Indeed, IMSA boasts astronomical SAT scores and the second-highest ACT score in the nation. Ninety-nine percent of IMSA graduates go to college; two-thirds go on to earn degrees in science or math. The persistent nationwide "achievement gap" between Caucasian vs. African-American and Latino students is far narrower at IMSA, as is the historic gap between males and females in the realms of math and science achievement. In 1998 the mean SAT score for female IMSA students was 1400, compared to 1017 for females nationwide; the school's first Rhodes scholar and Westinghouse Talent Search winner were both girls.

"There needs to be a place for people who have exhausted the standard high school curriculum and are looking for a better challenge before college," says IMSA junior Jessica D'Souza. "IMSA is that place, at least for those of us here."

"The average teen doesn't have the maturity to attend this school," adds senior Kelly Willis. "In fact, a lot of IMSA kids don't have that maturity, but they get by in a cloud of teacher sympathy and student camaraderie. There's a lot of people at IMSA who never fit societal norms, and they come together here."

Bearing "in loco parentis" responsibility for 650 teenagers, with a level of control possible only in a school that monitors its students around the clock, the IMSA staff closely evaluates students' psychological as well as academic well-being.

"We have many systems and structures in place so that we intervene early in a way that meets the needs of the particular student," says IMSA counselor Deb McGrath. "The teachers, the counselors, the resident counselors really get to know their kids. Those students who we feel are at risk for depression, anxiety, perfectionism, sexual identity issues -- anything that might interfere with a student's ability to be successful at IMSA -- are assessed along with their families."

Sometimes that assessment leads to a phone call to the student's parents, or the suggestion that the student join a support group. In an undisclosed number of cases, the assessment results in a visit to an off-site psychiatrist and a prescription for antidepressants.

"I didn't start on meds till I came here," an IMSA junior confides. "If you go into the nurse's office, there's a huge sign-up list for medications and a Tupperware thing, and it's almost all Prozac." A classmate, listening in, nods knowingly. "I know a lot of people who were OK before," he says. "Then they came here and had to get back on their meds."

"Supposedly we're too smart," a third IMSA girl explains. "Our brain produces a lot of weird chemicals. And we think about stuff way too much."

McGrath attributes this disturbing phenomenon to homesickness, to the perfectionism that often characterizes gifted students and to "the documented susceptibility of the gifted population to depression."

Medicated or not, thinking too much or not, IMSA students, teachers and administrators alike describe the school as a tightknit, loving community in which not only ideas and intellect but individuality and personal growth are cherished and encouraged. How unusual for a public high school is that?

Order "Mothers Who Think: Tales of Real-Life Parenthood" from the editors of Mothers Who Think.