Schooling

I got this message in my email box on a Saturday morning! And that got me thinking.

just look at the ranking, tanya goes to one of the world's best
schools. We are so blessed, it is just a specific set of IVY league, but you should be proud of her that she is in the elite.


Very often and that is at least more than once in a week ,I will be in some way involved in a “school/schooling “ related conversation. Having very little knowledge of the American System of education I often try to listen and at times to challenge….most often I get to hear it’s the best system of education and also “TAS” is the best of the schools.

Once in a while I give my new found information – what I gathered in “school lobby and cafeteria conversations also at coffee mornings” to my friends and family in other parts of the world…..Often I get such strong push backs especially from friends back in Singapore saying “SAS” –American School in Singapore is the best. I have put forward some of this new found knowledge even to some reputed educationists ,yet I didn’t get to hear any specifics….to feel comforted or reassured.

The only conclusion I arrived at every parent thinks the school their child goes is the best.

Yet I was not convinced ….we chose the school not out of research and understanding but between 3 or 4 options we were aware of in Taipei and what we got .Having moved in the middle of an academic year….and one thing we were sure my daughter needs to get into school as soon as possible and at the least in the same grade.

I would often go back to my sister (from whom I received the note) settled in New Jersey –for one she is the President of “Search Consultancy firm” – at least she scans resumes of US graduates on a daily basis- also for her daughters she had done ample research on “Which school?” and “Where” and was thoroughly convinced of her choice. He daughter goes to school – Kent Place School. She would often try to convince me that Tanya goes to a great school so don’t worry its just that you are not familiar with the system…yet I was never convinced!

So -Why this Post? – for the first time I got some factual information followed with some statistics on my daughters school- may be every one knew it- the truth is I didn’t know and was happy to be informed so that I can make my informed contributions to “school lobby and cafeteria conversations also at coffee mornings”

Follow the Link

TAS in Wall Street Journal

I can also tell her as she grows up that she once went to a “great school “when she was 6 and 7 years old…..

This research was done about the students who got in Top 8 colleges. The survey ranked the high schools based on the number of students sent to those eight colleges, divided by the high school's number of graduates in 2007, limiting the scope to schools that had senior classes of at least 50


1. Harvard
2. Princeton,
3. MIT,
4. Williams,
5. Pomona,
6. Swarthmore,
7. the University of Chicago and
8. Johns Hopkins

So based on my analysis these are the facts I found out about TAS –

I thought as a parent some of you might find this informative!

• TAS ranks 61st in the world and 4th outside US in the “Success Rate “ Category .The "success rate" represents the percentage of students in each high-school's graduating class that attended one of the chosen colleges above.
• 9 students went to these listed colleges in 2007.A success rate of 4.3%
• TAS ranks 18th in the world in terms of Student size in the Senior class. and the largest senior class outside of US.
• Among the schools which published fees it is one of the lowest- the lowest being Daewon Foreign Language school in Korea.

I hope these facts give you some valuable contributions to your “school lobby and cafeteria conversations also at coffee mornings” Please do post a comment if the post was informative …