MONTREAL – With the first day of university quickly approaching, all 200 high school valedictorians enrolled in “Introduction to Western Civilisation” at McGill are raring to start and expecting that they will receive the highest mark in the class.
Anne Gibson, valedictorian of St. Mary’s College in Sault Ste. Marie, has spent all of frosh talking about her 97.67% high school average. “That was with IB courses, AP courses, and seven extracurriculars,” she clarifies. “If I could do that, surely doing better than everyone else in a simple history course will be a piece of cake.”
Not everyone agrees with Gibson.
Jeremy Dean, whose final average at McNally High School in Edmonton was 97.97% is quietly confident that his refusal to drink beer or go out at night will give him an advantage over his peers.
There’s also Jeanette Park, who received 98.85% at Malvern Collegiate Institute in Toronto, and shares the title for highest incoming average with twelve other students. “I read the course textbook over my summer vacation in grade 8. I’m so ready for this,” she said.
Professor Malcolm Foster’s expectations of the course are slightly lower than those of his students. “We’re going to spend the first couple weeks teaching them how to write grammatical sentences, and the rest of the term teaching them basic facts. I hope most of them can keep up.”
Paul Mittan, the owner of a 72% high school average and the top student in Prof Foster’s class last year warned the congregated valedictorians not to rest on their past laurels. “Just because your mom got you up on time for class in high school doesn’t mean you’ll remember to show up now that you’re living on your own,” he said.
“That’s really the biggest problem. That and learning how to make Ramen.”
