Anybody with kids in any of these 2 schools? Any comments? With the recent increase in fees for those Int'l Schools, they've become unfavourable for our case. So now we're looking into the int'l divisions of local private schools. Appreciate if anyone has any feedback to share, or any better recommendations for middle schools in Pudong.

Thank you.

Just want to know which school you ended up choosing.

I'm very intrested in SMIC, tuition fee and academic seem reasonable.

Hi Avoca29, we didn't choose either school. We decided in the end to still put the kids in Yew Chung bcos of the British Curriculum.

I've visited both schools though and I have better feel about SMIC and so far been hearing good feedback about this school too. Jin Cai's enrolment is very pathetic, only about 200+ for middle/high school.

Hi Kiwitay, so you decided to put kids at international school. I have a good feeling about SMIC too, but it's hard to make decision especially when I am still in Sydney.

How old are your children? Mine will be 7 and 9 by the time we move.

I hope you and your family are settling down nicely! Is it difficult to find accomodation? I heard there's local and foreigner price..Luckily my husband can speak Chinese so hopefully we'll get a good rental..

Cheers

Avoca, my boys are 8, 12 and 14. So I'm more particular in terms of middle/high sch, and how they'll fit in when we return to Singapore.

for accommodation, so far I see more apartments being put up for rental bcos of the recent drop in property sales. but I may be wrong. Well, if you have a relocation agent to show you houses, you'll definitely be paying foreigner rental. But it'll be better this way for a start.

My daugther goes to Grade 3 at SMIC but she is not happy... There have been incidents where I am not sure myself. For example, she had to write her name 100 times during recess because she forgot to write it on her homework paper (I assume more than once?). We are from Vancouver and for the first 2 years she hardly did any homework (which I don't necessarily consider as a good thing). However, the workload at SMIC seems a bit on the heavy side. For the first two to three months after we moved here she couldn't finish her homework until way pass 9pm. Now she is a bit better but it was a huge adjustment for her. Lack of friendship is another thing. I understand we are here for an international experience but most of the children in her class are from Taiwan and Korea. They share very little in common when it comes to interests. What my daugther is accustomed to means nothing to her classmates, which makes it quite frustrating for her. I am sure it will get better in time but I also don't want to see her tears for missing dear friends at home. I am checking out other options now...

Hi,

I used to work at SMIC from 2003-2006 and i currently live in Hong Kong now. I can say for this at SMIC school. Its high school is one of the best if not the best in Shanghai, period. It has Dr. Han (who i know is on leave) as the principal, and Ms. Huang, who chairs the math department.

They retired from my high school, Phillips Academy, Andover back in 2005 and picked up and moved to Shanghai after. I can say that their start at SMIC wasn't easy and i know there may have been some grumbles with Dr. Han. Lets just say that SMIC school was young back then, the high school just started, and Dr. Han managing a very tough school system. But i know for a fact that he was a great manager, and a fantastic teacher of mine back when i was at Andover myself (1992-1996) and was well liked so much by his students he might as well have a statue erected in front of the language department for all that he did there.

His wife, Ms. Huang, deserves one as well. She was one of the top math teachers at Philips. I took Geometry, Trig and Calculus with her. She dedicates her time to her students, and i did well on my SAT's thanks to her help and of course my AP exams, which to me now seems like ages ago (after college, MBA, CFA etc..).. And since Philips Academy only employs the top math teachers in the world, and Philips is the top high school in the US (i'm kind of biased a bit...), and Ms. Huang taught 25 years there, its safe to say she's the MOST experienced math teacher in all of Shanghai.. Period.

Parents, if you want your kids to excel at Math, go to Ms. Huang.. If you have your kids at another school and they're struggling at math, see if SMIC can do some "exchange program" where your kid can take some math classes with her. They'll improve, period.

Thanks!
James Chie, CFA
BA Economics, Cornell University
Executive MBA - Washington University St. Louis - Fudan University

chiedog wrote:I used to work at SMIC from 2003-2006 and i currently live in Hong Kong now. I can say for this at SMIC school. Its high school is one of the best if not the best in Shanghai, period. It has Dr. Han (who i know is on leave) as the principal, and Ms. Huang, who chairs the math department.

