<p>Post #5 is absolutely correct and I do not base it strictly on my D’s experience. I heard from plenty of top caliber High schoolers who end up going to state publics for various reasons, primarily to save money. Nope, not easy at all, not even for valedictorians (straingt A kids) from the most rigorous private prep. High Schools in a region, the ones that have students traveling every day from other states. And there are plenty of these kids in state public Honors colleges, in fact, it looked like D’s Honor’s college had primarily valedictorians with very high SAT / ACT</p>