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sending your child to an international school requires not only adequate mental preparation, but also adequate financial budget. sending your child to an international school is like choosing a completely different path, and it is difficult to turn back from this path.

written by wei yingjie

i saw an article online saying that middle-class families in beijing, shanghai and guangzhou are quietly withdrawing from international schools. it said that as the (expected) income of many middle-class people decreases, it is becoming increasingly difficult for international schools to enroll students.

similar voices have actually been circulating in recent years, but we cannot only see one side of the story.international schools are also divided into different types and admission targets. simply saying whether it is difficult to enroll is not accurate.

some international schools only provide educational services for the children of local nationals. these international schools are not even profit-making, and the number of students does not affect their operations.

there are also big differences in recruiting students from the public. some international schools only recruit children of foreign nationals, so with fewer foreign nationals, there are naturally fewer students.

more international schools are market-oriented, and enrollment directly affects their profitability.this type of international school is the focus of many middle-class families. and the top international schools in this category basically do not have the problem of difficulty in recruiting students. after all, there are still many families who want their children to study abroad, and the reduction in the number of students will not impact these schools.

▲parents are participating in an international school enrollment event (photo/vcg)

although they are all international schools, some schools have an astonishingly high proportion of students admitted to the g5 (the best five universities in the uk) or the ivy league schools every year, while some schools do not have a single student admitted to oxbridge. can the admission situation be the same?

therefore, there is no need to think too much about whether it is difficult to enroll in international schools. instead, you should consider the issue more from the perspectives of your own economic conditions, your children's talents, interests and hobbies, and future study abroad destinations.

your child is about to decide whether to go to an international school. what’s the point of still considering whether it is difficult for international schools to enroll this year?

whether to send children to international schools or not, every family has its own considerations. the information provided here is to tell you about the real international schools for families who have such considerations.

01

international schools do not mean no exams

many parents send their children to international schools, of course, in order to allow their children to study abroad. one important reason for doing so is that they do not want their children to be overwhelmed by the examination system. if they fail, they may have to go to vocational high school.

there is no need to say more about the exam-oriented education. hengshui high school is a sample.

therefore, many middle-class parents think that since they can afford to send their children abroad, why should they compete with others in china? not only do parents think so, but children also think that as long as they go to an international school, they don’t have to work so hard to practice questions.

this is actually a misunderstanding.

the ideal international school might be one where students wear british and american style uniforms, walk around the campus wearing headphones, and have club activities every day, such as horse riding, kayaking, and golf. however, the reality of international schools is completely different.

international schools have their own exams. not to mention oxford, cambridge and ivy league schools, if you want to get into a good and prestigious school, you can’t do it without the exams.

for example, the main requirement for applying to commonwealth universities is to study the a-level system, which is the british high school curriculum. generally speaking, in addition to english language proficiency (ielts), you must also take three or four different courses such as economics, mathematics, and history based on your business, science, or liberal arts major before you can apply to study abroad.

the us direction is even more complicated. in addition to academic performance, you also need letters of recommendation, competition results, and social practice experience. to write a good application, there are many tricks and requirements behind it. it is definitely not as simple as packaging it up and handing it over to the school or agency.

picture/tuchong creative

speaking of language barriers, whether it is ielts or toefl, the english requirements are of course much higher than those of ordinary domestic middle schools. most international schools require english for admission tests to see how good your language ability is.

international schools teach in english, and most of the courses are taught by foreign teachers (less in recent years). this requires intensive training at off-campus training institutions to pass the language barrier. training institutions provide tutoring based on the requirements of ielts or toefl exams, with a large amount of vocabulary, reading, and dictation. it is normal to require students to memorize 100 to 200 words a day.

this is no longer cramming teaching, but devil training.

when you enter an international school, the same teaching content is replaced with english textbooks, which means the difficulty is doubled. just think about it, even if you have a certain level of english proficiency, it does not mean that you can understand english math papers, nor does it mean that you can understand english philosophy books or economics courses.