Parents, if you want your kids to excel at Math, go to Ms. Huang.. If you have your kids at another school and they're struggling at math, see if SMIC can do some "exchange program" where your kid can take some math classes with her. They'll improve, period.

They must have made a great impression upon you, for you to give a testimonial!

...

This doesnt really help, but we live across the street from SMIC schoolin the SMIC Villa Living Quarters. My fathr was a high exect at SMIC from its inception up until very recently. Apparently, SMIC school is the only part of SMIC that is actually doing well.

JINCAI HELL

Hi people, I have recently graduated from high school in Shanghai and I just wanted to talk about how horrible my school was (Jincai High School International Division, or JCID) so that nobody else would go and screw their academic life.

Some General Info: It is an "international (bullfeces)" high school located in Pudong, Shanghai. It has 2 sections of Chinese and English from grade 1 to 12. The English Section follows the USA curriculum and the Chinese Section follows the Shanghai curriculum.

List of Messed up things about the school:
1- They don't care about your study AT ALL, they just want your lovely money. It's all Chinese administrators in the school who can barely speak english. If there is something serious you want to talk with the administration, FORGET IT! They are all Chinese minded. The school is administered all according to Chinese system and rules.

2- Chinese is the first language in the school. All the announcements, documents, notices and everything else is in Chinese, with little and incorrectly written English. I don't understand how they even call that place an "International School"

3- There is "IB" World School signs everywhere in the school, where ever you go inside the building, you see the IB sign. That was one of the reason I chose this school, because I thought it was IB so it would help me to get in a good university. But guess what, later on in the middle of the academic year, I found out that they had the IB program only for the Middle School of THE CHINESE SECTION. So no matter what English Section grade you enter the school from, you don't get an IB diploma, nothing about IB. But it's so messed up that they put the IB sign even on your transcripts, any other documents. EVEN IN YOUR HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA. It's so retarded that they do that. As I mentioned before, this school just fools around with you, don't care about your study, and want that money in your pocket, THAT'S ALL.

4- The schools is not recognized in the academic community. It's not in the list of "International High Schools in Shanghai". It's so messed up that I had a few friends applied to some colleges in Canada and you know what those universities told them: "Sorry but we don't recognize your school, your application has been rejected". Attending this school would be at least 50% of the reason of your denial from the colleges you apply.

5- The School doesn't offer SAT. SAT isn't offered in China, but all the international high schools offer SAT for their students in their schools, BUT NOT IN JINCAI! If you want to go to States for university, you will probably need to take the SAT, and you will have to travel HongKong or Singapore to take the test, if YOU ATTEND THIS HELL SCHOOL.

6- The Teachers! They are friendly, all cool people, mostly from the States. But they are not experienced. Almost all of the teachers are recent college graduates. More than half of them are under 25 years of age. Every year, all the old teachers leave the school and the new ones come. So it's like they just come work in the school for fun, to do other stuff in Shanghai. So the education in Jincai isn't good either.

7- School Facilities! The campus sucks balls. It's tiny, doesn't even have a gym. There is nothing to during the class breaks on campus. If you like doing sports, if you are on a school team in your current school, NEVER EVER COME STUDY IN JINCAI. There isn't a single varsity team in there. Other than that, the art and music classrooms are horrible, no different than the regular classrooms. The cafeteria is extremely tiny. It gets so crowded during the lunch breaks that you can't even find fresh air to breath. It's so messed up that THEY PUT SOME OTHER SCHOOL'S PICTURES ON THE SCHOOL BROCHURES. HOW MESSED UP IS THAT???

Overall, this school is the LAST SCHOOL ON UNIVERSE that you would want to go. It's full of lies, full of messed up stuff happening and BORING. There is so much more to add to the list, but that all I can think right now.

SO DON"T EVER THINK OF GOING TO THAT SCHOOL, IF YOU RESPECT YOURSELF AND CARE ABOUT YOUR FUTURE...