<p>I still don’t really understand the need for a valedictorian, unless it means having your name specially announced and your voice heard before hundreds of people who couldn’t give a damn. Being valedictorian doesn’t really matter in admissions (difference between rank 1 and 5 isn’t going to get you rejected anywhere), and the delivery of the valedictory address seems to be poorly concealed gloating to me. “Look at me, I did better than all of you!”</p>
<p>We had zero. Yeah there was somebody ranked #1, but the whole district threw out the idea of recognizing valedictorians, and apparently they justified it by saying “we don’t want students to feel bad”.</p>
<p>I personally think that high schoolers, as a whole, are not mature enough to handle this competition without compromising their integrity and the integrity of their school. This just leaves the field open for academic dishonesty, sabotaging others, and living solely for the resume and the GPA.<br>
I recognise that there is competition in life, and I recognise that we can’t all be winners. But this institution strikes me as rather meaningless and a breeding ground for dishonourable behaviour by HS students too immature to handle the competition.</p>
<p>My school just went by academic honors like this (Keep in mind this is all unweighted)</p>
<p>Summa Cum Laude: 3.95-4.0
Magna Cum Laude: 3.85-3.94999…
Cum Laude: 3.75-3.84999…</p>
<p>I felt it worked well (though of course requirements should vary by a school’s average class) so that there is no changing variable and people are not competing against each other.</p>
<p>We don’t have one, we have percentiles and there is someone voted “best of class of XXXX” which is judged on many things.</p>
<p>We sadly, still have Vals. Generally it’s one, but the competition for it is cutthroat. I would love to be Val, going to do the best I can in classes I love, but not going to enter all that VAL OR DIE ****. The entire top 10, is crazy.</p>
<p>My school only has a few AP classes, and a lot of people took all of them and got straight A’s, but they ended up choosing me for valedictorian. I have no idea why. My best guess is that it was because I was the only person out of all those with the maximum GPA who actually passed the AP test and that they knew I wouldn’t give a boring speech.</p>
<p>If vals are supposed to give speeches, then I think what schools should do is to evaluate people holistically and not just based on grades.</p>
<p>We get one val. Our val was a lying, cheating fool who cheated in every single class on nearly every test. Ours is based on cumulative, weighted GPA. 96-100=4.0, each below that is significantly less.</p>
<p>I was #3 in my class (c/o 2010!). I took several band classes that weren’t weighted (these were after school, in addition to my regular schedule) like marching band and jazz band. While these didn’t affect my unweighted GPA (I had a 3.99), they did affect my weighted to take me down to #3. So ultimately, the val had a gpa of 5.223 and I had one of 5.222. </p>
<p>Can you say what the hell?</p>
<p>But I’m glad to see my school isn’t the only one with strange ways of determining val…popularity vote?? this isn’t the PROM!</p>
<p>Edit: ansar, that’s still how they do it at my school…number grades. It sucks somewhat b/c a 100 is the same as a 96…</p>
<p>Our school’s valedictorians are whoever gets a 4.0, which is whoever gets all As (plus, minus, or otherwise). Our classes aren’t weighted, which I highly agree with, so students do not feel wary about taking art and music classes. In fact, 5/7 of this year’s valedictorians were members of the orchestra, and one of them was a band member. There normally aren’t any valedictorians who took all easy A classes; all of them really deserve it.</p>
<p>The seniors at my school elect the valedictorian- not the person with the highest GPA, the person that the seniors think will represent them best at graduation and will make the best speech, and it’s not a popularity contest. This year’s valedictorian is going to Amherst and made a very good speech.</p>
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<p>I have strong feelings about that, as well. I’ve always been a person who doesn’t like to speak unless I have something to say. When they told me I was the valedictorian, I didn’t feel like going up there and bantering about the future with my very presence at the podium screaming out, “Look, I’m better than you/your kid!” I ended up using my speech as a means of recognizing eight bright and talented students (10% of the class) who for some reason or another always seem to go unacknowledged (my school is really bad about favoritism). They and their families were really happy afterward, and I felt like my speech had made people feel happy and good about themselves instead of just tepidly satisfied or anxious for it to be over. It made me feel like I had actually done something good with the valedictorian title. I think that’s what it should be about. It should be the responsibility of the valedictorian to speak the truth, not just spout cliches, and to really affect people in some way or another - even if it’s only for a fleeting moment.</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t even have one…lol We have a “#1 GPA” person, but they don’t get any special honors.</p>
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<p>I love you.</p>
<p>Well the valedictorian’s speech in my school was just as impersonal as I expected it to be. When she started speaking many of us were surprised to hear the sound of her voice because we have never even heard her speak. After the first page I stopped listening.</p>
<p>I don’t think the Vali gives a speech at our school.</p>
<p>We only have #1 and #2. That’s all.
I wish they’d have all rankings or none.</p>
<p>There can be only one!!!</p>
<p>^bahahahahaha</p>
<p>At my school, we usually just have one valedictorian and one salutatorian, but occasionally there’s two of either if there’s a tie. They make speeches (along with one other person whose speech is chosen by the staff, I think), and the top 10 of the class get their pictures on the Academic Wall of Fame.</p>
<p>At our school, everything’s unweighted, so there’s usually several that qualify for it with their GPA. They use the ACT score as a tie breaker, so there’s just one val and one sal.</p>