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Many factors in choosing right school
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SELECTING the best-fit school for their child is one of the most important decisions a family can make, and there is a range of factors to consider.
The obvious place to start is with curriculum, and the diverse international community of Shanghai offers a variety of educational frameworks from which to choose. International Baccalaureate (IB), American (including AP), British (IGCSE, A Levels), Canadian, French, German, and Korean curricula are all available at the dozens of international schools around town. You can also consider placing your student in a local school, especially if language acquisition is a primary goal. If you are coming directly from your home country and expect to return soon, sticking with that familiar, home curriculum can help ease your child’s educational transition back and forth, and prevent issues with transfer credit or grade progression. In contrast, if you expect to move around again internationally, choosing a more universal curriculum (such as IB) will better enable you to find a compatible school in your new location. Some schools offer multiple tracks to choose from (e.g. IB and AP), which means curriculum doesn’t always have to be a deal-breaker if you are particularly enamored with a school’s community. Universities that recruit internationally are generally familiar with a variety of curricula, especially IB and AP. They oftentimes employ a few officers who specialize in international admission and are used to evaluating students from all over, so you will not be automatically disqualifying your student from admission to a particular university system if you choose one curriculum over another. However, it is worth calling or e-mailing a few universities from your country of interest to see if they have any unique preferences or suggestions for specific courses within a curriculum. Most of the time, universities just want to see students succeeding in whatever curriculum they have chosen.
Another factor in making a school choice is the type of community you want for your child. School size impacts the feel of a community, and you will generally sacrifice intimacy for opportunity as schools get larger. Smaller schools may provide an environment where every teacher in the school knows your child, but larger schools may be able to provide wider course selection, more facilities, or unique co-curricular activities (e.g. American football). There is also the option of sending your child to a religiously affiliated school.
There are also the practical considerations, such as the cost of tuition. If you are in Shanghai on a generous expat package that includes school tuition, you can choose freely, but families paying partially or completely out-of-pocket have to consider the extreme costs associated with some schools. Another practical consideration is school location. While best-fit is most important.
If you are starting to feel overwhelmed, take solace in the fact that Shanghai is blessed with a number of high quality schools that provide an excellent education to their students. Hopefully that relieves some of the pressure.
Jason Holly, HS Academic, College, and Guidance counselor at Concordia International School Shanghai.
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