I went to PLC (Pymble). How your grade will affect you truly depends on the batch of students, in my opinion we get better every year, but then again that's debatable...
The school tends to stuff up the internal ranks BUT this means that everyone pulls some people up and then is pulled up in turn by other people. This is why individually we don't do that well, but as a collective group we shine. We rock at all-rounders. 50% of girls at our school get UAI's of over 90, even though we aren't selective.
The reason we don't rank well on a per-student basis is that we aren't selective - I think we don't fit into the top 10. But I reckon we're a great school, I wouldn't have gone anywhere else in Sydney. We had fantastic teachers who helped me and my 3 buddies who got the same UAI achieve the marks we did.
Perhaps my marks/UAI might have been that little bit higher if I'd just gone to Ruse, or NSGHS, or maybe even SGHS - but I went to PLC for the whole package (the music, the grounds, the people, the marks) and I will NEVER regret my decision.
Besides, the perks like the free laptop, the free food (like today's morning tea), the silly badges, the massive common room/kitchen...lol now I sound like a brat...sorry!
No actually now I sound like a walking advertisment. Oops. Well anyhow I reckon PLC made me more all-rounded, I came out of primary school at the risk of becoming a hermit (I had the glasses, the computer fixation, the Harry Potter obsession...) but then my high school totally opened my eyes...
The end.