FLORIDA VALEDICTORIAN GRADUATED WITH RECORD 11.99 GPA
A Florida valedictorian finished high school with a record 11.99 GPA, a number his district’s new grading cap makes impossible to repeat.
Vaibhav Bhaskar graduated from Steinbrenner High School in Lutz, Florida, and spoke publicly about his GPA and his future on July 14, 2026, on WUSF‘s “Florida Matters Live & Local.”
The New York Post reported the score as a Florida record. The previous mark was 11.84, held by Gaither High School graduate Dylan Mazard.
Bhaskar said he set his sights on the record early. As a sophomore, he wrote his goals on a whiteboard in his room, and the top two were to “become valedictorian” and “break the state GPA record.”
“Once I had those goals defined, and I had the mindset that I was going to accomplish those goals no matter what, from then on it just became about patience,” he told the Post.
Inside the 44 courses
Bhaskar took 44 advanced courses, a mix of Advanced Placement and dual-enrollment classes.
The Palm Beach Post reported the dual-enrollment courses were taken through the University of Florida’s online program. UPI reported that the coursework earned him enough credits for an associate’s degree.
He is headed to Duke University to study finance and economics.
The number was possible because of how Hillsborough County used to calculate GPAs. An A in a standard class counted for up to 4.0 points, while AP and dual-enrollment courses carried added weight, and the points piled up.
Bhaskar was upfront about what the figure means. “Regardless of the scale, colleges will recalculate your GPA,” he told the Post.
“On my scale, it was favorable because it gives those crazy numbers, and 11.99 obviously sounds a lot better than 4.93,” he said.
The district’s change
Hillsborough County revised its GPA model for ninth graders. The new version standardizes and caps the GPA, and WUSF reported that Bhaskar’s result will not be mathematically possible for future graduates.
UPI reported that the district board voted for the change and that the cap takes effect with the next graduating class.
The district said the old system led college admissions officers to recalculate unusually high GPAs. It also said the old weighting could encourage excessive online-course enrollment, stressful and unhealthy learning habits, and mental-health concerns.
“We made the changes because the new weighting scale/calculation model is recognized universally by colleges and universities, to better prepare students for gaining admission to the postsecondary school,” a Hillsborough County Public Schools spokesperson said in a statement to the Post.
“In addition, by changing the old GPA weighting scale, we believe it alleviated the stress that many students were developing over the years in their quest to achieve a higher GPA,” the spokesperson said.
Bhaskar said he “fully supports” moving to a standardized approach that restricts GPA to a five-point scale.
After graduation, he said, he spent his days sleeping in and resting. He told the Post he would not call himself burned out, but he was tired. “It felt almost surreal that I didn’t have anything left to do,” he said.
Bhaskar’s class was the last in Hillsborough County eligible for the old GPA model, WUSF reported.
