S’s school does cum laude / magna / summa designations in addition to the single val and single sal. It’s based on class rank groupings, I want to say 15% / 10% / 5% respectively. They have an honor graduate breakfast in early May and get something to wear at graduation, a tasseled cord to go over the robe I think.
@MomtoCon Sounds absolutely awesome and fun! 
Sounds like he’s gained so much from all this that he’ll be able to leverage it and continue his success. Your S’s path is a story worth hearing, imo, because it shows achievement can and does breed more achievement.
These comments about Val/Sal/class rank just goes to show how incredibly difficult it is for colleges to “rank” students. Each school is so different in how they do their classes/grades/AP/IB/class rank/ etc. I don’t envy admission counselors at all!
@amominaz, I agree!
Got to go see my daughter perform in their senior drama production today. She plays a crazy physicist. A little tooooo convincingly! I think it has been a wonderful outlet for all the stress of college applications/exams/senior thesis prep. I will miss seeing her perform. Hopefully she will be able to participate in something during college.
Our large public school gives valedictorian status to all students who have an unweighted 4.0, no matter what classes they took (sometimes there are 8 or more out of 250 students).
The class rank, however, is based on weighted grades. This year, the kid whose class rank is likely to be #1 based on weighted grades won’t be a val. The kid took a bunch of college classes outside the school, so there are more grade bumps on that kid’s transcript than for most of the students, who didn’t take outside classes.
The bunching of the kids at the top is exactly why our district did away with the val/sal and rank. There were 100ths or 1000ths dividing the top 15-20 kids and it just wasn’t fair. They would end up with at least 10 kids that had a perfect 4.0 anyway and then have to choose one to speak. It was ridiculous.
There is no weighting of any courses here. So if you take on-level history or honors history or IB history, it’s all the same to them. There is a more generous grading system for the IB-level courses with anything 90% or above counting as an A-/A. It gives them a couple points of wiggle room because a 90% is usually a B+ in any other course.
They also give the kids here a choice as to whether their middle school courses that were at a high school level go on their transcript and count toward their GPA. The students have until their junior spring to decide. It’s nice because then they can see if the grades will help or hurt their GPA and decide accordingly. And they can choose WHICH courses go on, so if they took three and in two they had As, but in the third a B+, they can choose to only add in the two with the As and leave off the B+.
Regarding National Honor Society.
As we move through senior year - and I hesitate to say it - I might regret David Puddy Jr. joining it. I think he regrets it. I am sure there are benefits for many, but it might just be the straw on his back this year. He is not an officer, so no resume padding leadership perks. The required meetings take mostly time, with little benefit in return. The activities often conflict with other commitments as well.
The volunteer requirement is what may bite him this year:
Independent of NHS, the school has a volunteer requirement. He has an EC which has another volunteer requirement. And then there is the volunteer requirement associated with NHS. Obviously, one can not “double dip”. I don’t mean to disparage the volunteerism - it is Vital, and one reason he attends the school he does. But given the requirements, and the limited slots they are available, I fear something may have to give, and it may be NHS.
That post is a bit of a downer.
With Black Friday approaching, DH, S and I have been discussing computers. S has a desktop system that he wants to take with him to college, and we’re fine with that. He won’t be taking the kind of super-STEM courses that would necessitate a high end laptop, so the question has been about whether he needs a laptop at all, and if so, how much of one.
The options:
- a Chromebook, probably the Chromebook Flip which folds into tent and tablet modes - under $400 at Amazon for a returned-but-pristine model.
- a 13.3 inch HP Spectre x360 - which is a lot like a SurfaceBook at half the price. $900ish if we take a Black Friday deal.
- DH's used-but-top-of-the-line MacBook that DH can buy out for around $600 through his company's replacement program. Machine will be almost 2 years old when S inherits it. Downside: we're a Windows family, so software S already owns won't work on this machine.
Discarded option - a Microsoft Surface Pro. I have one that S and I both love, but we think the kb sitch is too fragile for being stuffed into a backpack several times a day. I have a cover on mine, but that adds substantial weight and girth. The HP would be the next step up, both in terms of specs and for having a hard, aluminum shell.
