Study in USA

acdad

BTW, families  in USA normally get medicine from drug stores directly with and without a doctor's prescription. For flu, cold and coughing, they would normally just buy off-the-shelf medicine. Some health plans do cover medicine expense as well.

原帖由 Flying-Man 於 11-10-4 23:28 發表
acdad,

Thanks for all the links. Will check them out later.

Just curious about the health care service in the USA? As foreigners, what can / should I do if my kids are sick? Is it like HK where I ca ...

fungsiufong

Thanks for your explaination about SAT.
How about Maths and other Science subjects, are HK students ahead of USA local students ?

Flying-Man

acdad,

Thanks for your advice on getting medicine from drug stores.

smallmui

my son first went to US in grade 11, he was assigned to take math AP class, the teacher said math standard among  the Hk student is higher than the US student .  but i don't know if other sicence is the same .

mugtaitai

Saw this topic just now. I have the same plan of sending my kids to high school in US in 1 or 2 years and would like to hear your experience.

acdad, you stated that you planned to send your girls to schools in the Bay Area. Have you started the process, such as looking for a house, looking for schools, etc? You mentioned rental houses in Palo Alto were not expensive. I did some search and found quite the contrary. Maybe I looked the wrong place? Where do you find rental home listings? Do you plan to send your girls to private or public schools? I heard that the quality of public schools in California had deteriorated quite badly over these few years, and that it's getting ridiculously hard for CA residents to get into UC. Is it true?

My first choice has been the Bay Area for my kids but now I am having second thoughts. Seattle might be a consideration now. Any comments on this?

acdad

Hi mugtaitai,

CA resident tuition
- Firstly, I must correct some info I wrote about qualifying to pay CA resident tuition. I found out later it is not that easy now to qualify for paying  resident tuition even if U  are US citizen and have stayed over 1 year in CA. U also need to meet other requirements as well. But anyway , I guess some people may be able to get around that.

Rent
-Yes, I mentioned about the living cost in CA is not high and cost of renting a 3 bedroom townhouse is about US$3k /month. The buying cost for a town house in a nice neighbothood is about HK$4000/square foot.  U can’t even get that in Tuen Mun or Fairview Park  now. So, it is a lot of less than what is being charged  in HK in a good neighborhood.  That’s  from my personal experience.  In  Bay area, there is a popular  real estate  agency “Coldwell Banker” , U may find listing of houses, townhouses  and apartments in their websites. There are other websites for renting real estates, such as http://www.rent.com

TAG/UC/Community Colleges
- I never started the process of looking for high schools but did try to visit campuses  of 2 community colleges , Foothill and De Anza last summer, which names are oftenly heard in HK via various education agencies. Foothill campus was beautiful but not De Anza’s . However,  I was told by  various local people that De Anza was actually better in acadamic and has  good transfer records for their students. But later, I met a friend who sent both his children to Foothill and were successfully transferred to UC Davis and UC Berkely. And also based on what is written in  the TAG (Transfer Admission Guarantee Program) https://uctag.universityofcalifornia.edu/ , transferring to UC are not that difficult. Pls note only Davis, Irvine, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz are in this program, UCLA and Berkely are not .  Well I think the budget cut would mean bigger classes and less classes to be chosen in UC, and internatonal students and out of state students would be more welcome.

Private schools
-Since U mentioned about private schools, I recently attended a seminar in HK and knew that private schools like Stanford accepted very few transfers from community colleges. But I was also told by a very smart young  banker that works in Wells Fargo that he was transferred to USC  (a private school) from  De Anza. So, I guess it depends on what kind of private schools one would like to apply for.

Seattle
- I actually visited a friend in Seattle last summer as well and took a walk in the Washington State University neighborhood, not good and plenty bums around. Besides, it does not have direct flights to HK. So,  it is out.

So, good luck!

mugtaitai

Thanks acdad. Those are very good information that you have given.

I wasn't aware of this TAG program so never thought of the option of going to a community college for 2 years and then transfer to university. Is this what you plan to do for your girls? My original game plan is to send the kids to US for high school so they have a better chance of getting into a decent university directly. I am having hesitation now as I heard that public high schools in California is deteriorating in quality big time because of the budget cut. Community college might be a solution. I will look into it.

At this point I think I will still keep the high school option open as this gives the boys more choices for universities. That way they are not limited to the universities in the same states but all over the country, public and private. The problem is that I will have to find a really good neighborhood in a good school district, in which houses are usually very expensive. I casually looked at houses for sale in Palo Alto 2 years ago. Average price is about US$1000/sf. Nicer neighborhood such as Old Palo Alto is even more expensive.

I won't consider Seattle city. Not nice as you mentioned. The east side (Bellevue, Kirkland and Redmond) is much nicer. Bellevue school district is good. UW is good too. Weather is not good however. And as you said, there's no direct flight back to Hong Kong, although this is not a major consideration.

acdad

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Hi mugtaitai,

We used to study in NYC many years ago and people around us also have that CC transfer experience, so studying first 2 years in CC and then transfering to a  4 year U, then 2 years master degree in any major  is an acceptable path to us. However, I would like my girl to take the IBDP and SAT first  and see how far she can go before making that decision. So, the CC path is considered as  PLAN B now. Long way to go, no need to rush anything.

BTW, for students taking DSE,  since CC admission reqt is just  high school graduates OR 18 years old ,  the CC path can always be considered as PLAN B, just in case.