what should i do if i don't understand? i can only spend more time studying. in international schools, regular classes are often just to lay the foundation, and after class, you have to attend off-campus training and concentrate on studying. this is especially true for those who strive to enter famous schools. in extreme cases, some students simply take leave and spend a lot of time on off-campus training. do you think this is not a waste?

it’s also learning, but it’s relatively easy in the domestic language environment.therefore, parents and children who want to attend international schools with the mentality of not following the domestic test-oriented education papers should give up this idea as soon as possible.

international schools can provide more choices and opportunities, but this does not mean that you don't have to study hard. in order to have more independent choices, you need to put in more effort.

02

international schools are not just about tuition fees

now let’s do the economic calculations.

some middle-class parents think that sending their children to international schools is enough as long as they can afford the tuition and living expenses. some people calculate that the tuition fee is 100,000 to 200,000 yuan a year, and after adding all other expenses, they think that the total cost is about 300,000 yuan a year.

of course, there is a difference between spending money frugally and spending money regardless of cost, but the above algorithm is still too optimistic.

brother zhang mingyang has summarized the "three pieces of the middle class's deadly trap", namely "a mortgage of nearly 10 million, a spouse who doesn't work, and two children going to international schools". in fact, let alone sending two children to international schools, even sending one child to an international school is like entering a huge pit. if you don't have a "redundant" budget, be careful when entering the pit.

the current general tuition fees of international schools (taking jiangsu, zhejiang and shanghai as an example) are mostly 150,000-200,000 yuan per school year, which is 450,000-600,000 yuan in three years. but this is just tuition fees, and there are other expenses such as accommodation, meals, clothing, club activities, transportation, etc. these expenses are at least 50,000-100,000 yuan a year (4,000-8,000 yuan per month on average), and they cannot be saved.

but is that the end? definitely not.

there is one expense that parents may not think about, which is what to do if their children are not used to the school dormitory?if you need to rent a house, the related expenses will go up. it is normal to pay 3,000 to 5,000 yuan a month for rent, which does not include water, electricity and other related expenses. this year, another 30,000 to 50,000 yuan will be gone.

compared to another expense, this is a small amount of money. that is the cost of extracurricular training. many parents think that they don’t have to worry about anything if they send their children to international schools. this is impossible.

as mentioned above, language training is required to enter an international school. once you enter an international school, you cannot save on language training, and you also need to take tutoring for other courses depending on the situation. according to industry regulations, this type of off-campus (one-on-one) training costs 800-1500 yuan per hour. note that the time unit here is hours.

that is to say, if you take two classes a week, each lasting two hours, the monthly fee is 12,000 to 24,000 yuan. of course, this kind of training is not conducted throughout the year. if you also take training during the winter and summer vacations, the annual cost of 100,000 to 200,000 yuan is not saved.

picture/tuchong creative

in addition, there is another major expense that has not been taken into account.although international schools generally provide study abroad counseling, and some parents or students will prepare their own study abroad applications, most parents have no experience in doing it themselves, so they will entrust it to an agency.

there are many ways to ask an agency to handle your study abroad application. there are separate applications, combined applications, and "guarantee" services (applications will be approved). of course, the fees are different. generally speaking, the minimum is tens of thousands of yuan, and the maximum is one or two hundred thousand yuan. for more complicated american university applications, there will be some "strange" fees, such as social practice or design work fees. if it is "made", it will also cost a lot of money.

this does not include the registration fees for exams (all exams require registration fees), summer travel fees, and pocket money for children, which are actually difficult to save. in addition, children attending international high schools are in adolescence and will have many unexpected places to spend money, such as dating, transferring schools, etc.

by this calculation, the annual cost of sending a child to an international school ranges from 400,000 to 500,000 yuan, or as much as 1.8 million yuan. over three years (and a 3.5-year school system), a million yuan is a must.in short, there are no surprises, only shocks.

