The Taipei American School was known for their long waiting lists of 200 students or more. Some parents had to wait for several years before they got a space for their little ones.
This all has changed over the summer:
The waiting list has evaporated for grades 1,3,4,5 and spaces are available for English speaking kids with a foreign passport.
Reason: There have been a number of problems (search www.wikipedia.org for “Taipei American School” for details) but it still is a great school with a lot of opportunities for the kids.
Dr. C.
MOD NOTE: Since this thread went off its original topic fairly quickly, its title has been changed to “Taipei American School (TAS).” This is the proper forum for discussing any and all things related to TAS
$12,000 is about the same price as private schools in the USA, so it seems reasonable, especially considering that the school is located in Taiwan you would think it would be more than in the USA, because there are not many other choices for something comparable. I know there are other Private expat schools, but nothing of this calibre right?
Dr. C: why are you posting these things here, kind of gossipy no?
Well, I posted the information (not gossip) of available spaces at the Taipei American School here, because this forum is supposed to be about parenting, no?
I hope that some parents on this list whose kids have a foreign passport will still consider enrollment at TAS.
What? Mine were free! Are you one of those posh fellas?[/quote]
Stu I have told you before, that was a dustbin, not a school. What your mum called the ‘learning tardis’ was a dustbin with some books in the bottom and a picture of Queen Victoria blu-tacked to the inside. Why do you think you had to sort your lunch from a big black bag?
But you are correct, Edgar Allen’s mum paid for him to be ‘fagged’ by his peers.
However, if you want to send your kid there for middle school, the cost for the first year could be closer to US$ 14,655.50, if my math is correct.
There is a one time fee of NT$ 150,000 and an NT$ 10,000 application fee and an NT$ 25,000 registration fee and a possible NT$ 105,000 per semester fee for ESL tutoring, if necessary, and a transportation fee of NT$ 17,860 per semester if necessary w/ an NT$ 600 insurance premium and an NT$ 8,000 lunch fee per semester.
[quote=“Tigerman”]
I wouldn’t send my kid to TAS.[/quote]
Not going to be an issue for me (I hope), at least, not for some time, but why not?
(If not because of the parental political stuff mentioned on the blog.)
(Just curious… I’m way out of the loop.)
However, if you want to send your kid there for middle school, the cost for the first year could be closer to US$ 14,655.50, if my math is correct.
There is a one time fee of NT$ 150,000 and an NT$ 10,000 application fee and an NT$ 25,000 registration fee and a possible NT$ 105,000 per semester fee for ESL tutoring, if necessary, and a transportation fee of NT$ 17,860 per semester if necessary w/ an NT$ 600 insurance premium and an NT$ 8,000 lunch fee per semester.[/quote]
It’s ALMOST like it’s a bidness.
BTW, I just met a guy who sends his kids to a private school in DC…20,000/year.
TAS certainly is expensive, but comparatively speaking, it’s not jawdropping.
[quote=“Dr C”]The waiting list has evaporated for grades 1,3,4,5 and spaces are available for English speaking kids with a foreign passport.
Reason: There have been a number of problems (search www.wikipedia.org for “Taipei American School” for details) but it still is a great school with a lot of opportunities for the kids.[/quote]
Interesting wiki article, but I didn’t see too much in there in the way of problems - unless you mean the constraints of the Foreign Schools Law. In fact, the article speaks of excess demand.
Are there fewer expat businesspeople coming to Taiwan with kids? Fewer kids with non-ROC passports? Does decreasing enrollment have anything to do with the competition? I mean, Morrison has been around for quite some time, ditto with Dominican International School and Taipei European School. Down here we have Kang Chiao Bilingual School. Granted, it’s not an international school, but I know quite a few parents who send kids with non-ROC passports there for K-9 – and most of them feel that the north of Taipei has TAS, the south has KCBS. I visited KCBS once – pretty nice facilities – and what a view.
If one looks at the link to the blog that was posted by Dr. C, one will find this qutoe: Will foul language, intimidation, and bullying be the new governance style of the board to implement the WASC recommendations and achieve full accreditation again?
This sentence seem to imply that TAS is somehow not in full compliance with accreditation standards and may be on probation until the problems are addressed. Perhaps that’s the reason for a drop in enrolment.
[quote=“Tigerman”]
I wouldn’t send my kid to TAS.[/quote]
[quote=“Jaboney”]Not going to be an issue for me (I hope), at least, not for some time, but why not?
(If not because of the parental political stuff mentioned on the blog.)
(Just curious… I’m way out of the loop.)[/quote]
For one thing, its way too expensive (for me). Yes, I know private schools in the States are as or more expensive than TAS. However, in the States my boy would attend a public school. Here, if I want my kid to attend an American school, I have no choice but to send him to a school with a private school price-tag… and I’m not on an “expat salary package”. The tuition has just about made enrollment at TAS for the children of those of us foreign nationals who are local hires rather than having been sent by our employer virtually impossible. As a result, TAS is, it seems, attended primarily by wealthy Taiwanese kids who have non-ROC passports and a few kids whose non-ROC national parents are here in Taiwan on short 2-3 year assignments.
I have nothing against the Taiwanese kids holding non-ROC passports attending TAS… but, it seems just not quite right that foriegn parents (and especially US citizen parents) who have settled in Taiwan for some duration haven’t the option to send their kids to TAS due to the exorbitant tuition.
Secondly, and this is just a feeling I get from viewing the TAS website, I see many of the teachers and parents and students as a bunch of elitest snobs. I don’t want my boy to study in such an environment, even if it is a good school, academically speaking. The attitude turns my stomach.
[quote] The tuition has just about made enrollment at TAS for the children of those of us foreign nationals who are local hires rather than having been sent by our employer virtually impossible. As a result, TAS is, it seems, attended primarily by wealthy Taiwanese kids who have non-ROC passports and a few kids whose non-ROC national parents are here in Taiwan on short 2-3 year assignments.
[/quote]
That is an interesting point. Currently there are only very few (sometimes only 2-3) native English speaking kids in each class. Even students who are not in the ESL problem are not really fluent in English. On the other hand, TAS really wants to provide an English speaking environment in the school.
So I was wondering if there are native English speaking kids in this community who would like to enroll in TAS but for whom tuition is too high.
Assume TAS would offer a special deal for kids with good English language skills, e.g. drop tuition by 50% or such.
Do you know anyone who under these circumstance would like to enroll their kids in TAS?
[quote=“Dr C”]So I was wondering if there are native English speaking kids in this community who would like to enroll in TAS but for whom tuition is too high.
Assume TAS would offer a special deal for kids with good English language skills, e.g. drop tuition by 50% or such.[/quote]
I would guess that their certainly are such students.
I would point out too that there are American kids who do not speak English as fluently as their cousins do back in the US, due to their having attended local Taiwanese schools because TAS is simply financially out-of-reach for their local-hired parents. I would think that there are plenty of kids like these who would like to attend TAS also.
I just visited as a prospective parent. I was told by a couple of people-one inside the school and one who doesn’t work for the school but has a long history with it, that Mandarin is the dominant language heard in the hallways of the school. If they are actively seeking English speaking kids, seems like they are reacting to concerns of American parents-like me- who are a bit put off by our American kids (holding US passports, raised in the US, US parents, etc., etc.) who aren’t just seeking an American curriculum but a school that understands and promotes, if you will, American culture and values. From what I have been able to dig up, seems like a “clash of cultures” is occuring between American parents and local parents with regard to the direction in which the school should go and the administration is trying to get control of it by seeking an infusion of English speaking children regardless of what passport they are holding.
