high school girl doesn't get to be valedictorian

[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.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by BabyPiNK_FL

I LOVE this set up. As a sub. I frequent middle schools (I love sixth grade) and there is a big difference b/t the kids in 6 & 7/8. Keeping 6 and 8th away from each other sounds good to me. But that's just me!

Anyways:
I feel bad for this young lady, she worked hard and did far more than a lot of people could hope for. 3 years or 4 years, whatever. She is in the senior class and she has the highest GPA. I would have thought that would be the basic requirements. Why would they have this rule that essentially can discourage children from excelling to their highest potential? (Although I can't imagine getting out of high school early. I don't even think it was an option at my school...)

Our middle school keeps each grade very separate. They each have their own hallway where their lockers and classrooms are. They have separate lunches and sit in different places on the bus. They have three separate entrances and exits. The only time they mingle is in when they are walking to the bus and then, it seems, they are so concerned with just getting out of the school and to the dang bus that they don't interact..lol

ETA: My high school also did not have a valedictorian. There were 713 students and of the top 10 students, 4 were tied for the top rank spot, 4 for the second spot and 2 for the third spot and they were all separated by .001 or something ridiculous like that. We had summa cum laude for 3.9 and up, magna cum laude for 3.7 and up and cum laude for 3.5 and up. My kids' high school had 3 valedictorians this year with identical GPAs.

[BabyPiNK_FL]

^^^ours dooes too. Seperate lunch, school sections, etc. But the older kids are horribly oversexed and obssessed with dating and being "independent" (in the wrong way). I thought it was bad when I went there in '97. But it's gotten worse. And this is not even the "bad school". You have to go East for those...

High School,
WOW! For me that was 19 years ago. I do however remember our valedictorian b/c there was controversy there as well.

I am from the Virgin Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix). I love on St. Thomas. There were no high schools in St. John so the kids there all took the ferry to st. thomas for High school. Most kids came ot my school as it were within walking distance of the dock.

Anyway, the chick you was legally valedictorian (Wendy) came from St. John. The chick (Thelca) who was bitching about it was the kind of kid that had to be the best at everything and she was the number one student since the 7th grade (we went to the same school all the way through from the 7th -12th).

So when she came in 2nd to Wendy, ahh man the drama that ensued. Her mother was all up in the office saying our Wnedy shouldn't be eligible since she was only there for 3 yrs, yadda yadda yadda.

In the end (if I remeber correctly), Wendy (sweetheart) didn't give a rats ass and told her she could have the title. Not sure what happened to Wendy but Thelca is now a high school teacher at home. My youngest brother and sister had to take her English class. To hear them tell she was ANAL. i wasn't surprise to hear that!

[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.

[srmom]

So if you are in the 11th percentile at Great High School and you have stellar SATs and ECs, you still may be denied admission to give a spot to the 5th percentile kids from Bad High School with lousy SATs and ECs. Perhaps Srmom can elaborate

Pretty much

It used to not be as bad, meaning that there was space for kids from competitive hs's with good scores, ec's, etc. But this past year, was unbelievable!!! Complete bloodletting at our school!!! Where as last year, pretty much if you were in the top 25%, you had a great shot of getting in, this year, I know kids who were top 14% (2 B's at our school) and didn't get in!

Unfortunately, they won't be doing anything legislative-wise until after 2009 when they meet again. The proposed changes to the law were brought to the floor in the 2007 session, but were struck down.

SOOOO, what that meant for me and mine is that we sweat bullets last week while my youngest (rising junior) took finals. He has 1 B from freshman Bio, cannot get another, and just squeaked by with a 91 in pre-AP Calculus.

Back in my day, if you could sign your name on the application, you could get in UT!!

[ISUKappa]

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!

I didn't *love* high school, but I had a great time and was involved in a ton of extracurriculars and clubs all while holding a part-time job as a waitress.

Originally Posted by OTW

I graduated from high school 11 years ago and I don't even remember who our valedictorian was.

Our valedictorian was my BFF at the time. No one in our class had a perfect 4.0. She had a 3.8, the next gal (who took chump FFA classes and study halls her senior year and had a senior photo that looked like one of those old-timey photos you take at state fairs or amusement parks of her in a cowboy hat and duster holding a shotgun while sitting on a barrel) had a 3.798. I (who took a full course load including 3 AP classes and no study halls senior year while doing aforementioned extracurriculars and working and should have been 2nd) had a 3.976. No, I'm not bitter or anything.

ETA: our GPA calculations were ancient. IIRC, they weren't weighted and were straight points - A=4, B=3, C=2, D=1. And pluses/minuses weren't figured in. An A- was basically equivalent to an A, B+ the same as a B, etc... We three top students had all had one B+ at some point in our high school careers. I got mine right away first semester Freshman year, so I had to try and build my GPA back up. #2 got hers second semester freshman year and #1 got hers first semester sophomore year.

[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.

[sjsoffer]

I graduated from high school only a semester early, and the principal told me I wasn't allowed to apply for any of the local scholarships so when I came back for graduation, I got to see some dumb-as-dirt kids get full-rides from several scholarships when the only one I got was from my college itself, which they didn't bother announcing. Schools 'round here don't like if you graduate early; they lose money from it.

[nittanyalum]

I didn't read all 5 pages of this thread, but I read the OP and I'm still trying to wrap my head around a GPA over 5point, that just didn't exist (in my experience) back in the day.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by nittanyalum

I didn't read all 5 pages of this thread, but I read the OP and I'm still trying to wrap my head around a GPA over 5point, that just didn't exist (in my experience) back in the day.

That's because we = old.

[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.

[nittanyalum]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

That's because we = old.

LOL. Exactamundo. (see? old )

[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?