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Valedictorian: Does it Matter?

With the rise and proliferation of sources ranking US colleges and universities over the last few decades, it’s tempting to reduce the admissions process to a simple game of numbers. With top schools flaunting every valedictorian they accept, it’s easy to fixate on things like your high school class rank. Resist that temptation!

There is this idea that being valedictorian will give you a serious edge for college admissions. That being #1 in your class is a guarantee for top schools, but if you’re only #4, your class rank isn’t high enough. This perception is incredibly misguided.

Most higher education institutions in the US rely on a process known as holistic review, whereby individual applicants are evaluated as a whole person. In other words, admissions committees don’t simply distill applicants to the hard quantitative components touted by rankings sources (i.e. your class rank or test scores); instead, they also consider a candidate’s less quantifiable credentials—extracurricular involvement, life experiences, recommendations, writing ability, high school curriculum rigor, special talents, and personality, among others.

Ultimately, admissions officers strive to create a well-balanced class of unique students who will contribute to and enrich the existing campus environment. There’s simply no way to do this without evaluating each applicant beyond the basic numbers in his or her application.

So, what does this mean in practical terms for high school seniors submitting applications? Simply that while it doesn’t hurt to have very good quantitative metrics, it isn’t enough. In other words, being the class valedictorian is never a curse, but it also isn’t a golden ticket. Every year, hundreds of valedictorians receive rejection letters from top universities around the country. Often, the students taking their places are perhaps not quite as strong academically, but have more to offer outside of the numbers.

Let’s walk through an example featuring two students, Hannah and Willow:

Hannah, a conscientious, but shy student has always worked very hard and done well in class. She attends a school offering an AP curriculum, and has taken a rigorous course load with 3-4 AP classes in both her junior and senior year. Going into senior year, she is ranked #1 in a class of 79 students. Hannah is interested in writing, but—other than a brief stint as a writer for a school magazine during sophomore year—she hasn’t done much to pursue this interest either in or out of school.

Willow, on the other hand, is a good student who works hard and also takes AP courses that interest her. Although her grades aren’t as strong as Hannah’s, she has done well, and maintains a class rank of #16. Willow is passionate about educational equality and founded an online, student-driven platform offering free course modules to students attending schools in a nearby city. Creating the platform involved not only recruiting other students, but also convincing the administration of her school and others in the city to endorse the project. Next year, Willow plans to organize weekly in-person tutoring sessions featuring the student-instructors at different schools throughout the city. This will also offer the opportunity to solicit feedback about future online courses. The platform has grown from just three members during sophomore year to forty members from different area schools during junior year. Willow now spends 15-20 hours every week overseeing and growing the platform. In college, she hopes to gain a more thorough grounding in both education and technology so that she can continue to develop new ways of delivering content and teaching populations which lack sufficient traditional resources.

With similar test scores between them, Hannah’s status as valedictorian likely won’t make her any more successful an applicant than Willow. Indeed, Hannah’s lack of accomplishment and dedication to her interests outside of the classroom will likely make her less competitive at many schools, despite her superior numbers. Willow, however, has shown an ongoing and evolving pursuit of her passion—one she hopes to continue in college. This is exactly the sort of “soft factor” that admissions committees consider alongside grades and test scores. To sum it up, being valedictorian isn’t everything.

The moral of the story is that application review at US colleges and universities is a multi-faceted, comprehensive undertaking. Having strong test scores and the distinguishing “valedictorian” notation on a transcript will certainly strengthen an application, but only to a certain point. You should always strive to find a balance between the quantitative and qualitative aspects to prepare for college. Remember that admissions committees are looking to fill their seats with smart and interesting people—not perfect scoring or box-checking robots.