Black Mississippi student forced to share valedictorian title with white student who had lower GPA

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57. The kid did well in high school. That only means so much.

In terms of her life success, how she navigate college means more than any high school honor.

I personally went from a 3.98 GPA in my senior year of high school and being in the top 10% on the SAT the year before to almost failing my college freshman Chemistry class. I overloaded myself with difficult classes my first semester of college and although I worked my ass off, I got a D in that Chemistry class, passing, but certainly nothing to be proud of. There is nothing more humbling than having a graduate assistant tell me that the Professor wanted to see me after class as I sat waiting for the first class of second semester Chemistry. There was nothing more humiliating than going to that Professor's office and being told that I should drop his class because I was sure to fail. I refused to drop the class and ended up earning a B+ that semester, because when I went home between the semesters, I studied what had happen. I went on to take the third semester of that Professors class, a very difficult class that few incoming freshmen stayed around for and got a B, I missed A's because the Professor was very old fashioned and forced students to calculate numerical answers to the fourth decimal point and only use a slide rule or do the calculation longhand. I didn't know how to use a slide rule.

Sorry about the long assed reply, the point that I am trying to make is that even very good students in high school can come up short in college if they have not been forwarded about the subtle workings of college. I was the first person in my family to go to college, I had no one to forearm me. Parents with high performing high school students are most likely good parents, most went to college and understand aspects of life there that can be useful for their children, my argument is long term it is better to focus on college rather than fight high school slights.