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> Well he was valedictorian at his high school Without knowing the criteria (as best I know, it's not just based on academic excellence but other things like s
by zimpenfish 1y ago
> Well he was valedictorian at his high school
Without knowing the criteria (as best I know, it's not just based on academic excellence but other things like sports[0] and extracurriculars), it's not much of a claim.
[0] Hegseth was a leading basketball and football player for Princeton.
- nkurz 1y agoIn the US, the valedictorian of a high school is typically the person with highest academic grade point average. I've never heard of it considering sports participation, although Wikipedia does suggest that sometimes extra-curriculars are now being considered: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valedictorian https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valedictorian. But given his age and absent outside information, I think the fair assumption is that he won because he had the best grades in his courses.
- nebula8804 1y agoOthers have explained what Valedictorian means: highest class rank based on academic marks. His father was a basektball coach, mother was a "executive business coach" so likely middle class to upper middle class. That excludes making large monetary contributions to gain admissions (ex. Bush Jr.) It really seems like his admission to Princeton was based on a combination of excellent academic performance combined with his athletic ability which is often a boost for applications in competitive schools like Princeton.