A high school, where almost half the students have an unweighted GPA of 3.9?
Meaning in every single course and subject, half of the students got an “A” grade, every year of attending?
Things changed a lot in the past 4 years as far as grade inflation.
When my daughter graduated from HS, there was a “Platinum Scholar” award for that level of consistent performance handed out during the graduation ceremony, and their names are added to the school’s “Hall of Fame”.
I just checked, and that year it had been reached by 5 out of approx. 250 graduates.
With that and for that tier of colleges, she had received acceptances from UVA, UMA Amherst, URich, NE, BU, NYU, GWU,… to their honors colleges (if available), with merit scholarships of 15K to 35K p.a. (e.g., enough to bring out of state down to “in-state” cost), etc. No sports or other unique factors.
Of course, the results were more varied for her “reach” colleges, which generally also don’t offer merit as any criteria would apply to all applicants.