<p>@ksarmand: that is a very unfortunate situation you describe. we can only hope that said val gets his/her comeuppance in college. generally speaking however, most vals are, in fact, the hardest-working students. I think that it’s ridiculous to have multiple #1’s. let the numbers speak for themselves, and give the highest gpa the title. if your school does not weight grades, then there should probably be no rankings at all.
I will say that I’ve grappled internally with the whole concept of ranking; it seems to me that a student for whom a regular class is as challenging as an honors is for another, is thus entitled to the same value for his/her effort.</p>