Overachieving Teen's GPA Breaks Record

In one Florida county, a teen just set a grade-point average that likely won't be touched—or even allowed—again. Steinbrenner High School's Vaibhav Bhaskar graduated as valedictorian with an 11.99 GPA, a new state record, per the Palm Beach Post, and the product of Hillsborough County's now-scrapped system that piled bonus points onto advanced and dual-enrollment classes with no cap. Bhaskar, who once wrote "Valedictorian Vaibhav" on a fifth-grade nametag without knowing what it meant, spent high school stacking AP, dual-enrollment, and online courses, ultimately earning 70 credits instead of the 24 required to graduate, reports the Tampa Bay Times.

"I kind of exhausted all of my school's curriculum and saw what I could do beyond that," Bhaskar tells the Times. Indeed, the student heading to Duke to study economics and public policy has already earned enough college credits to qualify for an associate degree, per the Post. His near-12.0 comes just as the district has overhauled its grading formula, citing out-of-whack GPAs, unhealthy competition, and mental health concerns. Starting with the Class of 2027, GPAs will be capped at 5.0, bringing Hillsborough closer to national norms and reducing the incentive to overload on classes. College admissions officers generally recalculate GPAs anyway, one expert noted, focusing on core academics and context like class rank.