Complicating the decision - S’s scholarship includes a $900 gift certificate to UNM’s bookstore that he could use on a computer once he gets there, but they don’t offer any of the models we’re interested in. He can use the gift certificate for textbooks or anything else they sell, so we’ll probably get his computer elsewhere.
The tentative decision: S likes the Spectre best, but we’ve decided to try a Chromebook for a month or two first. If S hates it, DH can take it over (and expense it) as a test environment for work. If the Chromebook proves insufficient for S’s needs once he’s at school, we’ll look into something else then.
Anyone ever use a Chromebook for college? How’d it go?
@DiotimaDM
I am interested in the feedback you get.
My kids’ school requires the students buy a chromebook, and they like them just fine. They can do everything they need. And they are of course cheap. I just have this doubt that they will suffice for the rigor of college. Current assumption is we will be getting a mid level laptop around grad time. Hopefully on the dime of some kind relative
:))
For computers, I would check with the school to see what computers the student tech support people there recommend. If I recall correctly, for older D’s school they had folks who could help with some varieties but not others.
I’ve always used Dell laptops at work and Apple laptops at home. Both have been reliable and meet our needs. But neither are cheap.
DD’18 got another app submitted (this one had a Nov 15 deadline ) Only 2 more to go!
@TAMUkbr I don’t know how you could know for sure if your HS is highly competitive or not, but some indicators might be having a high number of NMSF and many students who go on to elite colleges. In the Austin area, there are a few schools that stand out as being more rigorous and competitive. State colleges seem to be aware of this and would understand why your 4.0 student didn’t make the top 10% cut at that institution.
I like the cum laude, magna cum laude, summa cum laude recognition at graduation. Our HS recognizes only the Top 10 ranked students who wear a medal and walk across the stage first. Would stink to be #11! They also have stoles for NHS, Mu Alpha Theta and a few other distinctions.
Our class rank is based only on weighted GPA and the only weighted classes are English, Science, Math, Social Studies, and Foreign Language. AP/Pre-AP/Honors/Dual Credit all receive weight. It’s nice that kids aren’t penalized for taking any electives or fine arts classes.
Ok, my vent last night about Val/Sal was timely - DS just came home and told me that the Principal introduced him to a visiting Principal today as the Valedictorian for this year. Why??? He is NOT Val yet, he may never be Val and these are exactly the types of comments that get to me and will make it harder if he doesn’t get it. The principal should know better!
Ok, moving off this topic now…
My S21 uses a chromebook for his HS (standard issue) and it is basically all he uses for his school. After this year is over, I need to ask his opinion of it, but so far he seems to like it and is on it a lot of the time. I browsed through the IT pages for several of S18’s schools and it appears that they do use chromebooks among others, which implies that the classes utilize software available for that platform (google docs, etc).
The solution that I keep coming back to is having a chromebook for day to day use and a laptop back in the room for days requiring more processing power. A bit more startup cost, but in case of damage or loss, I’d be happier replacing a chromebook vs a full-fledged laptop.
Tears at our house. DD might get her first B (I know, boohoo, but…) in honors calculus. It might knock some of her reach schools even farther away. Sigh.
But it seems like that would in fact penalize those who choose fine arts, since those classes are not weighted. Or, are you saying that they only include weighted classes in the class rank calculations? If that were the case, theoretically a kid could take just one weighted class, make an A in it, then slack off elsewhere and still be at the top of the class.
I think the bottom line is that there is no perfect system.
D submitted an app last night without me proofing. Took a peek today and there’s a major typo X_X 
Sigh.
@Kayak24 not to be a downer but for the Oct SAT results they got released throughout the day. My D didn’t actually get her scores till after 4 pm.
As for computer, ugh! D has been rallying to get new computer before end of this year, so she can get used to it. I wanted her to wait because she can use outside scholarship money to pay for it. If we need to factor in which school she is going to that won’t be known till April. Not sure I can get her to wait that long