<p>5forme, there are a lot of resources for the Naval Academy here on the site. There are several parents that have gone through that. Physical fitness is a big deal from what I recall, and so being in a school where he can participate in sports would not hurt. </p>
<p>I can very much relate to your story, as I grew up in a very rural area (100 kids in the entire high school) 30 miles from the nearest “city” of 35,000. We had no AP classes and no honors classes beyond “Advanced Biology,” which was basically an intro anatomy course where we spent a semester dissecting cats. Everyone took Algebra in 9th grade, Geometry in 10th, and Algebra II as a junior. Senior year the college bound took something called “Senior Math” that included an intro to trig and little else. Chemistry/Physics was offered only every other year.</p>
<p>The results: Both my brother and I graduated at the top of our classes (not saying much with ~30 to a class!) and went to college, me to the instate flagship and him to an OOS flagship known for his particular engineering major. I started off wanting to be a research biologist but changed my major to science education when my confidence faltered via C’s in Chem I and Chem II freshman year (how, I reasoned, would I ever make it through Organic Chem if I could barely squeak by in the intro courses??). I am now very, very happy teaching gifted math and science, but I often wonder how I might have fared if I had had any solid high school preparation…</p>
<p>My brother also had challenges to overcome. He FAILED Calc I as a freshman engineering major because he didn’t have the math background, but got himself a tutor, retook it, and earned an A. He managed to make up for a poor academic preparation through many, many additional hours of study and a lot of determination, and today he’s a successful, highly paid engineer. However, someone of lesser ambition or confidence might have simply decided they weren’t cut out for engineering and changed majors to something less rigorous.</p>
<p>I tell you these anecdotes not to scare you or convince you to move, but to provide some insight from someone who’s been there. My husband and I have chosen to raise our kids in a rural area because we both love the outdoors and want to give our kids the opportunity to run barefoot through the trees, so to speak, but I purposefully took a teaching position to which I commute every day for the sole fact that my kids can attend school with me rather than the rural school of the district in which we reside. </p>
<p>Granted, your son’s high school is about 3 times larger than the one from which I graduated, so your situation may be entirely different. However, I’d pay for private school before I’d stick my kids with the same education I received.</p>