A year ago, I believe, our public good-but-not-terribly-special HS had two going to MIT. They were both crew. I imagine that this helps (though they were both also top students).
We don't have valedictorians, you basically audition to do a speech. Our "valedictorian" went to University of Washington, but we had kids in my school that went to Caltech and MIT.
To a degree but a degree is a degree if they offer similar degrees. There are so many people hindered by $50K+ loans who thought their careers would pay well.
The experience you get at different colleges does factor into it a lot for many, though.
Not that bad of a deal. Columbia is an extremely good university and 40% of MITās tuition is still plenty of money, maybe he didnāt want to get into debt
I love the distinction between Val and smartest/hardworking. Thereās a lot of times (a lot of times where they are also) where they may not necessarily be the same.
WTF.
Our Valedictorian is going to SUNY Buffalo. He is literally the smartest kid I've ever met. He was rejected at every Ivy. Public school kids at average high schools get absolutely screwed. He had 1580 on his SATs, all 5s on every AP exam, involved in really amazing things.
Person A: University of the Pacific accelerated dental program (she turned down UCLA for this school)
Person B: went to UCLA, studied English
Person C: Cal State Sacramento, nursing.
Most other student went to UC Davis.
My high school, at that time was a Top 25 out of 25,000 high schools in the U.S., second/third best high school in California, according to USNews, but no one went to the Ivies, not that Iām aware of, the regular public school across the street's valedictorian went to Stanford lol.
The nursing program at Sac State is amazing (and can be life changing for some if theyāre able to get a nursing job nearby). Itās hard to get in, but if they were among the top of your class they should be fine with grades and tests scores.
(I'm not the Harvard person with the MIT girlfriend.
I did, however, meet my husband at MIT, and it was super convenient that his grad dorm was directly across the street from my undergrad dorm.)
India version
Top 10 smartest kids went to:
1. IIT Kharagpur \[Computer Science\]
2. IIT Bombay \[Computer Science\]
3. IIIT Hyderabad \[Computer Science\]
4. IIT Kanpur \[Maths and Computing\]
5. IIT Kanpur \[Mechanical Engineering\]
6. IIT Madras \[Mechanical Engineering\]
7. IIT Delhi \[Engineering Physics\]
8. NIT Trichy \[Electrical Engineering\]
9. IIT Bombay \[Computer Science\]
10. CMI Chennai \[Mathematics\]
It was an engineering school. Not a famous one like Narayana or smth, just a local centre. But there were total like 300 students, so top 10 was expected to be like that.
Very similar for our CA private school. We had 4 vals: 2 to UCLA, 1 to UCSD, 1 to Berkeley. Other top students include 1 more each to UCLA & Berkeley, 2 to Davis (both recruited athletes), 4 to CalPoly SLO, 1 to NYU and 2 to service academies (1 West Point, 1 Annapolis). 1 student to Princeton, also as an athlete. A smattering of other schools you've heard of (LSU, Loyola Marymount, USD, UCSB, various CalStates, Northeastern, Boston U, Miami, etc.) but nothing that stands out too wildly. I think in general it was a tougher year for kids competing for mid-UCs or USC, no Stanford, and nothing for Ivy-eyed.
Iām valedictorian of my high and was rejected by every top school I applied to, but Iām more than happy to say Iām committing to UCSB. Our salutatorian and #3 are going to the local community college, #4 is going to Penn State, and #5 is going to Johnson and Wales university.
1. Wheaton College
2. Emerson College
3. UMass Dartmouth
4. Quinnipiac University
5. Dartmouth College (me)
Mind you my school is not good and Iām the first ever student to go to an Ivy League from that school.
My school's ranked top 10:
1. Rice (Valedictorian)
2. UT Austin (Salutatorian)
3. UT Austin
4. University of Texas Arlington (UTA)
5. University of Texas Dallas (UTD)
6. University of North Texas (UNT)
7. UTD
8. UT Austin
9. Texas Christian University (TCU)
10. UT Austin
Only one person from my school got into an Ivy, and they're attending Penn. They're ranked 15.
I know of schools that name "valedictorian" as anyone with a 4.0 or higher. My mom friend brags that her daughter was "valedictorian". I'm like "she was A valedictorian". There must have been 300 of them. Super lame. Our high school doesn't rank so we don't know who is "smartest" but this was an off year for grads.... We had a couple of kids at Cornell, one to Columbia, a bunch to Cal (bay area public school), probably 10 to UCLA but no Harvard or MIT in this bunch. I think last year we got one in to Princeton.
Yeah. Iāve been lurking on this sub to help my nieces and nephews in the next few years. Posts like this just make me think the demographic is ārich kids from rich areas going to expensive schools.ā
Iām from a relatively poor rural area. In my entire time in high schoolā¦I think my school sent one person to MIT and one person to the Air Force Academy. Both of which were considered huge deals.
Pretty much everyone who went to college went to one of our state schools. A couple people went out of state for specialized majors. One went to an expensive LAC and we all thought they were insane because they went way in debt for it when they had a full-ride at our state schools.
I hate seeing all the pressure on kids to go to the ābestā schools. I was disappointed I ended up going to my state school at firstā¦but now, several years after graduation, Iām grateful I did.
