How many of you were valedictorians (or not)?

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Did you graduate at the top of your class?

  • Valedictorian

    Votes: 12 15.8%

  • Salutatorian

    Votes: 1 1.3%

  • Neither

    Votes: 63 82.9%
  • Total voters
    76
  • Poll closed .
B

bucks2010

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Curious to see what the sample here is like.

Personally, I was 8th in a very small class.


Note to current HSers: none of this actually matters once you graduate HS.
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I'm currently in high school, being valedictorian is a personal goal of mine even if it has no advancement towards my future, but does valedictorian give any bonus points in real life at all? Such as, college.. jobs..anything?😕
 
It can help with college if your school announces it in time to help your application. Other than that, no. You get to speak at graduation which brings family great pride. It mostly just gives you a profound sense of accomplishment.
 
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Missdetermined said:
I'm currently in high school, being valedictorian is a personal goal of mine even if it has no advancement towards my future, but does valedictorian give any bonus points in real life at all? Such as, college.. jobs..anything?😕
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May be a conversation topic if listed on a résumé, but unless you graduate top of your class in undergraduate or medical school, probably not.

I for one am not my school's valedictorian. Our school doesn't rank but I know I'm top 15 out of ~325.
 
I was, but yeah, it doesn't count for much of anything after you get into college -- but it can matter for that.

When I graduated from HS here in Texas, state law was such that being the valedictorian guaranteed you a waiver on your tuition at public schools for the first year. And back then, top 10% equaled admission for state universities; I hear that it guarantees only "consideration" now.

That was many years ago. Not sure what the story is now.
 
vasca said:
No, I was I believe in 8th place in my classroom in one of the two classrooms with the most difficult science heavy subjects. In Mexico during your final year of HS must choose one in 4 classrooms which will help determine what your future university profession will be. I chose Area-2 which is the same thing as Area-1 but I took Advanced Biology instead of an Architecture course.

Areas 3 and 4 are a joke in comparison at my school because they barely see any math. Most highschools in Mexico don't even give math in Area 4.

I will mention however that the Valedictorian at my classroom tried to get into med school but didn't get in and couldn't afford to go to a private school. It really doesn't matter much.
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I mean no offense, but your experiences with your education and medical school in Mexico are entirely irrelevant to studentdoctor.net. Quite often the information posted is misleading at best.
 
kcin said:
I mean no offense, but your experiences with your education and medical school in Mexico are entirely irrelevant to studentdoctor.net. Quite often the information posted is misleading at best.
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This.
 
No one cares if you were valedictorian or not, and the only way anyone is going to know is if you bring it up. And if you do that, it's almost certainly not going to give you any "life points."

I graduated 8th out of a class of 400. You don't have to be a valedictorian to be successful, kiddos.
 
Some states give automatic full or patial scholarships to valedictorians--very nice perk-- but that's about it, especially at schools with non-weighted gpas where the person with the easiest classes ends up valedictorian...
 
NickNaylor said:
No one cares if you were valedictorian or not, and the only way anyone is going to know is if you bring it up. And if you do that, it's almost certainly not going to give you any "life points."

I graduated 8th out of a class of 400. You don't have to be a valedictorian to be successful, kiddos.
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👍

I was 11th out of ~390 at an average or below-average public high school back in the day
 
Our valedictorian this year is going to community college because all of the schools he applied to flat-out rejected him (no safeties either). Granted, the schools he applied to were all crap shots but still...
 
Gigantron said:
Our valedictorian this year is going to community college because all of the schools he applied to flat-out rejected him (no safeties either). Granted, the schools he applied to were all crap shots but still...
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Do you know of any specific reason why? Not enough extracurricular activities? Bad ACT/SAT scores? etc..
 
I was banned from my high school graduation. The cops showed up to arrest me if I even set foot on school grounds.

After being expelled and sent to alternative school to finish my graduation, I remember going back to say hi to some friends. The principal took me into her office before I could get a word out and essentially said, "No one wants you here. You need to leave, or I'm calling the police."

Needless to say I wasn't valedictorian.
 
