high school girl doesn't get to be valedictorian

[Senusret I]

^^^ I'm with you. I loved EVERY second of high school. I was able to do soooooo many things I wouldn't have had the chance to do otherwise....studying abroad, hosting a Russian, quiz bowl, FBLA....that's in addition to the "big" things like Senior Class President and Student Government.

I even joined FHA for a semester!

[KSigkid]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

^^^ I'm with you. I loved EVERY second of high school. I was able to do soooooo many things I wouldn't have had the chance to do otherwise....studying abroad, hosting a Russian, quiz bowl, FBLA....that's in addition to the "big" things like Senior Class President and Student Government.

I even joined FHA for a semester!

Not to totally derail the thread - I remember having a lot of fun in high school, and really enjoying it. I was pretty high up in the class (#6, and our top 7 were seperated by something like .000001 in GPA), was on the baseball team, and really didn't have any enemies. As I've gotten older though, my memories of high school seem less rosy - I'm not exactly sure why that is.

As to high GPAs - my high school didn't get up to 5, but you could have higher than a 4.0 if you took AP courses. I took 6 in high school and ended up with something like a 4.3. It sounded weird when I was putting it on college applications, but I never got asked about it, so I assumed a lot of schools did something similar.

Our valedictorian ended up staying in state, I think he got a free ride. He wanted to be a teacher, got a free education with which to accomplish that goal, and has now been a high school history teacher for a few years. It seems like he's very well liked throughout the school and local educational community, so things worked out exactly how he wanted. The in-state schools are very reasonably priced, although most people end up at UConn. In fact, I'm paying less for 4 years of law school (I'm an evening student) than my undergrad was charging for 1.5 years of tuition when I was there.

Now that I think about it, the post-high school choices of the top 10 in my class were pretty widely varied. There were a few teachers, a couple of med students and law students, and at least one successful commercial and movie actress.

[nate2512]

My high school, you could take the easiest classes or the hardest classes and a 4.0 was still a 4.0. However as long as you had at least a 3.0, the state paid the average tuition of all the state run schools. Unfortunately it won't last much longer cause it's running out of money quickly, but if you have a 3.0 its worth about $12,000.

[Senusret I]

I had to "take" the "Office Ass't" class as well -- they gave that to kids with either incomplete schedules or when your required courses were full. Example: You're supposed to take World History as a Sophomore, but because there were only two sections offered and they were both full, my counselor knew I'd get priority if I waited until my senior year to take it. Plus she knew I'd find it to feel more like an easy elective than a required class.

[nate2512]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

I had to "take" the "Office Ass't" class as well -- they gave that to kids with either incomplete schedules or when your required courses were full. Example: You're supposed to take World History as a Sophomore, but because there were only two sections offered and they were both full, my counselor knew I'd get priority if I waited until my senior year to take it. Plus she knew I'd find it to feel more like an easy elective than a required class.

Oh, mine weren't for credit, if you were an athlete, due to your athletic p.e. being the last hour of the day, you were forced to stay. There was nothing left worth taking, except being stuck in classes with bitchy freshman girls all day, so I took those. The only time I ever actually did anything was on discipline day, we would harass the kids in trouble.

[epchick]

Nate and Sensuret, you guys are lucky you were allowed to take that type of class. At my HS they were called "outs" because you were out of a class. They were normally given during senior year, because that is when you have less classes that you are required to take. My bitch of a counselor decided that I couldn't have any outs. Why I don't understand, we had 7 class periods and I only had 4 classes. My friends all got outs b/c they had different counselors but us that were lucky enough to have our last names @ the beginning of the alphabet got stuck with Bitchy McBitcherson.

Lucky I was able to get 2 teachers to make up some bullshit class that isn't TECHNICALLY an "out" but it would work that way. And then I took home ec (which was taught by the football coach).

[AGDee]

Well, back in MY day, high school was 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. We really only had to take 6, 5 and then 4 hours to have enough credits to graduate so a lot of people did that. I did take 5 hours my senior year because I wanted to take another year of Spanish. We could take up to 6, but how many kids, if given a choice of going home at 1 pm or 3 pm would choose to go home at 3 pm? I was an oddball for having 5 hours my senior year.

I didn't particularly like high school... although I was very active. Candy Striping, Spanish Club, Honor Society and working about 20 hours a week. (I was also a Girl Scout but didn't admit that to many people!)

Also, once we turned 18, during our senior year, we could call ourselves in sick. That was an amazing thing at the time! Smoking was also allowed once you turned 18, in the designated smoking courtyards. Yes, times have changed a lot.

[texas*princess]

that sucks.... i've been hearing about that on the local news.

supposedly when the girl was in junior high (or middle school?) the counselor told her graduating early wouldn't hurt her chances of being valedictorian so she went ahead and started plans to graduate early.

ETA: WHOA! She even had a perfect ACT score !

[a.e.B.O.T.]

I am sure that if she graduated in 3 years with that high of a GPA, there are MORE than enough free rides out there. Not just in academics, she is also a minority. She is essential a college's T-Bone steak... and should have no problem getting the money to go to college.

[fantASTic]

That really sucks for her. She definitely deserves the valedictorian title.

