We saw this bus coming from a long way off, so we made sure to let DD14 know that while we expect her GPA to be good, we would rather she challenge herself than play it safe for a higher class rank. This is one of those times where you have to encourage your kid to miss out on the honor of appearing to be the best student by having her gain real knowledge and experience instead. In my opinion, it is better to have a real education and no award, than an award and a half-arsed education to go with it.
A couple of DD14s friends have the highest GPAs in her class and, thank goodness, DD does think it silly how they maneuver around to keep it as high as possible.
In my graduating class, I felt bad for our salutatorian. Our school had unweighted GPAs, and the salutatorian had one B and everything else As - while taking a fairly rigorous schedule. The valedictorian of my class took almost no rigor, and skated to all As.
Best of luck,
--S.F.
