We have 4 quarters in our school year. Val and Sal are decided by cumulative grades as of the end of second quarter. Aside from that, school does not rank.
I actually like the Val/Sal only option. But it looks like for our school, the kids have no skin in the game for senior year, no consideration of senior fall semester grades. I did inquire and was told, “since most classes are year long, they just identify the top 10% at the beginning of Sr. year.” Yet, son was able to get enough half semester grades to move up in rank, at least on the transcript.
Apparently, there is a superintendents dinner for top 10%, not that picky son would actually eat the dinner anyway…
@ChattaChia Top 10% is “declared” at the close of senior year Fall semester. It is not announced officially and is usually available to student at the end of January. There is a senior awards night when students who are receiving “latin” graduation honors are given their cords, kids receiving some major scholarships are announced, those joining the armed forces are announced, val/sal is introduced and that sort of thing. We never really know who is in top 10% although you can surmise by the latin honors, usually.
No ranking or anything here - they also do Latin Honors. The honors for graduation are determined at the end of the fall semester here. So in a couple weeks we will know what designation he should have (finals started today).
They don’t do any recognition of the kids (even the National Merit Semifinalists were just quietly called down to the office and given their letters. No fanfare at all.) There will be some sort of asterisk or something next to the kids in the graduation program I’m assuming to show NHS, Latin honors, service hours, etc. But I’m just guessing.
Based on past grad ceremonies, students with weighted GPAs of 4.25 or higher walk in first in order of rank, are seated together, and are recognized (short list of accolades, future plans, etc.) at graduation. Not all speak but speakers will be from this group. Rest of student body (class of 350) walks in alphabetical and seated alphabetically.
No ranking, val/sal only. I believe UW 4.0 students get a cord (probably around 5 students - very difficult to maintain 4.0 here) and maybe a student or students who are recognized for an outstanding senior thesis get a cord. No other accolades in the graduation ceremony or on the program.
D18 mid year report included #1’s stats. GC said some schools have asked for this in the past so now they include it. Well, #1 is .9 higher than #2 and 2.3 points above my D18 at #10. She has been friends with #1 since pre-k, after Duke Tip in 7th grade, he knew he wouldn’t test well so he was determined with his grades. And, yes, we’re in Texas where rankings & the gpa game are ridiculous.
Note: they are on a 100pt scale, +5 for pre-ap/gt classes and +10 for any DC or AP. #1 has 105.5, set a record for the school’s highest val gpa.
Kids walk in alphabetical order at graduation although they do get cords for NHS and other honor societies (Latin honors, etc). There is a separate academic awards night. DD turned 18 today and is proudly sporting some of the new Syracuse stuff she got as gifts from her brother, grandmother and future roommate. She’ll open presents from us after school.
She has been Facetiming the new roomie for several weeks now and yesterday got a package in the mail for her birthday! The two then spent an hour on Facetime together. Nice that they are getting to know each other and so far all seems good. Unfortunately they won’t be able to meet in person during an admitted student day because of their schedules so thank goodness for technology!
At our school’s graduation the kids all sit alphabetically except for the class officers. D16 was class VP so she got to walk in first with the the President of class. I thought that was great since we are an St last name and she would have been way at the end of the pack. I was so happy when D18 got elected VP of her class too, mostly so she would walk in first at graduation. They do get cords for various things, but I really have no idea for what.
We are in a large school system outside of DC, and system-wide they do not calculate class rank at any of the high schools. I always wonder how that impacts college decisions; however, the GCs at our school say that the school report they provide to the colleges gives them enough information on the relative difficulty of the HS to make decisions similar to class rank. From what I recall last time, students enter and go across the stage by alphabetical order, although student government leaders and student speakers go first. There are no val/sal designations, instead all seniors can ‘apply’ to be a speaker at graduation by submitting a draft of their speech. When our S16 graduated, the speaker was the captain of the girl’s volleyball team - her speech was very engaging. I think D18 is interested in submitting a speech for consideration, while you couldn’t have paid my S16 $100 to speak at a big ceremony :).