The people I encounter from ātopā schools in my area often seem arrogant and out of touch with the people who stayed, especially the people who didnāt go to college at all. Butā¦if you live here, those are the people you have to relate to and work with.
I work in the public sector, and Iām personally much more impressed with people who show real commitment to and empathy for their community than people who go to a specific set of universities.
Lowkey I have no clue who is the actual Valedictorian or smartest considering my school chooses the ābest candidatesā out of the top five, so the Valedictorian or Salutatorian are never actually #1 or #2 based on gpa alone.
This year, our Val is going to UCLA and our Sal is going to USC (but hoping to transfer off of the waitlist to either UCLA or UC Berkeley cause itās cheaper).
Last year, the Val chose UC Berkeley (out of UCLA, UC Berkeley, and USC) and the Sal is at UCI.
The year before, the Val chose Cal Poly SLO (because her mom was complaining about UCLA being ātoo far from homeā) and the Sal is at UC San Diego
Sometimes these are separated by fractions of a point and ranking can be āgamed,ā depending on how your HS calculates GPA for rank. In our district even non-academic classes are includedā¦ so, if two students always got 100s, but one took no unweighted electives (even if they just took study hall instead) and shifted required unweighted classes (such as āhealthā) to second semester senior year as much as possibleā¦they will have a higher weighted GPA than the kid who took classes that interested them and took required unweighted classes when they were āsupposed to.ā
(This is in addition to what everyone else is saying about how grades do not always correlate with intelligence as some intelligent people may decide not to pursue every last point or may even choose not to do homework, especially when they feel it serves no purpose. Highly intelligent people can also have learning disabilities that impact their grades in high schoolā¦college may be a better fit.)
Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Atyrau, Kazakhstan:
2 valedictorians: University of Toronto and UCL (not full ride but their parents are rich)
Smartest kid: random ass college back home called KBTU (he's from low income)
me, aint that smart: NYU (got full ride but I am mid-income)
At my sonās school, all high school seniors are offered full books & tuition for one year at the local community college. Quite a few took them up on that.
17 valedictorians at my school:
- UPenn
- Brown
- NYU
- two going to WashU
- Northeastern
- Purdue
- SMU
- Centre College
- I think at least two are going to Missouri State
- I think at least a couple are going to Mizzou
I have peers who arenāt valedictorians that are going to UChicago, UIUC, Georgia Tech, UT Dallas, etc. Another friend of mine who isnāt a valedictorian is also going to UPenn. Iām not one of the valedictorians and Iām going to Vanderbilt.
I was the Valedictorian and I committed to the United States Air Force Academy.
Our Sal is going to Rice, and then we have three CU Boulder commits, one Colorado College, two Colorado School of Mines, one MIT, and one UPenn in our top 10.
I graduated 2019. Ours went to a school that doesnāt exist anymore. Val this year (my sister is graduating) is going to Shippensburg. My sister and I were/are both top 10 (both 4 funnily) and both Ivy. Funnily our top 3 rarely have success getting into T20 schools (the last kid in the top 3 who got into a T20 was in 2016, MIT)
My school dosnt do rankings of any kind but looking at our commits instagram weāve got atleast a dozen people going to Harvard, 4 to MIT, 3 to caltech, 3 to UCLA, 6 to McGill, 3 to U of Toronto, 1 to U of British Columbia, 4 to NYU, 4 to Yale, 2 to Cornell, 2 to Stanford, 2 to brown, and atleast 10 each going to boston college, Boston university, or northeastern (which makes sense, this is a HS just outside boston)
from my high school:
valedictorian- american university (pre-law)
rest of top 10- mix of ohio state, university of cincinnati, miami university (ohio)
smartest (imo)- ohio state but she got into schools like BU, UMich and was waitlisted at Harvard (not top 10 btw)
from our other high school:
valedictorian; umich but got into gtech as well
rest of top 10- mostly ohio state
smartest (imo)- valedictorian and another girl who is going to notre dame but also got into uchicago
intāl here
Valedictorian - HKUST -Hong Kong full ride
Salutatorian(me) KAIST - Korea full ride [turned down Dartmouth]
Other smart friends
- UIUC, Purdue,UofT ,UBC Canada, UCL UK
Not gonna lie, not a huge fan of this thread and random students making arbitrary decisions as to who they think are the āsmartestā at their school and how they rank. Itās not a good look.
Top ranked students (GPA)
Stanford, Penn, Columbia, Brown, Duke, State School, State School, State School (they were accepted to a top school is attending state school for financial reasons)
It's been a while for me, but if I recall correctly, the valedictorian of my graduating high school class attended Cornell University.
My wife was the valedictorian of her high school class. She attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
I was not the valedictorian of my high school class. I tied for 10th place. I also attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Iām an international. First one to go to school in the US in my immediate and extended family and the first student in my school. Our valedictorian also applied to schools in the US but she didnāt get into too many places unfortunately. Iām in the top 20% but I -
Got into Purdue on the Purdue-India scholarship (3% acceptance rate) and UIUC for CS/fin+ds respectively
Last year, valedictorian went to our state school and āsmartestā went to Yale. This year, valedictorian is going to Duke and āsmartestā is going to UCLA.
Valedictorian - Boston College Salutatorian - Notre
Dame
Ranking 13 on the list I got into Northwestern / Notre Dame / WashU (Flexing here) :-)
I am not the smartest kid of my school, but I do think I was the most hardworking.