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Missdetermined said:
Do you know of any specific reason why? Not enough extracurricular activities? Bad ACT/SAT scores? etc..
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I'm not sure in terms of his academics/EC's, but I do know that he only applied to the Ivy League and Hopkins. That's it. What is unfortunate about the situation, however, is that everybody was approving of this..."behavior" if you will. Everybody was certain that he would get in.

If it means anything, his interviews were probably horrendous.
 
I'm sure I would have been fairly high up in class ranking if it had existed, but I was not valedictorian. Our valedictorian (of an extremely difficult private prep school) got a full ride to Yale and dropped out after 2 years to do something or other that definitely did not use his ridiculous intellect well.
 
Please let's just stop talking about class rank. It's making me sick....and very sad. I was about 300 out of 726. Terrible. But when I look back, it was not entirely my fault because I transfered from an int'l school my junior year and that kinda ruined my credits......
 
My state school only gives a $1,000 scholarship to valedictorians. Luckily, I got a full ride through their honors college, so I decided to go there. They did say, however, that me being valedictorian was factored into their decision to give me the award.
 
Gigantron said:
I'm not sure in terms of his academics/EC's, but I do know that he only applied to the Ivy League and Hopkins. That's it. What is unfortunate about the situation, however, is that everybody was approving of this..."behavior" if you will. Everybody was certain that he would get in.

If it means anything, his interviews were probably horrendous.
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Well, there's the problem. Only applying to schools with incredibly low acceptance rates is not going to end well; it's essentially a crapshoot.

Having said that, I was val in a small class (<150 seniors) in a relatively easy high school. The ranking did not do much, except by acting as a bonus on some local scholarship and college apps I guess.
 
I nearly had to repeat freshman year.... I had to repeat 2 classes during sophomore year. I failed multiple quarters during my junior and senior year (but the overall grade passed with a D or something).

I almost made valedictorian, though :laugh:
 
xanthomondo said:
I nearly had to repeat freshman year.... I had to repeat 2 classes during sophomore year. I failed multiple quarters during my junior and senior year (but the overall grade passed with a D or something).

I almost made valedictorian, though :laugh:
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Must have benn a pretty competitive school....:laugh:
 
I was. What's interesting is how little any of it matters. Literally I know multiple valedictorians at my uni now that are struggling and getting their butts handled. Some people just flip the switch when they come to college.
 
Swiss Medical said:
Must have benn a pretty competitive school....:laugh:
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On the contrary. If what he says is true, then his school must have been REALLY laid-back. There is no way, at least with his grades, that he would've almost made valedictorian at a legitimately competitive school.
 
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NickNaylor said:
No one cares if you were valedictorian or not, and the only way anyone is going to know is if you bring it up. And if you do that, it's almost certainly not going to give you any "life points."

I graduated 8th out of a class of 400. You don't have to be a valedictorian to be successful, kiddos.
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this

I finished in the bottom 10% of my class... mind you i went to a VERY competitive private school (as in if you did not have a 4.0 you were automatically out of the top 20%). If i may say i think i'm doing much better in college then 95% of my class.
 
Gigantron said:
Our valedictorian this year is going to community college because all of the schools he applied to flat-out rejected him (no safeties either). Granted, the schools he applied to were all crap shots but still...
Click to expand...

He deserved that. I hate brainiacs who think that could get into everywhere they applied. There is this kid at my school who would mock me for my grades and how I applied to mediocre colleges. He had a 98 GPA UW and like 1890 SAT score. He applied to all the Ivy's, Top three LACs, SUNY Binghamton, and MIT/Cal Tech. HE LEGITIMATELY DIDN'T GET INTO ANY OF THEM. Not even bing. Guess where he is going NOW? St. Francis College in Brooklyn NY, LMFAO.
 
StarStunning said:
He deserved that. I hate brainiacs who think that could get into everywhere they applied. There is this kid at my school who would mock me for my grades and how I applied to mediocre colleges. He had a 98 GPA UW and like 1890 SAT score. He applied to all the Ivy's, Top three LACs, SUNY Binghamton, and MIT/Cal Tech. HE LEGITIMATELY DIDN'T GET INTO ANY OF THEM. Not even bing. Guess where he is going NOW? St. Francis College in Brooklyn NY, LMFAO.
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What is a 98 GPA?
 
