Leadership Academy of Utah acknowledges the importance of recognizing the exceptional work of the top academic students at LAU. This Valedictorian Policy clarifies the process in which the Valedictorian and Salutatorians are chosen.

The Valedictorian will be the student with the highest weighted GPA in their graduating class, and the Salutatorian will be the student with the second-highest weighted GPA in their graduating class. If there is a tie between two or more graduating seniors for Valedictorian or Salutatorian, the student’s ACT score may be considered. 

Criteria for Valedictorian award:

Weighted classes will be considered, including all honors, AP, and Concurrent Enrollment classes, along with advanced classes above HS Math 3 and Chemistry at LAU, or those transferred in.

To qualify for consideration, 50% of core classes must be taken through LAU, not transferred. 

LAU students must be enrolled full time during the fall of their senior year, but may graduate during that semester, and are not required to be enrolled winter semester. Even so, they should be included in the Class Rank report when it is run in winter.

Final Valedictorian(s) and/or Salutatorian(s) will be determined based on the completion of all high school credit course work (after midterm grades are posted in the winter term of senior year). We will use an internal weighted GPA to determine our Valedictorian. Honors, AP, advanced, and college classes will have a multiplier of 1.2500 and be based on a 5.0 GPA scale. All high school credits, both transferred in and taken at LAU, will be used for this calculation. We will use a standard 4.0 GPA scale for all other credits.

If a preliminary candidate for Valedictorian or Salutatorian has repeated a course for the purpose of raising a grade, the original grade earned will stand when determining awards