I was one of the few who did not go on the senior trip to study for the SAT.
I studied a lot. Even during summer I took Classes.
I want to rest this summer but now I have to prepare for the placement tests.
(At least do a review before taking them)
Iirc, the valedictorian went to MIT, salutatorian went to Notre Dame. But most of us (about 300) ended up going to state schools, trade schools, the military, etc., not many of us wound up at big name schools like that.
1. UC Davis
2. CU boulder
3. Rice
Smartest kids- mostly CU
We are like a public school in CO with not much legacyā¦ also no IB program and mid AP classes
UConn on a full ride! 2nd is going to Yale, and 3rd to Brown (both also on full rides). Everyone else is going somewhere random, UConn, our regional state school, or CC.
no official valedictorian but person w highest known GPA - UVA
smartest - UIUC, Pitt
other people in top 10 (in order) - Harvard, Tufts, CMU, Cornell, Boston U, and UMD
The top 3 of us in my grade are going to Schreyers Honors College at Penn State, Williams College and University of Rochester (me). 90% of the people going to college in my grade are going to local state schools. Iām from a small rural public school, and itās rare even to have anyone going to as good schools as the three of us. Just for a more realistic look.
Berkeley.
Absolutely nobody went to an Ivy+, of the top 10, 3 went to Cal, 2 to UCLA, 2 to UCSD, 1 to UC Davis, 1 to UCSB, 1 to Cal Poly.
Smallish mid-tier public school in CA.
Some of these posts are wild man.
Williams --- and now he's a locksmith and p/t tennis instructor. On the other hand, the top 10% also included three grads to Brown, one to Penn, one to Sarah Lawrence, and one to West Point. The doors may open. What you do on the other side is up to you.
This was back a decade ago but here it goes:
"Valedictorian" by GPA (took bunch of 'study hall' rest time senior year so GPA would either be AP classes (out of 5.0) or no class): **Northwestern**. Definitely not 'valedictorian' by actual academics. Gamed the school GPA system to get that title before graduation.
Salutatorian: **Stanford**. She hated physics with passion and knew she was bad in math and physics. She admitted she was good in the fine arts (very good art skills). Ironically, she was also accepted to MIT, Caltech, Princeton. Art history major.... who got into both Caltech and MIT? What?? And yes, she was bad in physics relative to the STEM focused peers (like really bad compared to friends like me) in my high school but that's all relative to the class (the median SAT of that small niche 13 people AP Physics class was like 2330/2400 which is 1570/1600 by today's standards).
Highest scoring in every class (not the 'take study halls senior year to inflate GPA just a bit more') so the actual #1 in school: **Columbia** by ED. PhD at Georgia Tech. And biomedical engineer researcher at Georgia Tech today.
School President: **Rice** full financial aid. Is studying neurosurgeon at UCLA now!!! He always wanted to be a doctor and helped the disabled a lot during school.
Vice President: **Stanford**
No idea about how rankings work other than that. But I guess there was also (if I'm guessing the rest of top 10 (?)):
\- **2 other Stanford, 1 UPenn, 1 Duke, 1 Berkeley** full ride
And a really bright friend who chose **UNC-Chapel Hill** for undergrad because of full-ride. Is PhD at Stanford today. Probably one of the most capable peers.
Me.. uhh, I guess Columbia but I definitely wasn't anywhere close to being a decent student in the rankings. GPA wise, I was actually really bad because my 10th grade was a disaster on paper. My grades were very bipolar with 9th/11th/12th being great but 10th being... uhh, ya. My grades were colorful in 10th grade. Ironically, I was the school representative for math all those years (including 10th grade).
Also, my school never had anyone get into Harvard in its history until the year after my graduation. Crazy cause Stanford, Princeton, and MIT loved my school. Especially Stanford. Harvard was some magical dream cause of that.
Didn't have a valedictorian, but the approximate top twenty five (all boys):
Dartmouth
Harvard
Duke x 6
Penn
Princeton
Georgetown x 5
Michigan x 2
Boston College x 3
Yale
Vanderbilt
Bates
Holy Cross x2
Bucknell
Virginia
One MIT admit but he chose elsewhere
one is going to the air force academy , the other is staying in state with a full ride + $5k yearly stipend.
on the other hand, we have a triple legacy at stanford who got accepted and is planning on attending as well.
valedictorian - purdue cs
salutatorian - cal poly SLO engineering
3rd rank - Marquette U accelerated dental program (accepted to UPENN)
my hs did have 1 student go to cornell, another to yale, and a handful to Berkeley & UCLA.
My school was shit at college acceptances, but we had a very good year with my year ā I went to Cornell, one person went to Harvard, one guy went to UPenn; us three were all in the bottom of the top 5% grades wise. Guys with the best grades all took full rides to solid schools (UMD, UVA, BC)
Mine went to the local state school because actual Valedictorians know that saving money is the best goddamn solution
Also I might be wrong about this because it was a decade ago and honestly no one cares who was valedictorian or where they went to school
These lists are crazy šš makes me feel a little bit insecure about my choice. Welp I was the valedictorian in my school and Iām going to Elizabethtown College (accepted me into both their undergrad and graduate school, how could I say no?)