Thanks everyone for responding. One thing seems consistent…senior grades through Christmas do matter. So from that perspective, our school seems to be an outlier.
Our school is a Private school that enrolls from PreK4 to Grade 12. They sit in order of matriculation. So you have the first kid graduating as being at the school for 14 years. My daughter in around #20 out of 90 since she transferred from public in s5th grade. They get cords for their honor societies. They don’t rank but have a Val/Sal who speak at Graduation.
I love the idea of all students having the opportunity to submit speeches for consideration to speak at graduation. I also like the idea of the top 10 walking in the front of the class. We do alphabetical order here and the class officers and the Val/Sal sit on stage.
Top 10% lead class in, walking in rank order, officers and Val/Sal sit onstage until the diploma walk. Kids graduate in alphabetical order until the top 10%, who graduate in reverse order, so Val is last. Other graduation events, such as senior walk (they walk out of the hs after the last exam, visit their old elementary and middles schools in full regalia), the officers lead the class. They wear cords and any state medals earned.
It’s interesting to read about the different graduation protocols and has made me curious about how my son’s school does it - I’ve never attended a graduation and have no idea. He’s top 5%, 4.5 W, but I am guessing there is not any academic recognition for him at graduation because he doesn’t have an unweighted 4.0. All kids who have an unweighted 4.0 are deemed valedictorians, regardless of which classes they took. This is a large public CA high school.
DD’18’s school recognizes students academic achievements in the program.
Fascinating to read all the different ways schools handle graduation, top percentages etc. My D18 attends a medium sized rural high school in New Jersey for reference and they do a traditional Valedictorian Salutatorian that are calculated after 3rd marking period senior year (they do give them rank at the end of Junior year as well so they have an idea of where they stand). My daughter is a top 10 kid she seems to wiggle betwee #5 and #6 at a weighted GPA of 4.55 currently. At the end of the school year about a month before graduation they do a ceremony for the “Top 15” kids of each class Freshman through Senior (without revealing current actual rank outside of top 15). At that awards evening Seniors get their departmental medals (not sure if my daughter will get anything, she has a shot at Foreign Language and History but essentially the highest GPA and most upper level courses taken in each subject area from Industrial Arts through Phys Ed and of course all the others are included, it’s a nice way to recognize seniors who are on a variety of paths). At graduation the Sal, Val and Senior Class Pres speak but they also have an essay contest called “The Voice of the Class of 2018” where kids submit essays and the winning essay gets to read their speech at graduation which is another nice touch. Overall I’m really quite happy with how they handle it as kids who may not be on the college track, but whom excel in auto shop or wood shop etc will get a medal and wear proudly at graduation along with kids who excel at Math etc; and a kid who has something really great to say in a speech but may not be a top 2 kid has an opportunity for their voice to be heard. I think the school is very inclusionary as a whole. As for walking out at graduation it’s alphabetical strictly.
Our val/sal sit on the stage and give speeches, 3-10 sit in the front row on the floor. 1-10 have a medal and graduate first (though no explanation of this is given) followed by the rest of the class in alphabetical order. NHS stole and Mu Alpha Theta cords. I think I would prefer the Latin distinction. I don’t like that outside the top 10 the rest are not recognized for their hard work (and DS is currently #5). Our final class ranking isn’t done until conclusion of the last semester (seniors are exempt from finals last semester). Ranking is based only on weighted GPA only in Lang Arts, Science, SS, Math, and Foreign Language classes with weighting for AP, DE, PAP, Honors.
Daughter 35Act 4.0uw 4.4 weighted varsity softball musical 4years working with inter city kids etc rejected from UVA
Just don’t know what to say to console her. She has worked so hard, really nothing she could have done better but yet rejected.
Oh @burghdad I’m so very sorry to hear that news. She’s an amazing kid but not much you can do but let her mourn. I’m really bummed for you all.