I met a girl last night, she is a high school senior

[Oski]

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um, voting for valedictorian seems retarded to me. best grades should get valedictorian, funny speech can come from class president.

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This thread reminds me of the movie "Election." This girl set a goal and played within the rules to get it. Good for her. Whether this means she is a better student, etc. than the runners' up is irrelevant. She has proven the best at being the valedictorian, and nothing more.

Of course:

We clearly need a playoff. I know the BCS puts the top candidates into contention for valedictiorian and in theory gives us the true valedictorian on paper, but often some of the stronger candidates can be left out.

Getting a "B" or "C" in frehsman year often takes you out of the running, even if you rebound into form your junior or senior year. In other words, rather than scheduling cupcakes classes from lower divisions, some students are penalized for scheduling challenging classes which may give them a lot more education and demand much more performance, even where they only score a "B."