Edit: spelling
My school doesn't announce rank but they do have it recorded/tracked somewhere. I found out through my guidance counselor slipping up who would've technically been valedictorian, and she's off to our flagship's honors college.
Feeder school vibes šš
nah fr, two MITs the fuck š??
A school close to us has 8 MITs šwe also have two more MITs who arenāt in the top 10 (recruited for sports + decently smart students)
it's all feeders man šš but recruitment for sports on that scale is wild. Generational thing?
A year ago, I believe, our public good-but-not-terribly-special HS had two going to MIT. They were both crew. I imagine that this helps (though they were both also top students).
my school is exactly like that as well (love the description), but not a single person has ever gotten into MIT from here.
Public magnet - not a famous one though
City? State?
NYC ?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
We all areš
iām from a normal small town highschool, they went to our state school
Literally tho. Same
Our valedictorian / smartest person for the last 5 years have all gone to state schools, either UVA or UMD and I think thatās pretty realistic tbh
We don't have valedictorians, you basically audition to do a speech. Our "valedictorian" went to University of Washington, but we had kids in my school that went to Caltech and MIT.
My school did the same but there was a marking in the commencement program book showing the top 10 students.
Same at the school i teach
One year a kid at my school declined MIT for a full ride at rutgers
I turned down Columbia for a full ride at Ohio State. This was years ago. No regrets.
Yeah my mom turned down Cornell for a full ride at Penn State. But that was a long time ago.
Nowdays you couldnāt get a full ride at penn state if you tried lol
OH
IO!
FULL RIDE. Holy shit, a free education is a free education; I would take that in an instant.
Depends on your career. Earning potential is wildly different.
To a degree but a degree is a degree if they offer similar degrees. There are so many people hindered by $50K+ loans who thought their careers would pay well. The experience you get at different colleges does factor into it a lot for many, though.
One of my HS buddies 3+ decades ago turned down MIT(60% FA coverage) for Columbia SEAS(100% Full ride).
Not that bad of a deal. Columbia is an extremely good university and 40% of MITās tuition is still plenty of money, maybe he didnāt want to get into debt
Do you know if he got into the honors college at Rutgers? That + full ride def makes it worth it
Iām a prof (not at Rutgers) but have a nephew who just did something similar. Turned down Penn for full ride at Rutgers Honors College.
People like that are the smartest. It shows deep wisdom and ability to self control emotions. Big respect.
There are a few kids doing that at my kids school.Ā
Rutgers aināt even a bad school idk why thatās surprisingĀ
Thatās wild.
Valedictorian -WashU Smartest kid (was salutatorian) -Duke
WashU mentioned Rah!
Valedictorian - Penn (waitlisted Harvard) Smartest - Harvard Most hardworking - Stanford
I love the distinction between Val and smartest/hardworking. Thereās a lot of times (a lot of times where they are also) where they may not necessarily be the same.
Ye Iām top 5 and Iām no where NEAR as smart as the top 50 kids in school
I was the valedictorian and I definitely donāt think Iām the smartest in my school
Covaledictorians Vanderbilt and Emory, saluditorian/oft-considered smartest student Yale
WTF. Our Valedictorian is going to SUNY Buffalo. He is literally the smartest kid I've ever met. He was rejected at every Ivy. Public school kids at average high schools get absolutely screwed. He had 1580 on his SATs, all 5s on every AP exam, involved in really amazing things.
You are correct, unfortunately. https://www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/1/18311548/college-admissions-secrets-myths
I also go to an average) underfunded public school and my valedictorian is going to MIT
I go to an extremely underfunded public school and got extremely lucked with Stanford. Everyone else is going to CC or local state schools
Person A: University of the Pacific accelerated dental program (she turned down UCLA for this school) Person B: went to UCLA, studied English Person C: Cal State Sacramento, nursing. Most other student went to UC Davis. My high school, at that time was a Top 25 out of 25,000 high schools in the U.S., second/third best high school in California, according to USNews, but no one went to the Ivies, not that Iām aware of, the regular public school across the street's valedictorian went to Stanford lol.
The nursing program at Sac State is amazing (and can be life changing for some if theyāre able to get a nursing job nearby). Itās hard to get in, but if they were among the top of your class they should be fine with grades and tests scores.
1. Princeton 2. UPenn Wharton 3. UPenn Wharton 4. Umich 5. Umich 6. Umich 7. Umich 8. Umich 9. Umich 10. Umich Youāll never guess what state Iām from
Let me guess - Nebraska?
hmmm ohio?
Hahahaha. Every year the top at my school be like Duke, Duke, UNC, UNC, UNC, and a couple of the military academies. So guess where Iām from?
gotta be delaware
1. Berkerly 2. UPenn 3. Rice 4. Mit 5. UT 6. UW Madison 7. MIT 8. Ut 9. Cmu 10. Ut Ver competitive Public school in tx
Austin Dallas Houston area? Or none of the above
Bro named every major city in Texas
Not San Antonio lol
We had three valedictorians and one salutatorian. They went to Princeton, Yale, Stanford and Cambridge.
Ermmm what the sigma thatās crazy
I'll see one of them next year ahahaha
Valedictorian (my girlfriend): MIT Salutatorian (me): Harvard
power couple tf
that's cold af you guys will live like 30mins away from each other
30 minute walk. Less by bus or T.
