Ah but Ron does have his problems. He's lazy and tends to be hot headed where as Harry is more reserved and Neville is more introspective. Of course Harry seems to start out a bit lazy and then really shows signs of applying himself by the time of the 3rd book when he has to learn the patronus spell. J.K. Rowling has said on different occasions that Hermione is based on how she was when she was in school and that Prof. Snape is based on her Chemistry teacher (though he probably wasn't as bad as Snape). It wasn't a potion but a spell that caused her teeth to grow I think but she did show a bit of sneakiness in having Madam Pomfrey shrink them back as much as she did.
All in all I think in Harry and his friends we do get a cross section of how kids do act in school. I was never in a boarding school but some of the ways some of the kids act in Hogwarts reminds me of how it was in public school too. Some things are universal.