What do LessWrongers think of terror management theory? It has it's roots in Freudian psychoanalysis, but it seems to be getting more and more evidence supporting it (here's a 2010 literature review)

Yup!

I will copy this into an edit of the main post:

I decided to go to public school, because I was tired of all the little annoying stuff at my current school--especially the entitled kids and the entitled attitude in general. Everybody acts like they deserve something. It's very irritating.

The other reason I came to that decision was "exploration value". By moving to a new situation I learn whether I really am better off in the kind of environment offered by the public high school; even if it ends up being worse for me, at least I know what to avoid. If it's good, I know it's good; and if it makes no difference, I know that, too.

I would do that, but they don't let you take the GED unless you've officially dropped out of high school. Which isn't happening...

I've considered graduating a year early, but at that point I'd rather just finish it out. I'll have enough free room in my schedule to take fun art classes and stuff.

Finally, commuting is a life-killer. Adults very commonly underrate the loss of quality of life for commuting (I commute 10 >minutes each way; I have had jobs with one-hour commutes.) I'd suggest it's even more valuable time lost for a teenager.

You have no idea how gratifying this is to hear. The commute is only a half-hour drive, but it does kind of suck. It's nice to know I'm not crazy to think that.

Believe me, I would do exactly that if I could, but my parents won't let me. It's not even that think I won't get into college--they don't seem to have a rational reason beyond "you just have to follow through with things" and "trust me, I'm much older than you, this is not a time in your life to waste opportunity" and "everybody needs a high school diploma, even if they go through college" none of which are strictly true, as far as I can tell.

That's part of my motivation for going back to public school--because there are less requirements and the workload is less strenuous I can build my schedule in a way that is conducive to me learning things outside of class.

I actually wouldn't mind being on track, but the very large time commitment (meets are usually at least an hour away) and the competitive aspect are deal-breakers for me, as they are for the other sports.

I have one or two friends, but the fact that we all live so far away and that most kids at the school are already in cliques and/or really fake and pretentious makes it hard.

As someone who uses facebook a lot and has many far-away friends from sleep away camp, it seems like it only forces you to keep in touch if you want to be.

The academics, in terms of signalling, are fantastic, but in terms of actual learning they are only okay. Theoretically they are fantastic in terms of actual learning too, but there are many bad teachers, and because the classes are heavily discussion based the learning is largely a function of the intelligence of your classmates, and my school is not selective enough for that to be taken care of. (They even have the gall to ban honors-level English and History classes for underclassmen, so I learn just about nothing in those...)

I'm still friends with several kids at the public school. They are very, very nice, and there are enough wealthy kids in my town that no one really cares about that. Also, they know I could only afford it because my mom works there, so they don't chalk me off as "snobby rich kid" (many of them are richer than me!)

My parents don't care at all. The only authority exerted in them in this area is that they won't let me unschool (which is something I really wanted to do for a while but probably don't have the self-discipline for

I don't expect to keep my high school friends, but if I'm happier from their friendship it will be easier for me to study and get good grades (I know this from experience).

I went to the public middle school, which is the exact same group of kids, so I know a lot of students there and have talked to them about it. It genuinely is the exception to the rule that a public school can be almost as good as a private school (and better, when you throw in the commute and the snobbery involved with the private school). I went to school in a different district when I was younger and it was terrible, even though the school was considered really good, so I know exactly what you're talking about.

I don't know what you mean by "base rate", but people seem to do pretty well at both schools.

That seems like really useful advice. One of things I actually don't like about the private school is that on the one hand it's rather high status, but on the other hand a lot of the people there are not very smart and most of them are quite superficial in a weird, ironic way (our school has an obsession with racism that borders on hysterical considering that the vast majority of students are white, a substantial minority are boarders from China, and as far as I know there has been only one isolated case of actual discrimination against anyone.)

I'm going to read through the goal factoring page tonight; hopefully I can get a grip on it and try to apply it to this situation in addition to the other techniques explained by ScottL (thanks again, ScottL!). And read the starting university advice page. I'll report back soon.