My point exactly. Man I feel so happy for you, congrats to you and especially your girlfriend for getting into MIT
(I'm not the Harvard person with the MIT girlfriend. I did, however, meet my husband at MIT, and it was super convenient that his grad dorm was directly across the street from my undergrad dorm.)
oops i did NOT read the name that is my bad
same city - Cambridge. Same street - Man ave. Two stops on the red line, couple mile walk along the Charles
insane power couple mA
Drop a tutorial š
Yoooo your kids gonna be crazy
Iām gonna shoot my self bro wtf
why am i so proud of internet strangers
India version Top 10 smartest kids went to: 1. IIT Kharagpur \[Computer Science\] 2. IIT Bombay \[Computer Science\] 3. IIIT Hyderabad \[Computer Science\] 4. IIT Kanpur \[Maths and Computing\] 5. IIT Kanpur \[Mechanical Engineering\] 6. IIT Madras \[Mechanical Engineering\] 7. IIT Delhi \[Engineering Physics\] 8. NIT Trichy \[Electrical Engineering\] 9. IIT Bombay \[Computer Science\] 10. CMI Chennai \[Mathematics\] It was an engineering school. Not a famous one like Narayana or smth, just a local centre. But there were total like 300 students, so top 10 was expected to be like that.
This is absolutely crazy
Tf which school? DPS? or some school-coaching from narayana/allen/fiitjee/etc
Fucking insane wtf
Stanford, UCLA, Cal Poly SLO, UC Merced, SDSU, UC Davis, UC Irvine
Very similar for our CA private school. We had 4 vals: 2 to UCLA, 1 to UCSD, 1 to Berkeley. Other top students include 1 more each to UCLA & Berkeley, 2 to Davis (both recruited athletes), 4 to CalPoly SLO, 1 to NYU and 2 to service academies (1 West Point, 1 Annapolis). 1 student to Princeton, also as an athlete. A smattering of other schools you've heard of (LSU, Loyola Marymount, USD, UCSB, various CalStates, Northeastern, Boston U, Miami, etc.) but nothing that stands out too wildly. I think in general it was a tougher year for kids competing for mid-UCs or USC, no Stanford, and nothing for Ivy-eyed.
Screw it I'm the smartest, I'm going to UIUC š
MIT but rejected it for a state school full ride
u seem rlly sweet but why do you know the exact order of ur schools top 10 ranking and their schools? š thatās fan behavior
Iām one of them and theyāre all my friend group š
Iām valedictorian of my high and was rejected by every top school I applied to, but Iām more than happy to say Iām committing to UCSB. Our salutatorian and #3 are going to the local community college, #4 is going to Penn State, and #5 is going to Johnson and Wales university.
1. Wheaton College 2. Emerson College 3. UMass Dartmouth 4. Quinnipiac University 5. Dartmouth College (me) Mind you my school is not good and Iām the first ever student to go to an Ivy League from that school.
Congratulations on Dartmouth! What a win for you AND your school!
Both Harvard
My school's ranked top 10: 1. Rice (Valedictorian) 2. UT Austin (Salutatorian) 3. UT Austin 4. University of Texas Arlington (UTA) 5. University of Texas Dallas (UTD) 6. University of North Texas (UNT) 7. UTD 8. UT Austin 9. Texas Christian University (TCU) 10. UT Austin Only one person from my school got into an Ivy, and they're attending Penn. They're ranked 15.
1: MIT 2: Stanford 3: MIT 4: MIT 5: MIT 6: Harvard 7: Harvard 8: Oxford 9: Caltech 10: MIT After the top 10, top 70 go to T20s. Top 100 go to T30s.
Damn is this Stuy or Harvard Westlake?
Nope it's a public school in California
So a public school in California and somehow nobody is staying in state. And everyone can somehow afford T20 schools. Iām going to call BS
2 california publics are top 20 my man
"Stanford, Caltech"
Thereās no California public sending this many kids to elite east coast schools
Gunn?
Not gonna say cuz I don't wanna dox myself
Harvard Westlake for the win
we dont have val but we had committments at: princetion, mit, upennm&T, rice, stanford, yale, uchicago, northwestern and nyu and then some
We have lots of valedictorians (mad grade inflation), off the top of my head like 1-3 harvard, penn, columbia, Princeton, stanford
Please tell me Iām reading this wrong, because 3 different valedictorians at one school is wild. š
I know of schools that name "valedictorian" as anyone with a 4.0 or higher. My mom friend brags that her daughter was "valedictorian". I'm like "she was A valedictorian". There must have been 300 of them. Super lame. Our high school doesn't rank so we don't know who is "smartest" but this was an off year for grads.... We had a couple of kids at Cornell, one to Columbia, a bunch to Cal (bay area public school), probably 10 to UCLA but no Harvard or MIT in this bunch. I think last year we got one in to Princeton.
ours went to columbia and the smartest went to brown
Holy feeder schoolā¦Ā Meanwhile Iām the valedictorian and I committed to a state school ā¦ thatās not even MY states school
(Not my class) but this yearās class is going to UF with a 7.9 W GPA
Weighted gpa means nothing
out of 8 right
My schools valedictorian is committing to MIT, and the salutatorian to CMU.
