What are your thoughts on this award(in high school)? What do you think the criteria for the award should be?
Valedictorian/Salutatorian
- Thread starter rahtotheames
- Start date
Sorry. It's probably residual anger left over from not being winning either of those honors in high school. And from always getting picked last in dodge ball.
I know in my high school, we had levels when it came to classes. Some started with algebra early, some as freshman, and some did pre-algebra as freshman. Some started with a basic science class, some biology, and some chemistry depending on how they place you. I was in the higher classes as well as the co-valedictorians, and ended up #3 in my class. #4-#7 were students who took all easy classes in high school, and #8-#10 were students who took the harder classes with us. I had a problem with #4-#7 getting better scholarship opportunities based solely on rank in the class and not having anything to do with where they were truly at academically. The 4-7 students were good students, but they wouldn't have had 3.9+ with a more difficult schedule like 8-10 did. 8-10 were head and shoulders better students, but essentially got punished for taking more difficult classes.
Agreed. Personally I think that the award itself doesn't do anything but recognize the fact that the student that won it worked their butt off. In my high school class there were 2 co-valedictorians. One of them took every college level class and AP course available while the other took 2-3 study halls a semester and didn't take a single AP course. While I don't know if the courses should have weight to them, (I don't want to punish some kid who took 1 less ap course then another) I do think that there should be a minimum amount of advanced courses that would be required in order to be elgible for the to 5-10% of class rankings.
Maybe some of the AP students should have to take vocational classes like welding. Let's dangle their GPA on hand-eye coordination. What comes easy for one, may not come easy for another.
As one that was a valedictorian with a son that will likely be a salutatorian this spring, I believe that a weighted GPA should be used...giving more weight to the more rigorous courses (AP and Honors courses).
Having said that, those that challenged themselves the most in their classwork are likely to be the ones that do the best in college and ultimately in their careers.
I was Salutatorian in HS. I recieved one A- in my HS career by my Freshman english teacher that ended up costing me Co-Valedictorian....I'm not bitter or anything though! 
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What angers me are all these schools which give out A+'s to those who take AP classes and do well. I'm calling Shenanigans on that bullsh*t. You can NOT get over a 4.0, I'm sorry, its impossible. A+'s shouldn't exist and cause your GPA to look better than it actually is.
Especially if you are applying to different Colleges and are being compared to other studens by class Rank and GPA. A student shouldn't be punished because their school doesn't give out A+'s when they get an 'A' in a college course. Also..I had 11 Credits of 4.0 from UNI (Including Humanities 1 &2 which are hard as sh*t as those who went to UNI can tell you) when I graduated HS, so I took a rigorous schedule.
What angers me are all these schools which give out A+'s to those who take AP classes and do well. I'm calling Shenanigans on that bullsh*t. You can NOT get over a 4.0, I'm sorry, its impossible. A+'s shouldn't exist and cause your GPA to look better than it actually is.
Especially if you are applying to different Colleges and are being compared to other studens by class Rank and GPA. A student shouldn't be punished because their school doesn't give out A+'s when they get an 'A' in a college course. Also..I had 11 Credits of 4.0 from UNI (Including Humanities 1 &2 which are hard as sh*t as those who went to UNI can tell you) when I graduated HS, so I took a rigorous schedule.
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I was Salutatorian in HS. I recieved one A- in my HS career by my Freshman english teacher that ended up costing me Co-Valedictorian....I'm not bitter or anything though!
What angers me are all these schools which give out A+'s to those who take AP classes and do well. I'm calling Shenanigans on that bullsh*t. You can NOT get over a 4.0, I'm sorry, its impossible. A+'s shouldn't exist and cause your GPA to look better than it actually is.
Especially if you are applying to different Colleges and are being compared to other studens by class Rank and GPA. A student shouldn't be punished because their school doesn't give out A+'s when they get an 'A' in a college course. Also..I had 11 Credits of 4.0 from UNI (Including Humanities 1 &2 which are hard as sh*t as those who went to UNI can tell you) when I graduated HS, so I took a rigorous schedule.
I find your thought process illogical...if you can get an A- (and hence be "dinged" on your GPA)...you should be able to get an A+...you can in the other grade categories (B, C, D).
My son is graduating this year and we have toured a lot of campuses and visited with a lot of admissions people.
Each high school completes a profile that every college has access to (kind of like a resume' for the HS in terms of what they offer) when they are reviewing candidates for admission. This helps them decide if the student they are reviewing took a challenging course load (which they prefer) or was coasting through doing as little as possible.
So a kid at a small rural school does not get dinged for not having taken any AP course (if in fact his school did not offer any)...for example. This profile also shows the GPA system in use. As I understand it, some schools are doing things like 10 point scales, etc. At any rate, if you got a 3.98 and another candidate got a 9.00...the profile will indicate that the grading sytem at your school was 4.00 max while the other school was 10.00 max (and so your grades will look better in their eyes).
I strongly suggest you ask your HS for this profile if you have a student that is nearing graduation...especially if they are desiring to get into a more prestigious university.
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Two points.
1. My high school didn't recognize or award these.
2. I think the comments raised in this thread are examples of at least part of the reasoning behind the change in admission requirements at ISU.
1. My high school didn't recognize or award these.
2. I think the comments raised in this thread are examples of at least part of the reasoning behind the change in admission requirements at ISU.
I was Salutatorian in HS. I recieved one A- in my HS career by my Freshman english teacher that ended up costing me Co-Valedictorian....I'm not bitter or anything though!
Mine was an A- in Art my freshman year :sad:
The title itself has no real purpose in life, but I'm more going towards the class rank side of things. A lot of scholarships as a freshman are based on a) GPA and b) class rank.
Example: Two very capable students. Student 1 took algebra, geo, trig, and adv. alg. Student 2 took geo, trig, adv. algebra, calculus, calculus 2. Student 1 took intro to science, biology, and chemistry. Student 2 took bio, chem, chem II, adv. bio, ,and ecology. Most of the rest of their classes are the same. Student 1 graduates #4 in class with 3.98. Student 2 graduates #8 with a 3.92. Both students now attend the same school, but Student 1 is receiving much more scholarship money. I have a problem with punishing Student 2 for taking advanced courses.
