Anonymous wrote:"Watch the students"
That's 99% of it. Every school I'm aware of produces students that share common traits (distributed around an average). Not to say they are all alike, but they share traits.
In my experience students in a more formal environment become more socially adept. Students in a less structured environment trend toward socially awkward, but more out of the box thinking.
Watch the students because that is your DC's future.
You've got a chicken-egg problem here. The "less structured" schools tend to be the most supportive of out-of-the-box kids.