[anso]

Hi
Is here anyone that can describe the main differences between the UK, US and IB curriculum regarding secondary students? I have a daughter who is in the UK system grade 8 and we want to change to the US curriculum (HKIS) She' been studying here in HK for 2 years now. Are we doing the right thing????

[KnowItAll]

anso : before I launch into the differences, why are you switching to the US system?

I could also go on about the pros and cons of HKIS... but am curious as to why you'd want to switch.

[anso]

More facilities , much closer to our home. My daughter also play soccer and they have 2 girl soccer team at HKIS.

[Roger]

Basically the US system has no recognisable national qualifications, while the UK and IB do. Both the UK A'levels and IB are accepted by UK universities, whereas US high school grads need to do an extra foundation year to catch up to where their UK counterparts got to the previous year.

[Sleuth]

So it might boil down to where will you be going to school when you leave here?
And everyone's schooling, health-care, people, government, etc... is better than the US. Makes one wonder why anyone would ever want to live there.

[nina_70]

You should definitely think about what will happen after secondary school. If you're planning to send your daughter to UK for college, you should probably stick w/ English school. If you're open to US for college then you can make the switch. Remember that if you're an EU member, Europe college can be almost free, but US will cost you ALOT more.

My own case in hand...I went to English system here in HK, got into undergrad in UK (paid no tuiton), then moved to US for post-grad with financial aid/scholarship (financial aid in US is much, much easier to get after you've completed your undergrad).

[Sleuth]

I don't think anyone in the US pays the full amount on tuition, but free is highly unlikely unless your kid is really gifted or you live/attend college in a state like Georgia.