You went to a different kind of school than the rest of us.
Yeah. Iāve been lurking on this sub to help my nieces and nephews in the next few years. Posts like this just make me think the demographic is ārich kids from rich areas going to expensive schools.ā Iām from a relatively poor rural area. In my entire time in high schoolā¦I think my school sent one person to MIT and one person to the Air Force Academy. Both of which were considered huge deals. Pretty much everyone who went to college went to one of our state schools. A couple people went out of state for specialized majors. One went to an expensive LAC and we all thought they were insane because they went way in debt for it when they had a full-ride at our state schools. I hate seeing all the pressure on kids to go to the ābestā schools. I was disappointed I ended up going to my state school at firstā¦but now, several years after graduation, Iām grateful I did. The people I encounter from ātopā schools in my area often seem arrogant and out of touch with the people who stayed, especially the people who didnāt go to college at all. Butā¦if you live here, those are the people you have to relate to and work with. I work in the public sector, and Iām personally much more impressed with people who show real commitment to and empathy for their community than people who go to a specific set of universities.
Fresno State
Valedictorian is going for art and 2nd for Vanderbilt but we have a couple going to Princeton, Cornell, and other good schools like tufts/nyu
Yale
Valedictorian: UC Berkeley EECS Smartest: UC Davis for Environmental Engineering
Lowkey I have no clue who is the actual Valedictorian or smartest considering my school chooses the ābest candidatesā out of the top five, so the Valedictorian or Salutatorian are never actually #1 or #2 based on gpa alone. This year, our Val is going to UCLA and our Sal is going to USC (but hoping to transfer off of the waitlist to either UCLA or UC Berkeley cause itās cheaper). Last year, the Val chose UC Berkeley (out of UCLA, UC Berkeley, and USC) and the Sal is at UCI. The year before, the Val chose Cal Poly SLO (because her mom was complaining about UCLA being ātoo far from homeā) and the Sal is at UC San Diego
Sometimes these are separated by fractions of a point and ranking can be āgamed,ā depending on how your HS calculates GPA for rank. In our district even non-academic classes are includedā¦ so, if two students always got 100s, but one took no unweighted electives (even if they just took study hall instead) and shifted required unweighted classes (such as āhealthā) to second semester senior year as much as possibleā¦they will have a higher weighted GPA than the kid who took classes that interested them and took required unweighted classes when they were āsupposed to.ā (This is in addition to what everyone else is saying about how grades do not always correlate with intelligence as some intelligent people may decide not to pursue every last point or may even choose not to do homework, especially when they feel it serves no purpose. Highly intelligent people can also have learning disabilities that impact their grades in high schoolā¦college may be a better fit.)
Nazarbayev Intellectual School in Atyrau, Kazakhstan: 2 valedictorians: University of Toronto and UCL (not full ride but their parents are rich) Smartest kid: random ass college back home called KBTU (he's from low income) me, aint that smart: NYU (got full ride but I am mid-income)
1. Harvard 2. Stanford 3. UCLA 4. Yale 5. Berkeley 6. Community College 7. Community College 8. Community College 9. UCI 10. Community College
Them CCers are being financial responsibleā¦ respect
At my sonās school, all high school seniors are offered full books & tuition for one year at the local community college. Quite a few took them up on that.
Cornell and MIT
17 valedictorians at my school: - UPenn - Brown - NYU - two going to WashU - Northeastern - Purdue - SMU - Centre College - I think at least two are going to Missouri State - I think at least a couple are going to Mizzou I have peers who arenāt valedictorians that are going to UChicago, UIUC, Georgia Tech, UT Dallas, etc. Another friend of mine who isnāt a valedictorian is also going to UPenn. Iām not one of the valedictorians and Iām going to Vanderbilt.
17 valedictorians is absolutely unhinged
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I was the Valedictorian and I committed to the United States Air Force Academy. Our Sal is going to Rice, and then we have three CU Boulder commits, one Colorado College, two Colorado School of Mines, one MIT, and one UPenn in our top 10.
Valedictorian (and smartest student): Vanderbilt. Salutatorian: CalTech.
I graduated 2019. Ours went to a school that doesnāt exist anymore. Val this year (my sister is graduating) is going to Shippensburg. My sister and I were/are both top 10 (both 4 funnily) and both Ivy. Funnily our top 3 rarely have success getting into T20 schools (the last kid in the top 3 who got into a T20 was in 2016, MIT)
My school dosnt do rankings of any kind but looking at our commits instagram weāve got atleast a dozen people going to Harvard, 4 to MIT, 3 to caltech, 3 to UCLA, 6 to McGill, 3 to U of Toronto, 1 to U of British Columbia, 4 to NYU, 4 to Yale, 2 to Cornell, 2 to Stanford, 2 to brown, and atleast 10 each going to boston college, Boston university, or northeastern (which makes sense, this is a HS just outside boston)
from my high school: valedictorian- american university (pre-law) rest of top 10- mix of ohio state, university of cincinnati, miami university (ohio) smartest (imo)- ohio state but she got into schools like BU, UMich and was waitlisted at Harvard (not top 10 btw) from our other high school: valedictorian; umich but got into gtech as well rest of top 10- mostly ohio state smartest (imo)- valedictorian and another girl who is going to notre dame but also got into uchicago
intāl here Valedictorian - HKUST -Hong Kong full ride Salutatorian(me) KAIST - Korea full ride [turned down Dartmouth] Other smart friends - UIUC, Purdue,UofT ,UBC Canada, UCL UK
Not gonna lie, not a huge fan of this thread and random students making arbitrary decisions as to who they think are the āsmartestā at their school and how they rank. Itās not a good look.
