Val The LAUSD is the largest in the country, has a huge pool of extremely affluent children in pockets, and is probably the only place you could cordon off the 'gifted' children in that way. In Seattle and its suburbs, the cutoff is actually higher and most programs have children in separate classrooms. Seattle has one gifted school which is overcrowded, and which has generated huge amounts of political ill-will, mainly due to the insufferable parents who insist that their children couldn't learn if near the other children. It's not a great situation, I will say that.
NYC had gifted magnet schools as well.
Scholarships are hard to come by--you can't just be #2 in your class and be in the 95% for SATs. In many countries, that would be enough to guarantee you a spot in college.
Entirely depends on the university you attend. Many top tier universities offer NO academic scholarships because everyone who gets in is already top tier. But there are many smaller liberal arts schools that LOVE that #2, #3 or even #25 kid and offer large scholarships to bright kids. I talked with several of these schools when looking at colleges for my DD.
