Why is a Valedictorian Like a Throughbred Horse?

Not similar to GPA.

Beats the hell out of me. Why should a girl who wants to major in engineering be "competing" against a girl who wants to major in business? How can anyone possibly compare the two to the number 3 girl who took predominantly music, art, and English electives and wanted to major in theater?

A couple of years ago, my school had two amazing kids: one took geometry as a freshman, the other took algebra 2 as a freshman. By the senior year, both had progressed up the ladder and taken calculus. Their GPAs were 0.003 apart. The valedictorian received a UVM total scholarship (Green and Gold) but didn't need it and went elsewhere. The salutatorian who needed that scholarship and wanted to go to UVM, didn't get it.

Why do we do this to our kids?