# What was your High School Class Rank? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 2, 2012, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767 "2012-12-02T16:44:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/61 "2012-12-03T19:16:25Z")
I was a co-valedictorian, because our school had a max GPA of 4.0 and did not consider anything else when awarding the status. If they had, I wouldn’t have even been saludatorian, because although I took loads of AP Science and Math classes and got As in them, I did not take AP english or history classes (and at least a couple of the other valedictorians took almost all AP classes their junior and senior years). There were NINE co-valedictorians that year in a graduating class of about 300-400 I think. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/62 "2012-12-03T19:28:06Z")
> [@drewtwo99](#): > > I was a co-valedictorian, because our school had a max GPA of 4.0 and did not consider anything else when awarding the status. If they had, I wouldn’t have even been saludatorian, because although I took loads of AP Science and Math classes and got As in them, I did not take AP english or history classes (and at least a couple of the other valedictorians took almost all AP classes their junior and senior years). There were NINE co-valedictorians that year in a graduating class of about 300-400 I think. Wow. How did they figure out who made the speeches? ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/63 "2012-12-03T19:31:10Z")
I edged my way into the top 10, but you never would have guessed it by my grades. My high school was… not one of distinction. ---
**Author:** ![April\_R](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@April\_R](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/April_R)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2012, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/64 "2012-12-03T19:35:26Z")
I didn’t make the top 10% until Senior year. I kept trying to get into the National Honor Society, and at my school only the top 10% got in. I kept hovering at the top 11%. Other schools let in the top 25%. I was convinced it was important to get in for my college applications, but realize now how arbitrary the requirements were and how pointless it was after all. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/65 "2012-12-04T00:21:58Z")
I was always in the top 10% in high school. Due to getting a D+ for the year in Alegebra II, I finished senior year #7 out of 85. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/66 "2012-12-04T00:26:49Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Wow. How did they figure out who made the speeches? We all did. They had to be short (less than 2 minutes if I remember correctly). ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/67 "2012-12-04T01:27:44Z")
I am still in touch, 30 years later, with a small handful of people from my High School class. One was one of the several 4.0s. The other gave the class speech. We had a couple of speakers and they were chosen not for their grades but for winning a competition for the best speech. The two of them still joking argue about which one was really the valedictorian. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/68 "2012-12-04T06:57:23Z")
I was one of four valedictorians. We all had 4.0 GPAs, the highest in our school. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/69 "2012-12-04T07:26:12Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever given my high school graduating rank one single thought whatsoever, prior to this thread. And even then, it was just a “I have no fucking clue what mine would be”-kinda thought. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/70 "2012-12-04T08:22:46Z")
I was one of 8 kids with 4.0’s out of a class of over 1000. I guess they gave out A’s pretty freely. They didn’t give any higher grades for AP classes at the time. Thank god we had so many valedictorians because I sure as shit did not want to give a speech. ---
**Author:** ![DrumBum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e79b87/32.png) [@DrumBum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrumBum)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/71 "2012-12-04T12:50:04Z")
Number 1 out of a class of 62. No weighting for the AP classes so I ended up with a 4.0. I had to give the speech having lost a coin toss to the salutatorian. :mad: We’ve had polls on SAT scores, IQ, and now class rankings. As long as we are discussing the high school experience, did anyone get to 2nd base with a cheerleader ? ---
**Author:** ![vix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/a88e4f/32.png) [@vix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vix)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/72 "2012-12-04T12:57:46Z")
I was 9th out of about 200 at a mediocre high school. I didn’t work especially hard for it, which bit me in the ass when I got to college. My college classmates were much better prepared than I, both academically and socially. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/73 "2012-12-04T15:48:26Z")
I was #4 in my class of 52, with a GPA of 4.2/4.0 ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/74 "2012-12-04T19:01:56Z")
Also a sore spot for me, because of the way my high school caculated class rank. There were six periods in a given day. Generally, most people took 4-5 required classes and got to choose 1-2 electives. There was no room in the tight school schedule for orchestra. So, if you wanted to be in the orchestra, they had a special “early bird” orchestra class, if you were willing to get up and be at school by 7:00 a.m. Now, the college prep classes counted as 1.5 credits, regular academic classes counted as 1.0 credit, and electives and half-year classes counted as 0.5 credit. Orchestra counted as a full 1.0 credit. There was some mathematical formula having to do with the number of credits and your GPA and they put that in order, so that was your class rank. Would it be any surprise to anyone that every valedictorian since they started that early bird class had been in the orchestra? :dubious: Right at the end of the year, a bunch of people were dropped and our class ended up being the smallest in several decades. I think we marched just under 200 people at graduation. But, for most of my senior year, I was 14 out of 220-something. Would it surprised you to learn that ten of the top 15 in my class were all in the orchestra? I was infuriated when I realized that orchestra was included in the class rank calculation. I don’t think it should have been because not everyone had the opportunity to sign up for an early bird class. It’s not like they offered other classes at that time. Had I known, in fifth grade when the music teacher had us try all the instruments to decide if we wanted to play one and be in band/orchestra, that playing an instrument might have put me in the top 5 or even in running for valedictorian/salutatorian, I might have signed right up. Except I was in a different school system at the time. I wouldn’t have had to be any _good_ at the instrument, just pass the class and I’d have gotten credit. I could have sat in the dead last, crap player chair and still ranked 5-10 spots higher. I calmed myself down with the thought that, roughly five minutes after graduation, anyone who gave a shit no longer did. I think I’m _almost_ over the injustice of it all. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/75 "2012-12-04T19:18:44Z")
One of the advantages of being in Computer Science in high school was, I managed to see when the end-of-fall-semester class ranks for my class were published; I was something like 37th out of 539. I had something like a 3.75 at the time, but I got two Bs in my final semester, so it probably went down; I like to joke that I was “first in my class among those that never got straight As,” and for all I know, I was. In my day, the highest GPA was automatically valedictorian - and we ended up with five 4.0s (no bonus points for honors classes in those days), so all five were valedictorians (I don’t think we had a salutatorian) and spoke at the commencement. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2012, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767/76 "2012-12-04T19:57:18Z")
4th out of about 250, not too shabby I guess. I was the only National Merit Scholar, though. 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-your-high-school-class-rank/642767.md?page=3)