Hsinchu American and International Schools

[raleyhl]

Can anyone offer sage advice about the various choices among American and/or International schools in Hsinchu? I have a rising 8th grader and we'll be moving to Taiwan in August for a year. Thanks for any help! Price is not a concern, but quality and reputation is.

[blliao]

Disclaimer: I work at Hsinchu International School. We are the only WASC-certified private international school in Hsinchu, the school features small class sizes and personalized attention, and students have told me that they find the school environment to be welcoming and friendly. Administrators and faculty are devoted to the students - so if a student is willing to put in the effort and take advantage of the resources available, they can receive a great education and progress greatly.

[WaltzingMatilda]

We are the only WASC-certified private international school in Hsinchu,

According to WASC's http://www.acswasc.org/directory_searchlist.cfm, there are a number of WASC accredited schools in Hsinchu.

Hsinchu International School - Secondary Division (7 - 12)
290 Nui Pu East Road
Hsinchu, 30091
Taiwan
Private School
Accredited

International Bilingual School at Hsinchu-Science-Park (1 - 12)
300 Jie-Shou Road
Hsinchu, 30078
Taiwan
Private School
Accredited

Pacific American School (1 - 12)
3F, No. 151, Section 2, Guangfu Road
Hsinchu, 30071
Taiwan
Private School
Candidate For Accreditation

I've heard good things about the first two schools, not much about the last one..

[blliao]

The International Bilingual School at Hsinchu Science Park is a quasi-public school. In order to attend, a student's parent must be either employed at the Science Park or one of the two universities nearby. So it doesn't count as a private international school.

"Candidate for accreditation" is not the same as "accredited" - there is a process that a school has to complete in order to become accredited. One point to look at is to see how long a school has been in the "candidate for accreditation" process.

[raleyhl]

Thanks, all. As it turns out, we're applying to HIS. We were not impressed w/ HAS (the young, pushy Dir of Admissions who said he rarely checks e-mail (huh?). Our e-mail sat unreplied-to for more than a week!-- and then he misspelled my daughter's name in his e-mail when he finally replied (after the call).

We read horror stories online in teacher forums about the Dir of PAS (where there's smoke there's fire?), so eliminated that one when we saw it wasn't accredited. HIS looks good online and has far more qualified faculty. The Intl Bilingual Experimental School required our daughter to be there Aug 7 to take the entrance exam in person, and that was impossible, so...