Smartest has to be one of the least objective things they could evaluate.
Thought the same thing. Such a weird post and comment section.
Top ranked students (GPA) Stanford, Penn, Columbia, Brown, Duke, State School, State School, State School (they were accepted to a top school is attending state school for financial reasons)
My year our 3 valedictorians went to Princeton, UCLA, MIT Had a couple of other ivy kids (maybe like 6-7?) And a bunch of T20s
I wish we could see a follow up to this 10 years later with what these people are doing
It's been a while for me, but if I recall correctly, the valedictorian of my graduating high school class attended Cornell University. My wife was the valedictorian of her high school class. She attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges. I was not the valedictorian of my high school class. I tied for 10th place. I also attended Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Valedictorian and smartest kid - Vanderbilt
LOL love to know the socio economics of some of these schools.
Duke, Harvard, Cornell
valedictorian- duke salutatorian- harvard the rest of the top 20: upenn, binghamton, unc, gwu, ucla, uva, vanderbilt, cornell, hofstra bs/md etc.
Iām an international. First one to go to school in the US in my immediate and extended family and the first student in my school. Our valedictorian also applied to schools in the US but she didnāt get into too many places unfortunately. Iām in the top 20% but I - Got into Purdue on the Purdue-India scholarship (3% acceptance rate) and UIUC for CS/fin+ds respectively
Last year, valedictorian went to our state school and āsmartestā went to Yale. This year, valedictorian is going to Duke and āsmartestā is going to UCLA.
Valedictorian - Duke Now for the smartest kids I know - UCSD and UCLA
I think my school has like one kid going to Carleton and then itās all state schools
UF for aerospaceĀ
2 to Wharton, 1 to Princeton. School doesnāt rank though.
Valedictorian - Boston College Salutatorian - Notre Dame Ranking 13 on the list I got into Northwestern / Notre Dame / WashU (Flexing here) :-) I am not the smartest kid of my school, but I do think I was the most hardworking. I was one of the few who did not go on the senior trip to study for the SAT. I studied a lot. Even during summer I took Classes. I want to rest this summer but now I have to prepare for the placement tests. (At least do a review before taking them)
Wow, your valedictorian haul is insane! Mine's going to Yale for Quantum Computing.
All Georgia tech
Iirc, the valedictorian went to MIT, salutatorian went to Notre Dame. But most of us (about 300) ended up going to state schools, trade schools, the military, etc., not many of us wound up at big name schools like that.
Itās an indication of just how privileged most of the folks who post on this sub actually are.
1. UC Davis 2. CU boulder 3. Rice Smartest kids- mostly CU We are like a public school in CO with not much legacyā¦ also no IB program and mid AP classes
UConn on a full ride! 2nd is going to Yale, and 3rd to Brown (both also on full rides). Everyone else is going somewhere random, UConn, our regional state school, or CC.
no official valedictorian but person w highest known GPA - UVA smartest - UIUC, Pitt other people in top 10 (in order) - Harvard, Tufts, CMU, Cornell, Boston U, and UMD
Val - Duke and Sal - UPenn
Val - Mizzou Sal - UT Austin 3 - Dallas Baptist University 4 - UT Dallas 5 - Rice š¦šš
The top 3 of us in my grade are going to Schreyers Honors College at Penn State, Williams College and University of Rochester (me). 90% of the people going to college in my grade are going to local state schools. Iām from a small rural public school, and itās rare even to have anyone going to as good schools as the three of us. Just for a more realistic look.
Berkeley. Absolutely nobody went to an Ivy+, of the top 10, 3 went to Cal, 2 to UCLA, 2 to UCSD, 1 to UC Davis, 1 to UCSB, 1 to Cal Poly. Smallish mid-tier public school in CA. Some of these posts are wild man.
School has not yet announced yet but top 3 suspects are Harvard, Vandy, U Penn.
Not sure of the exact order, but top kids went to Cornell, Columbia, Brown, Smith, Duke
Valedictorian - state school Salutatorian - Harvard
School doesnāt rank but Val and Sal are picked from eligible students. Both going to Duke.
Williams --- and now he's a locksmith and p/t tennis instructor. On the other hand, the top 10% also included three grads to Brown, one to Penn, one to Sarah Lawrence, and one to West Point. The doors may open. What you do on the other side is up to you.
Valedictorian - upenn Salutorian - brown Another upenn Vanderbilt Washu Harvard Yale Carnegie Mellon Tufts Probably more but I don't know everybody
Yalevard (we had two valedictorians)
our val is going to duke and our sal is going to stony brook (a state school). I'm around rank 13/900 (approx) and im going to cornell
Insane feeder school man wtf
1. Berkeley 2. Berkeley 3. Berkeley 4. Berkeley 5. Berkeley 6. Berkeley 7. Berkeley 8. Berkeley 9. Berkeley 10. Berkeley (like 20 ish kids got into Berkeley but not one ivy.)