I was ~15/415 students. I didn't give a crap in highschool, never studied and skated by with whatever I got. Of the top 5 students in my class, 2 are going to the other instate medical school and 3 I have no idea. The #1 scored perfect SAT and ACT and talked of going to Brown for a literary Ph.D. but haven't heard from him since graduation.
 
I graduated 77th out of a very small class size (120ish). Seven years later, nobody has ever asked me about it or cares.
 
I was 6 out of 360 or so. I'm pretty sure a couple of us were tied for 1 but some of us gave in to the ol' senioritis. Obviously it doesn't matter now but I guess its interesting.
 
11/600, but as far as I can tell, for college admissions, you should be fine for anywhere if you are in the top 5-10%.
 
Neither of those. I was in the top 25% after I stopped being an underdog. Either way, it doesn't make too much a difference after high school. How you do later on is what really counts.
 
My valedictorian went to CC after graduation because she wanted to save money and stay close to home. I honestly thought it was wasteful for her to get that far and do that well to go to a CC. Not sure about her scholarship/family situation, but dang...

On a side note, I think I was 45 outta 350 🙄
 
399/950ish. 3.0GPA, 25ACT. Didn't give one flying dooky about high school. Went to an undergrad notorius for having "Little Brother Syndrome" to our state's flagship university.

Graduated with a 3.65 GPA with honors. Taking the MCAT in a few months.

Things like class rank and weighted/unweighted GPA don't mean a darned thing!
 
SU1989 said:
Judging from your avatar, did you go to a German-speaking school by any chance? Since my parents reside overseas I went to an Austrian high school and all my classes were taught in German. I can't do gen chem in English, how am I supposed to do it in German? 😀 Needless to say I ended up with a 2.8 HS GPA and a class rank of 86 out of 175. Thankfully my SAT/ACT scores were 2260 and 33 respectively, so that made up for my horrendous GPA.
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I went to a Nigerian int'l school and a swiss school.....

I actually burned out badly during both years, but college will be a diff. story...
 
I'll be near the top, but not close to valedictorian. Didn't take as many AP's as other kids, so that knocks me out. Still in the top percentile, though, so I'll take it. Doesn't make a big difference, in my book. Besides, you don't have to worry about writing a speech.🙂
 
25/210ish -- I took honors classes, a couple APs, never studied, just slid by with work etc...

Granted, didn't get me into my first choice school....But now I have a 4.0 at an awesome U after my first year and the valedictorian is at my first choice drinking/partying and "hoping he can keep med school in the picture."

Means nothing the second you walk into a college classroom.
 
Been awhile since I visited these boards. 9/little under 700.
 
As I mentioned above, HS was not great for me...Looking back to my graduation last Friday, I almost cried when my valedictorian and salud. were speaking....

I was sooo jealous.
 
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I was valedictorian out of about 400 other kids. Means crap. I found out about a month after I'd been accepted early action to my top choice school so I didn't give a rat's butt. My GPA was like two thousandths of a point higher than the next girl's, and there was this whole shebang because her parents were upset that I happened to be ahead. Newspaper articles and everything. It kind of scarred me a little bit. So, the moral of the story is that high school class rank is stupid and doesn't matter for med school. I'd say that instead of focusing solely on grades in HS (unless you absolutely love a school that requires good grades, and love the school not just the name), focus on finding out what you really enjoy doing with extracurriculars. Or learn a language. That will help you waaay more than a stellar class rank, which I have found is more trouble than it's worth.
 
I'm 7/~200ish now. The guy who is #1 is socially awkward and has had no friends at all. He's now planning on attending UNC, which is a wonderful school, but there were people who were 10th or 11th in the class who were also accepted. I was talking about this to him the other day, and he told me he wishes he had studied less and focused more on pursuing things he actually likes. Of course this will be a different story in college, but unless you're aiming for the Ivy league schools, I think it's necessary to develop who you are without being a robot. Save that for undergrad 🙂
 
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