Valedictorian Scholarship recipients at Oklahoma State University are provided an annual tuition waiver of $1,250. The University's awarding criteria for the scholarship requires the student to only have been certified Valedictorian by the high school or school district. While other merit-based institutional scholarships at OSU require students to meet an ACT score of at least 24, the Valedictorian Scholarship program does not include ACT as part of the awarding process. It is possible for Valedictorian students with ACT scores <24 to receive Valedictorian Scholarship funding when the student would otherwise be excluded from institutional scholarship programs. Little evidence exists that suggests that academic honors such as Valedictorian predict post-secondary success, but OSU excludes ACT and defers to Valedictorian status when making scholarship award decisions. The purpose of this research was to determine if ACT scores of first-year Valedictorian Scholarship recipients are inconsequential. IndependSchool of Teaching and Curriculum Leadershi