So what do you guys think about this? At my high school, once a student turned 18, they had to get their parent's permission to become 'independent' to sign themselves out of school, authorize their tylenol, etc. I found that RIDICULOUS. I couldn't understand why, once a student was 18, they had to get their parent's permission to basically be a legal adult! Isn't that backwards??

[tld221]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Holy CRAP, it WAS 11 years ago now!!!

My valedictorian was a chick who could have gone to an Ivy league but went to probably the worst college in Pennsylvania on a free ride. She got raped her freshman year and lost her mind. Now, whenever anyone from high school sees her and says hello, she'll scream I DON'T KNOW YOU! And will walk quickly away.

Incidentally, her older brother was valedictorian two years before us, went to Georgetown for two years, then disappeared without a trace.

bahahaha. interestingly OUR valedictorian only applied to Columbia, swearing it was the only school good enough. she ended up getting waitlisted and settled on St. Johns, which is an OK school, but obviously no Columbia. Imagine her face when the same scholarship offered to her by STJ was also offered to this random girl our year who had two children and missed a good portion of her junior and senior years because of maternity leave.

The last i heard from the girl, she founded a local which got absorbed by Theta Phi Alpha and was engaged. I'd pay top dollar to see her at the reunion. And the guy who (IMO) shouldve been valedictorian? Full-ride to MIT and now works for some engineering firm.

Originally Posted by nate2512

Oh, mine weren't for credit, if you were an athlete, due to your athletic p.e. being the last hour of the day, you were forced to stay. There was nothing left worth taking, except being stuck in classes with bitchy freshman girls all day, so I took those. The only time I ever actually did anything was on discipline day, we would harass the kids in trouble.

Our school pulled similar stunts junior/senior year-the program office would make your last period (or worse, 9th period!) class a required class, like History or English. Those were the only Regents you could theoretically only take as a senior, as there was some flexibility in Math/Science. The worst was having a 0 period lab (7:15-8am), which was absolutely a requirement for graduation.

So you could, as a senior, have a 1-6 schedule and then have some BS 8th or 9th period history class. it SO cramped everyone's (cutting) style. luckily for me, borderline-couldve-graduated-in-3-years, i had 1-5 and occasionally stuck around for Yearbook (which was on my schedule but the teacher didnt give two craps) and Class President stuff.

[srmom]

In response to some of the posts - each school district in TX has different methods of calculating GPA, mine has a 6 point scale, based on an 8 period schedule. If you take 4 or more honors/pre-AP/AP classes, you recieve an extra point, meaning, that if you have straight A's in all the classes (including the heavy weighted ones) you can graduate with a 6.5. Some calculate class rank based on a 10 point scale (a 90 is the same as a 99), some rank based where THE highest average is #1. Our district doesn't do that because they believe it leads to grade grubbing and overly intense pressure on both the students and teachers. Problem with this is it leads to multiple valedictorians - Case in point:

My son was a valedictorian (6.5 GPA)- but, he was one of 26. All students who have perfect grades get the designation of #1. NOONE got a full ride from the state of Texas. Maybe at some schools, where they designate 1, and only 1 valedictorian, they can apply for the scholarship, but our district doesn't allow it.

The University of Texas is extremely stingy with merit scholarships. My son didn't get a penny, and he was #1 with a high SAT/ACT. My other son was a National Merit Finalist, and all UT offered was $4500 the first year, with $3500 each year after that (doesn't even cover 1/2 the tuition, much less room/board/books/expenses, etc.). He is attending University of Florida, where they pay his entire tuition and all of his expenses, including the new laptop he just got. GO GATORS!

Texas has nothing like the "Hope Scholarship" like Florida or Virginia, all we have is the top 10% law and rising tuition rates!!!

Anyway, just telling y'all this because the girl will have a much better chance of getting money if she attends either oos or a small school. TCU has deep pockets I've heard.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by srmom

In response to some of the posts - each school district in TX has different methods of calculating GPA

I never realized that until I read this thread, I thought that GPA calculations were pretty much the same throughout TX.

When I graduated from HS GPA was calculated this way: It was on a 4.0 scale. If you took a Pre-AP class, 8 points were added to your final grade, and if you took an AP class 10 points were added. So if you got a 97 in an AP calculus class, it would turn into a 107. I was #6 in my class and I had around a 3.97 GPA.

[alum]

Originally Posted by srmom

Texas has nothing like the "Hope Scholarship" like Florida or Virginia, all we have is the top 10% law and rising tuition rates!!!

Virginia doesn't have a Hope Scholarship. There are enough ISers fighting for a spot at our flagships without needing a financial enticement. The Jefferson Schol is for OOSers.

[PeppyGPhiB]

Originally Posted by alum

Virginia doesn't have a Hope Scholarship. There are enough ISers fighting for a spot at our flagships without needing a financial enticement. The Jefferson Schol is for OOSers.

Washington doesn't, either. Does UT make applicants do an admissions essay? The University of Washington implemented that several years ago because the formula they used to use (like many state institutions do) just wasn't effective anymore with so many highly qualified applicants. Can you imagine having to read tens of thousands of essays?