<p>This article shows quite a bit: 1. Many public schools in the US are inadequate (as well as some charter and parochial schools and I'm sure that there are not so great independent schools). I've seen posts on CC saying "A private school education is a waste of money. Public schools prepare kids adequately for college. My son's friend is FLOURISHING at Stanford!" Please, keep in mind not everyone lives in a upper-class suburb with a wonderful school system or a city that offers excellent feeder schools. My parents are middle class and scraped up the money to send me to a private school. In fact many people at my school are lower to middle class. 2. While standardized test scores and grades can tell a lot, don't let them rule everything. I go to a private school, did well on the ACTs (but not in the 30s) and have a 3.5 GPA (with honors and AP courses). I'm going to a public college next year, that is getting increasingly competitive and rejected many bright, accomplished students this year. Yet, I still felt inadequate, since I've come across many incoming freshmen who are Valedictorians with 34 ACTs and were offered tons of scholarship money (I was offered only 600 dollars :-/ ). My mother is a teacher and reassured me that high school grades and test scores don't necessarily mean that you will be sucessful in college. High school and college are two different things. Many kids regardless of how bright they are, can not properly study or manage time themselves. They also may have failed to be challenged (ie. high school seniors who never did more than a five page research paper in their schooling). My school as taught me how to be self reliant (I'm a boarding student, however, they seem to ingrain self-reliance in day students too), how to write an intense research paper, and how to be a LEADER. So what I was never a National Merit Finalist. What I've learned in high school will transcend any fancy label ;-) .</p>
<p>Our public hs does a good job of preparing its students for college level work. The AP and honors level courses are very good. For example our son took APCalcBC, got a final grade of 83(B-?), a 5 on the AP test and B,A,A,A in his 4 college maths(Calc2, MVCalc, Disc Structures, Graph Theory).</p>
<p>He took college prep(Non honors/AP) English and has received mostly A's in the 6(?) writing intensive courses he has taken. I know that in his hs lit courses the reading list was similar to that of the honors/AP sections and included significant essay assignments.</p>
<p>He attends RPI which, with an average gpa of between 3.0 and 3.1 exhibits little grade inflation. Neither did his hs given that his college gpa(3.77) is higher than his hs uwgpa of about 3.4 using the 92=A standard.</p>
<p>I think one reason some capable students are not preped for college level work is due to the fact that hs A's are so easy to earn. If more hs's were like our districts-where students have to work for that A-they would be far better prepared for college level work.</p>