How competitive is the race for valedictorian at your school?

tiger15 · 07-31-2012, 10:29 PM

Question speaks for itself. For my school, there are usually 5-10 people a year that want to get valedictorian, but they don't get too competitive. What about your school?

Literature · 07-31-2012, 10:52 PM

At my school, being valedictorian is hard.

elf4EVA · 07-31-2012, 10:55 PM

From what I know, at my school, there's usually one genius who's certain to become val, and there are a few others behind him/her competing for sal. The GPA distribution is more or less a bell curve. The race isn't that competitive, though. Everyone is supportive of the future val and oohs and ahhs at how smart they are or how high their GPA is or whatever....

gomdorri · 07-31-2012, 10:55 PM

At my school, there are only two people competing to become valedictorian, but competition is very tough because my school doesn't offer many AP/honors classes and so in order to become valedictorian, you need to take AP online classes to weight your GPA.
So in other words, the richest kid in each grade (who actually wants to try in school) ends up being valedictorian LOL.

enfieldacademy · 07-31-2012, 11:02 PM

at my school we didn't receive our grades, and only saw our gpa during senior year. the race was silent and behind curtains and i never saw any of it, though i do not doubt there was some level of surreptitious competition.

AlexHarper · 07-31-2012, 11:23 PM

It can get pretty intense but there are about 10 out of 300 of us trying for it. I've done the math and if I get all As this year (WHICH I BETTER) then I'll be the valedictorian. I have the hardest schedule. I'm currently #5...

goldmind · 07-31-2012, 11:51 PM

10 people want it freshmen year after that its just a race for spots in the top 10.

Philovitist · 07-31-2012, 11:54 PM

People care about it way too much at my school. I'm happy getting all As.

indielove9 · 07-31-2012, 11:57 PM

Not at all! My class is very small (34) so we basically know who the Val and Sal are going to be.

goodnoodle · 08-01-2012, 12:04 AM

Freshman year, about 15 people (inc me) wanted to be val. Now just after attempting AP EURO Hw, like 6 of them have dropped the class (Only sophomore AP class so pretty unlikely to recover from that) haha. So 9 now; but pretty much everyone know's that 5/9 of them have no chance.

Annie7361 · 08-01-2012, 12:16 AM

Vicious between three people, (including myself). The interesting thing is though, we live in a very poor/rural area, with a class size of roughly 140 students. If one of our GPA dropped just .01 or .02, we switch positions.

kimmylouie · 08-01-2012, 12:20 AM

At my school there are at least 10 people that are ranked first.

Not stating they are no geniuses or anything, but seriously I looked at some of their schedules, are they were PE, dance, and some preap classes.

YEP.

calikid28 · 08-01-2012, 12:23 AM

I go to the 60th best high school in the country so it's pretty tough.

starlily · 08-01-2012, 12:32 AM

My class is also super small (about the same number as indielove9's?) and it's not competitive, either. We don't rank, but I wish I knew where I am. I think there's only one person ahead of me (though I technically had a harder course-load this past year, and I'll have the hardest in the grade this year), but of course I can't be 100% sure. She won a lot of those best-in-class awards, which surprised me... I wish I knew how different her grades were, because for all I know, the difference could've been extremely marginal. I was kinda lazy this year (sophomore year), but if I were more of a perfectionist at times, I think I could've done better. Meh.

commanderkeen42 · 08-01-2012, 12:35 AM

Nah, at my school we don't find out who's officially valedictorian until the very end of senior year and then it's just like "oh, that's cool. Too late to put on apps." Although we rank, we only see it on a transcript, like, once. I was #4 but it's probably changed by now, and my friend (#1) didn't care. It was awesome.