according to the "china fertility cost report 2024 edition" released by the yuwa expert team (liang jianzhang, huang wenzhen, he yafu, etc.), the average cost of raising children aged 0-17 in domestic families is 538,000 yuan; the average cost of raising children from 0 to undergraduate graduation is about 680,000 yuan.

in other words, the cost of studying in an international school for one year is roughly equal to the cost of an ordinary domestic family raising a child from 0 to 17 years old or even until he or she graduates from college.

to put it another way of comparison, the cost of studying in an international high school in china is almost equivalent to that of going directly to a high school in the united states (the annual cost is between 50,000 and 100,000 us dollars. it would be cheaper if you go to canada instead).

i have calculated the accounts in such detail just to remind some parents that sending their children to international schools requires not only adequate mental preparation, but also a sufficient financial budget.

studying in an international school means choosing a completely different path, and it is difficult to turn back.

03

international schools are more like advanced training institutions

at this point, many people may have realized that international schools that recruit students from the society are essentially more advanced extracurricular training institutions.

compared with ordinary high schools, except for a few international schools that are included in the local ordinary high school enrollment plan, many international schools do not have ordinary high school students, so they cannot issue ordinary high school diplomas.

moreover, since the certificates issued by the schools themselves have little credibility, most international schools require students to participate in international courses, such as ig, al, ib, and ap, to obtain international curriculum certificates.

however, these international courses that are generally recognized by overseas universities are not only available to students studying in international schools.as long as you pay the registration fee, you can choose to apply for these courses online or through a training institution. even international schools only organize applications, and the examinations, grading, announcement of results, and issuance of certificates are all the responsibility of the international examination bureau.

it can be said that what international schools can do, training institutions can also do, and training institutions place more emphasis on one-on-one services.

the biggest difference between the two is that in addition to classes, international schools can provide students with a complete high school campus life, including extracurricular activities, club activities, dormitory life and extensive interpersonal interactions, while training institutions find it difficult to do this due to their small enrollment and incomplete functions.

but training institutions also have their own advantages, which is that they can provide personalized one-stop service based on students’ qualifications and learning conditions, and are more flexible in teaching arrangements.

therefore, many students, especially those majoring in art, simply go through training institutions to complete the preliminary preparations for applying to overseas universities. in terms of overall costs, training institutions are often cheaper than international schools.

studying abroad is not the only way to go to an international school.in recent years, many parents have sent their children directly to the united states and canada to attend junior high and high schools. in addition to being able to better connect with foreign education systems and having more advantages when applying for universities, the cost is not more expensive than attending international high schools in china.

even if you want to choose an international school, there are many tricks involved.

for example, some international schools, in order to improve their reputation, will "buy" students with good scores from other international schools and give them scholarships and rewards. this is actually a disguised form of self-promotion.

remember one thing, don't be easily tempted by whether an international school has students admitted to g5 or ivy league schools.generally speaking, if an international school has very few students admitted to prestigious universities, this is something to pay attention to.

picture/tuchong creative

some established international schools have a relatively stable percentage of students admitted to prestigious universities each year, and other than these top students, other students are often admitted to universities that are not too bad. these are truly high-quality and powerful international schools.

i want to emphasize that there is a big difference between real international schools and the international schools in the minds of many parents. parents should first consider whether they really want their children to go down this path. choosing an international school may affect the future trajectory of children's lives, so you must be careful.

as for whether other families give up or withdraw, or whether international schools have difficulty in recruiting students, it doesn’t matter at all.

going back to the original intention of many parents to send their children to international schools, it is nothing more than wanting to give their children more choices and opportunities so that they can develop according to their own interests and hobbies.

if you can stick to this original intention, it is worth it no matter how hard it is. but if you just want to go abroad to get some experience, then whether from the current situation of international schools or from the employment opportunities in china, the cost-effectiveness and "gold content" are constantly declining.

education is a door to freedom, provided that you do not go through the wrong door. therefore, parents must think clearly: what kind of international school do you want your children to attend?