Enrollment
For the 2012-2013 school year, enrollment is 2,232. Of the total, U.S. citizens comprise two- thirds and third-country nationals make up the rest.
Faculty
TAS has approximately 250 faculty members, including approximately 160 U.S. citizens, 20 host-country nationals, and 70 third-country nationals.
Additional Mandatory Costs
Registration Fee NT$50,000
Alternative Education Fee
Grades 3~5 NT$6,655
Grades 6~8 NT$8,800
Building Fee NT$6,500
Capital Fee (one-time fee only) NT$250,000
Thus for example if you sent your child for 1 year of first grade at TAS starting in September 2015 your total cost would be 564,730+50,000+250,000+50,000 or about $30K USD and change. The next year would be 250,000 NT less, or about $22K USD and change.
Looking to hear what expats say about TAS. I heard it can be a tough transition for kids from America and that preference is shown to the Taiwanese children… I would love to know what people think. We are moving from Boston this summer.
Hoping to hear from a parent with children enrolled at TAS. They do state “for the 2012-2013 school year, enrollment is 2,232. Of the total, U.S. citizens comprise two- thirds and third-country nationals make up the rest.” On the one hand, the times I’ve visited the school, its simply false that the students are speaking Chinese in the hallways, it was 90% English language. On the other, there really are not very many non-Asian faces there. Certainly, all must be hold a non-Taiwan passport (though they often would also hold a Taiwan passport), by law. I think the unavoidable fact though is that there simply are not as many expats living in Taiwan as there used to be, and this affects TAS, TES, and the American Club.
To attend TAS, a student must possess a foreign passport. That said, my kids, and many here, possess both US and Taiwan passport. (Easier for children to do this than adults). So what is TAS two-thirds in practice? Since my children are half US and half Taiwan and have both passports… but show the US passport when applying… are they tabulated as “U.S. citizens” by TAS… would they still be “shown preference”. TAS does have somewhere in their application materials, a list of priorities for admission, for example US State Department employees are at the top.
I believe at most grade levels there is some kind of test they take, and probably an admission interview with the child. Some would say, to make sure he’s not ADHD. I do in general like TAS and, one advantage, the TYPA program is run right on their campus so extra-curricular activities are easy. typa.org.tw/ TES does have a program to keep up the standard of (the King’s? the Queen’s?) English, I would guess TAS does, anyone?
There are not all that many reviews of these schools. In the USA I would at least look at greatschools.org or even yelp.com, but they don’t have a presence in Taiwan. About 5 years ago, maybe it was Newsweek, listed a “top 50 prep schools” and TAS was on the list. But later other schools wrote in and wanted to be counted, and the revised version of the article bumped TAS off.