[tlunter]

While I wouldn't say I learned all of this, we did cover quite a similar set of topics during my schooling. It's not everywhere that schooling is bad in the US. Not every school just lumps all of the kids no matter their aptitude into the same classes. A lot of schools have many levels of placement that are to help understand the baselines a student can be held to. For most math and science classes I took the top classes and felt it was a great pace (most of the time) and learned quite a bit. For history and English/grammar classes where I'm not as strong, I took a middle level class and still learned much of the same material but at a slower pace.

For cases like your sister, there was options for classes to be taken. She can take many different art classes over the course of a couple years to help build a portfolio for submitting to colleges. I on the other hand had 2 maths, 2 sciences, and an English class my final semester. It was great since it so closely aligned with my college studies and helped me get ahead (AP). I never felt difficulty in college having taken these APs either.

Just setting the record straight, it's not the complete Wild West over here. Just some schools are stronger than others. My school is pretty standard as far as schools in south east Massachusetts go.

[tinco]

Cool thanks! Just to clear it up, I didn't think it was a complete wild west out there. Clearly the U.S. has many of the best universities in the world, and similarly many of the best arts academies so somehow it's able to produce well prepared students. I was just a bit confused on how exactly.