedictorian, the other graduated with distinguished honors, then honors, etc.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I may be old, but for over a century there was one Valedictorian and one Salutatorian. They have the HS graduation speeches.

Is this endemic of everyone gets a trophy?

At my Bethesda public HS, the speech-giver has been chosen by audition for as long as I am aware.

Wouldn't you rather have the best speech-giver give the speech? Who cares which student inched out the other several students by .0001 GPA - even if there wasn't a tie? Especially at a school where the number of kids on their way to Ivys, military academies, top publics at full scholarship, etc is pretty high? Valedictorian culture always struck me as small town or more rural culture.

It seems to me that it's even more impressive to be #1 in that type of environment than it is to be #1 in a tiny graduating class from a small rural school that barely offers any AP classes and rarely has any graduates attend impressive colleges. I don't get your point.

Anonymous wrote:I have a student at W-L and on one hand I think this is an odd system (like all the kids getting a trophy in 2nd grade soccer) but on the other hand I think it is helpful. It keeps the kids from killing themselves with more and more AP classes competing for one top stop.

It may keep the kids from competing for the top spot but there is no way W-L’s way of naming valedictorians keeps many of the kids from taking a crazy amount of AP and IB classes. The desire to attend highly selective colleges gives the students no alternative.

Anonymous wrote:I have a student at W-L and on one hand I think this is an odd system (like all the kids getting a trophy in 2nd grade soccer) but on the other hand I think it is helpful. It keeps the kids from killing themselves with more and more AP classes competing for one top stop.

It fails to teach our kids the difference between good and great. They are still competing.

Langley avoids this issue altogether by having no valedictorian. One of the class officers gives the speech, usually the president but not always.

If they have weighted GPAs, that’s just silly. Valedictorian means the top GPA, not anything 4.0 & up. My GPA was well above 4, but I graduated 5th in my class (in the 1990s, in another state)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a student at W-L and on one hand I think this is an odd system (like all the kids getting a trophy in 2nd grade soccer) but on the other hand I think it is helpful. It keeps the kids from killing themselves with more and more AP classes competing for one top stop.

I have one at W-L and one W-L graduate. Even if they went to a system where the highest GPA was valedictorian, they would have several ties at the top and so would have several valedictorians. The valedictorians wear a special hood/collar (not sure what the official name for it is) and a medal. National Honor Society members wear a special ribbon as well. The students vote on the class speaker. The principal gives out awards to 5 or so graduates in recognition of special contributions to the school and community.

So far I have had three W-L valedictorians and likely will have a fourth unless the way the honor is awarded gets changed. Each one of them thinks the "honor" is meaningless and colleges see right through it. If a high school is going to have a valedictorian, I would much rather have several valedictorians who tie for the highest GPA in the class than equate them with someone who barely makes a 4.0. The class can still vote on the student speaker, NHS can still wear their gold cord (which is pretty much another useless "honor" at W-L) and anyone with a 4.0 or above can wear a special sash but we should recognize the achievements of the real valedictorians for what they are. Personally, however, I think it's be better to do what colleges do - summa cum laude, magna cum laude and cum laude.

Anonymous wrote:I have a student at W-L and on one hand I think this is an odd system (like all the kids getting a trophy in 2nd grade soccer) but on the other hand I think it is helpful. It keeps the kids from killing themselves with more and more AP classes competing for one top stop.

I have one at W-L and one W-L graduate. Even if they went to a system where the highest GPA was valedictorian, they would have several ties at the top and so would have several valedictorians. The valedictorians wear a special hood/collar (not sure what the official name for it is) and a medal. National Honor Society members wear a special ribbon as well. The students vote on the class speaker. The principal gives out awards to 5 or so graduates in recognition of special contributions to the school and community.

I have a student at W-L and on one hand I think this is an odd system (like all the kids getting a trophy in 2nd grade soccer) but on the other hand I think it is helpful. It keeps the kids from killing themselves with more and more AP classes competing for one top stop.

^^^ big = not. Damn autocorrect.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I attended Yorktown and graduated in the 90s. Same rule applied back then, for what it's worth. I think we had 40-some number ones. Annoying thing back then was that the next highest gpa after perfect wasn't given number 2, they were number 41 or whatever, meaning they weren't even in the top 10 percent of their class (nor was I even though I had a straight A average). We all still got into good schools though.

But you weren't second. That makes sense, sorry. Maybe they could have clarified that mathematically, you were second, but you weren't actually. I wouldn't worry about it anymore if I were you.

DP --
I agree big number 2. But I think the point was that there was no salutatorian group.

Anonymous wrote:I attended Yorktown and graduated in the 90s. Same rule applied back then, for what it's worth. I think we had 40-some number ones. Annoying thing back then was that the next highest gpa after perfect wasn't given number 2, they were number 41 or whatever, meaning they weren't even in the top 10 percent of their class (nor was I even though I had a straight A average). We all still got into good schools though.

But you weren't second. That makes sense, sorry. Maybe they could have clarified that mathematically, you were second, but you weren't actually. I wouldn't worry about it anymore if I were you.