I did freshman and sophomore year at a traditional high school and we had a guidance counselor, who was worthless.

Junior year I transferred to a vo-tech[1] high school where we had no guidance counselor.

I was shocked at the increased level of educational quality and overall large amount of empathy at the second school. It made me realize that "all schools suck" is false, but rather specific ones are terribad.

With regards to hours, my first high school was a 10-minute walk from my home and my earliest class started at 7:40am and my latest class ended at 3:20pm.

My second high school was an almost 3-hour bus ride one way but a 1-hour bus ride in the reverse direction. The difference was due to public bus schedules during peak and off-peak times.

Junior year, my earliest class was 2pm and latest class ended at 7:30pm. Senior year, we moved closer to my school, a 10-minute drive. I had the lightest load of my life: first class was at 10:15am and last class ended at 1:30pm.

Said vo-tech school has been rebranded as a "STEM academy".

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vocational-technical_school

I slept through most of high school because of the long commute, but vaguely remember a counselor coming around with a computerized career recommender at our magnet school, which told me to become a telecom linesmen because I liked computers.