"Highest GPA in class": is my school weird or am I going insane?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
21

Why would it be more appropriate to put the highest GPA of all students – excluding transfers – and indicate that on the transcripts? What do you think should be on the transcript of the new student?

Adcoms aren’t stupid. They’re going to realize that asterisk exists because there are students who (a) are transfers and (b) have a higher GPA than yours. And when they call your GC for clarification (because nobody writes transcripts that way), your GC is free to tell them the asterisk exists because your family insisted on it.

Colleges aren’t impressed by grade grubbing. Being valedictorian isn’t going to get you into any college, and not being valedictorian isn’t going to keep you out. I don’t know why you’d want valedictorian on your permanent record because it’s not going to impress anyone.

22

OP, you can google common app school report and find the form. Even if your hs doesn’t rank, the highest GPA gives adcoms a relative idea how yours stands.

Not all hs give GPA points to transfers. (It’s something that comes up in threads often enough.) If your GC and teachers feel your petformance is tops, despite not having the top GPA, some will say so. Eg, “Johnny was bumped out of first place by a fraction, but…”

My concern is that you’re worrying about something that, if you are a top performer, will have little or no negative impact on your chances. But by making a fuss, you may burn some bridges, just at a time when you don’t want to. So think carefully about it.