The Great Race: Seniors Continue to Compete for Number One

The+Great+Race%3A+Seniors+Continue+to+Compete+for+Number+One

Riley DeBoer, Copy Editor

Of all of the graduating seniors this year, perhaps no one should feel more relief than the top students in the class. Getting a high class rank can be no easy task, as it requires a tremendous amount of hard work and many stressful nights to accomplish.

“Getting my grades to where they are now has been a lot of work,” said Tien Dao, who will be majoring in engineering next year at the University of Illinois. “I am just glad that all of this work is almost over. It’s a relief to be done.”

The race for valedictorian has been close, but Austin Selas has been in the lead for a while and is due to take the top honor. Selas decided to work to become the valedictorian after he discovered that he had a chance in his freshman year.

“Even though it is coming to an end, it is definitely not over yet,” said Selas, who will be attending Rockford University. “It is still kind of stressful for me.”

If someone was going to try and become valedictorian, they should try to come up with a plan. Knowing what classes to take and what to do is very important.

“Some advice I would give would be is don’t be afraid to ask for help,” said Dao. “Make sure to focus on the most important things. Don’t over think things too much.”

Certain classes can make a difference on a student’s class rank. AP classes are essential to achieving the top prize. Those classes are weighted, which means they are worth more for one’s GPA than normal classes. Getting A’s in AP classes could raise a GPA to above a 4.0.

“If I had to give some advice, it would be to take engineering classes,” said Selas. “Those classes help your GPA a lot without being too stressful to complete.”

After all is said and done, one would hope that all of the stress someone would go thorough would all be worth it.

“I think that all of the work I did was worth it,” said Kyle Thurston. “I feel that my class rank, GPA, and AP scores helped factor into my decisions for where to go to college.”

Despite this, the large amount of work and stress required to become number one can outweigh the reward. Some wonder if it is even worth it.

“In a way I would say that it wasn’t completely worth it,” said Selas. “I put myself through a lot of stress and anxiety getting here. In college, I plan to work hard for grades, but not push myself to where I went in high school.”