My son chose the public high school over private because he wanted more chances to enrich his interests in a wide variety of subjects rather than focus so heavily on academics. He participated in marching band one year and symphonic band an additional year. Through the gifted program, he worked with the university robotics lab one year and with the mechanical engineering dept. building a simulator for college students to test parts of the race car they were developing. Having those experiences helped him decide what he wanted to do in college and were well worth any loss of advanced curriculum - although he did finish college level calculus, biology, history and English as part of his high school courses at the public school. None of those options were available at the more elite private school, so we thought public to be a better match.
Good luck - it's a tough decision.