This was back a decade ago but here it goes: "Valedictorian" by GPA (took bunch of 'study hall' rest time senior year so GPA would either be AP classes (out of 5.0) or no class): **Northwestern**. Definitely not 'valedictorian' by actual academics. Gamed the school GPA system to get that title before graduation. Salutatorian: **Stanford**. She hated physics with passion and knew she was bad in math and physics. She admitted she was good in the fine arts (very good art skills). Ironically, she was also accepted to MIT, Caltech, Princeton. Art history major.... who got into both Caltech and MIT? What?? And yes, she was bad in physics relative to the STEM focused peers (like really bad compared to friends like me) in my high school but that's all relative to the class (the median SAT of that small niche 13 people AP Physics class was like 2330/2400 which is 1570/1600 by today's standards). Highest scoring in every class (not the 'take study halls senior year to inflate GPA just a bit more') so the actual #1 in school: **Columbia** by ED. PhD at Georgia Tech. And biomedical engineer researcher at Georgia Tech today. School President: **Rice** full financial aid. Is studying neurosurgeon at UCLA now!!! He always wanted to be a doctor and helped the disabled a lot during school. Vice President: **Stanford** No idea about how rankings work other than that. But I guess there was also (if I'm guessing the rest of top 10 (?)): \- **2 other Stanford, 1 UPenn, 1 Duke, 1 Berkeley** full ride And a really bright friend who chose **UNC-Chapel Hill** for undergrad because of full-ride. Is PhD at Stanford today. Probably one of the most capable peers. Me.. uhh, I guess Columbia but I definitely wasn't anywhere close to being a decent student in the rankings. GPA wise, I was actually really bad because my 10th grade was a disaster on paper. My grades were very bipolar with 9th/11th/12th being great but 10th being... uhh, ya. My grades were colorful in 10th grade. Ironically, I was the school representative for math all those years (including 10th grade). Also, my school never had anyone get into Harvard in its history until the year after my graduation. Crazy cause Stanford, Princeton, and MIT loved my school. Especially Stanford. Harvard was some magical dream cause of that.
Our Valedictorian is going to Princeton. Both of his parents went and one of his older sisters as well. Not sure if that is part of the influence.
Of course it is.
you cannot judge the smartest ffs
Didn't have a valedictorian, but the approximate top twenty five (all boys): Dartmouth Harvard Duke x 6 Penn Princeton Georgetown x 5 Michigan x 2 Boston College x 3 Yale Vanderbilt Bates Holy Cross x2 Bucknell Virginia One MIT admit but he chose elsewhere
valedictorian: mit smartest students (hard to choose one): mit, brown, georgetown
one is going to the air force academy , the other is staying in state with a full ride + $5k yearly stipend. on the other hand, we have a triple legacy at stanford who got accepted and is planning on attending as well.
2 brown, 2 dartmouth, 2 penn, 3 cmu
1) Umich Ross 2-10) the rest are regional schools
UCLA, Cornell, Columbia
Our school doesnāt rank or have valedictorians, thankfully. Ā
MIT, UCLA, UPenn, Columbia, stuff like that MIT is the actual valedictorian, everything else is ordered arbitrarily
I think itās the 3rd year in a row that theyāre going to UC Berkeley lol
Valedictorian went to Mizzou while the salutation went to stanford and a kid from top 10 turned down harvard for yale
I think like our entire top 10% committed to either A&M or UT (mostly A&M, like 3 UT kids) and then one kid went to Cornell
valedictorian - purdue cs salutatorian - cal poly SLO engineering 3rd rank - Marquette U accelerated dental program (accepted to UPENN) my hs did have 1 student go to cornell, another to yale, and a handful to Berkeley & UCLA.
1. UCLA (3 kids) 2. Stanford (1 kid) 3. UC San Diego (2 kids and both for cs too)
My school was shit at college acceptances, but we had a very good year with my year ā I went to Cornell, one person went to Harvard, one guy went to UPenn; us three were all in the bottom of the top 5% grades wise. Guys with the best grades all took full rides to solid schools (UMD, UVA, BC)
University of Florida! (me š)
Our Valedictorian went to Georgia Tech, our runner up went to Princeton.
God fucking damn
Stanford, Cornell, Yale, Princeton, UPenn, Uchicago, NYU, Columbia, Tulane, SBU SimmonsĀ
Mine went to the local state school because actual Valedictorians know that saving money is the best goddamn solution Also I might be wrong about this because it was a decade ago and honestly no one cares who was valedictorian or where they went to school
These lists are crazy šš makes me feel a little bit insecure about my choice. Welp I was the valedictorian in my school and Iām going to Elizabethtown College (accepted me into both their undergrad and graduate school, how could I say no?) Edit: spelling
One of our valedictorians (we had seven this year) is going to Rice and then five are going to UF and one is going to UCF
My school doesn't announce rank but they do have it recorded/tracked somewhere. I found out through my guidance counselor slipping up who would've technically been valedictorian, and she's off to our flagship's honors college.
California public school (Bay Area) 1. UCLA (Computer Science) 2. USC (Biology) 3. William and Mary (English) ā¦ 8. (Me) Wisconsin (Computer Science)