My son is currently ranked 4 out of 462 , but only Val and Sal have been recognized at graduation in the past. There has been talk about recognizing top 12, but nothing is confirmed. They announce Val and Sal after exams later this month. The top 12 juniors are recognized as junior marshals that help with graduation, so he participated in that last year. His rank made him eligible for some great state scholarships so we are grateful. They also give medals for cum, magna cum and summa cum laude. I like how your school identifies academic achievement @LKnomad .
On another note, do any of your schools offer âlettersâ for academic clubs or orchestra? It has been a thorn in my sonâs side that his school only offers letters for athletics , chorus and band. Theyâve been trying to get recognition for academic team, speech and debate, science team and orchestra ( all of these teams compete and represent the school ) and have been unsuccessful. Our principal has only been at our high school for a year, so hopefully theyâll be some consideration for changes.
@carolinamom2boys your DHâs assumption that there would be extra dorm space made me laugh. Most universities cannot accommodate all of their current students let alone a group of admitted students. If they can, they are missing out on some significant revenue.
DS received another acceptance today. This one is a match school that could become a safety with merit. It is the perfect size but a bit farther from home than the others. We wonât have notice of merit for 2 more weeks so it stays in the running for now. I agree with you @Almondjoy1. I would love to always get all the data at once.
@carolinamom2boys - yes, our high school gives students letter jackets + letters for advancing in academic competitions. It is nice for students to be recognized for their hard work.
@Cheeringsection Congrats to your son. Lots of choices to make. I think my sons and I actually hurt my husband 's feelings a little bit when we chuckled at his comment.
We have letters for academics, music (band/choir), and sports. We donât even HAVE Orchestra! And for some reason, the criteria to letter in band are really hard, while choir is really easy. Bugs my band kids.
At our school it is limited who is recognized. Only the person with the highest gpa is recognized as Val and goes out to the .0001place. It is not determined until final grades are in. Some years there are more than one. If there is only one Val then Sal(s) are recognized Salâs have the second highest gpa. We donât recognize Val and Sal as a percentage ranking in the class.I have been to graduations where anyone over something like a 4.5 is a Val, over 4.25 is Sal etcâŠand all Valâs speak at graduation. As of right now it looks like 1 Val and 3 Salâs. At the beginning of the year I thought we were going to have 6 Salâs all with the same exact gpa.
@carolinamom2boys, my school recognizes academics, orchestra and athletics.
Our school doesnât rank, and they donât even tell what decile, though I believe it is calculated internally in Guidance (?). No varsity letters/etc. for non-sports. However when I was in HS in the dark ages, in Illinois, the Chess team petitioned and won the right to get varsity letters. The Math team, on which I served, did not.
I did request, and got, permission for congratulations and âgood luckâ for the Math, Science, etc. Teams on the overhead announcements with the sports, in their season for meets.
@carolinamom2boys I was digging around in my old files and ran into an envelope that had a high school âletterâ in it that I had earned â apparently I never took it out of the envelope! Honestly do not remember what it was for, but maybe band? At my kidâs school they might give letters for band or academics but I wouldnât know. Superlatives, though there may be some, are not too big a thing. Nor is there any recognition (publicly) for vals or sals. I think they are a doing a little better to recognize academic achievers but we are still expecting that college is where our kids will shine.
Thereâs no varsity letters at my school for sports let alone anything else. Not actual physical ones anyway. @fretfulmother your story reminds me of a story my father always tells. When he was a senior in high school he was in charge of the marquee sign(why I donât know) and when they announced the captions of the cheerleading squad for the next year, he put a congratulatory message on the marquee which he then got in trouble for âfor trying to harness the attention of younger femalesâ. Seriously- he actually knew the girls who thanked him for it.
I attended the graduation of the daughter of a very good friend 2 years ago (a huge high school). They had 24 valedictorians. I struggled with thatâŠit just seems to diminish the honor quite a bit. Or maybe it allowed the maximum amount of students to list âvaledictorianâ on their college apps? I suspect that all students with a 4.0 received the honor.
Is there room for another stalker?! D16 applied to 10 schools, deferred from one scea and waiting for the next round of EA decisions coming up within the next couple of weeks. Then the long wait till April for the rest. So stressful that she only applied to one safe school (state) and the rest are all selective. She is NMF so we know the state will be free but she really wants to go OOS. Unfortunately we donât qualify for aid so itâs a big nut we have to cough up. I just want to know where sheâs going! April canât come soon enough, but then that means sheâs closer to leaving. So sad
