One thing to be aware of is that if you are planning to send your kid to a competitive college, it looks very bad to switch schools in the middle of HS. It is urgent to make the best decision before 9th grade so that he will be able to stick it out.
My personal gripe is that I have yet to see a single school with top notch Kodesh and top notch Chol departments. Most Chareidi schools make a joke out of English, either by ending school so late that there is no time or energy left to do any serious studying of Chol, or by denigrating it outright, or by hiring Rebbes to teach Chol subjects which they are not prepared to do, and also by not having adequate lab facilities for basic knowledge of a subject, let alone advanced research.
Last Shabbos I saw on the wall of a child who goes to a modern school a 10th grade chem test in which he did well, and one question said, this is from last lab. Also the name of the teacher was Dr. So-and-so. I wryly commented to my wife, in my kid’s school the teacher’s name would have been exactly the same except he would have been Rabbi So-and-so. I am so aggravated it is beyond words. We let talented kids emerge completely behind their modern counterparts in Chol. And let alone behind kids coming from schools like Stuyvesant HS which have online course catalogs that make one weep. We are literally creating the next generation who will not be able to make a parnasa in this high tech world.
And BTW, high-tech does not mean owning an Ipod or Iphone, any more than owning a car makes one an expert in mechanical engineering. Most kids haven’t a clue what goes into their gadgets or how they work. Most cannot build even the simplest circuit beyond a battery and lightbulb, or the simplest chemical reaction beyond vinegar and baking soda.
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