Regarding the real estates prices in Palo Alto and other parts of Bay area, houses, town houses and apartments  are all priced differently. Townhouses cost HK$4000/square foot is very acceptabe to me. It is very much like those setting in Palm Springs 加 州 花 園  but less remote and with nicer outlook. I have a relative who bought a townhouse in nice neighborhood in  Mountainview http://403mountainlaurelcourt.com/  and then rent it out to a Stanford graduate couple with a baby at US$3000/month . It is 1.3 miles (5 minutes drive) to downtown Mountainview (I think it is safe and convenient to hang out there)   and 7 miles from Stanford. U may take a look of the link to see if that kind of townhouses is acceptable to your family as well. The neighborhood and maintainance there was good too. I have checked out other houses and  townhouses in Palo Alto and Mountainview last summer, I beleive that may be  a good choice if your kids do not have to study in  high schools located in Palo Alto district.

Old Palo Alto is defintely the neighborhood with highest price and you would not want to go to East Palo Alto. Not all districts or zip codes in palo Alto are good either, I guess U already knew that. We can share more info if U need.

Cheers!

mugtaitai

Hi acdad,

I agree with you. The CC path can always be Plan B (or even Plan C), and in fact that's what I will do. I think for now, I will still pursue the high school in US then university plan. If I don't find a good high school that I am comfortable to send my son, I'll let him take the IBDP and SAT in Hong Kong and see how he does just like what you are planning to do. If he doesn't get into a good university he can go to a community college for 2 years and then to univ.

I looked at houses in Palo Alto only because there's this plan to send the kids to high school there. Palo Alto school district is among the best in the Bay Area. If they are not going to high school there, I can stay anywhere in the Bay Area. San Mateo, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Cupertino and San Jose are all nice places to live. By the way, I search houses on this site: http://www.mlslistings.com/ There aren't very many townhouses like the one in Mountain View you mentioned. Those would actually be perfect for us. I looked at a similar development in Palo Alto 2 years ago: http://www.1siliconvalley.com/ne ... ll-homes-palo-alto/ but they were bigger and thus more expensive. I will spend the summer with the kids in the Bay Area again this year, and will check out more schools and houses. Appreciate all the information you have shared here, and would be grateful if you could continue to share anything with regards to schools and houses.

真矢

My son is 14 he's currently studies in the USA for 3 years already since Grade 7 (HK F.1), I have no regret at all to send him aboard, in this three years he has totally transformed to another person, very mature, not a 港孩 anymore.  
I recently learnt from my friend who lives in the US that a lot of people from mainland China send their kids to public schools, as long as you're living in that school area the school his to accept you, and they don't care if you're citizen or green card.  That's why a lot of Mainland China people rent or buy a house near the top ranked school and send the kids to school without paying any school fee.    

mugtaitai

Hi 真矢,

Does your son go to a boarding school or are you with him in US? Which state is your son in now?

I also heard the same when I was looking at houses in Palo Alto 2 years ago. This is why I am getting a bit hesitated to send my son to public high schools in the Bay Area (sorry to say that. Don't mean to be discriminating but I think you get my point). I looked at the public high school ranking for 2011 published by the Washington Post http://apps.washingtonpost.com/h ... 2011/list/national/ and US News http://education.usnews.rankings ... gs/gold-medal-list. They have different ranking criteria and may not be agreeable to everyone but it's an indicator. Schools in Bellevue school district in Washington State rank quite high in both lists. I am seriously considering this place.

acdad, is there a particular reason why you choose the Bay Area? Is it because of UC?   

真矢

mugtaitai 發表於 12-5-2 18:03
Hi 真矢,

Does your son go to a boarding school or are you with him in US? Which state is your son i ...

My son is in a 7 days boarding school in Boston, he comes back to HKG 3 times a year and I go to US 2 times a year, and we Skype almost every day and he's actually fully occupied every day, so I don't need to give up my job and family in Hong Kong to study with him.
There're many ways to rank the school, you have to visit the school yourself to find out which school is suitable for your kids. If you really want to rank the school you have to look into the SAT score, graduation rate and percentage to college. Washington State is a good place among all cities in the West Coast for study; and California has more distraction. There're a lot more choices in New England area for boarding school.

mugtaitai

My son is very reluctant to go to boarding schools. I don't want to push him too hard so this option is out unless he changes his mind. There's pros and cons for both boarding schools and public high schools. I'll let him choose his own way.

I initially planned to stay in the Bay Area hoping that it'd be easier for my son to get into UC as a California resident. It might not be true any more. I may have to adjust my plan, and so I am trying to hear advice/experience/information from other parents before making any move

acdad

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Hi mugtaitai

The main reason why we pick  the bay area because UC is quite a large  and established system. We beleive there is certain flexibility in transfer and broad selection  within the UC system. Besides,  we have residence, business set up and family friends there, the convenience of direct flights between HK/SFO is also a plus. Like most parents, we prefer to place our kids in a safe and familiar environment , even if we would like them to be indepenent some how BTW, starting a social network all over again is quite exhausted.

My friend in Seattle actually lives in Cougar Mountain at Belleuve, which is considered as a good neighborhood. Whether it is Palo Alto or Belleuve,  I guess the ethnic groups live there  contribute a lot to the standing of the high schools there. And I beleive they do a lot  more than just regular school hours.  I was told that atmosphere inside some popular high schools in the area is highly competitive. So I guess, for whatever reasons we tried  to avoid nuturing our kids in famous LS in HK years ago, we may apply  the same reasons not to place our kids  in similar environment in US either.

BTW,  we will also spend some time in bay area ths summer but the kids would not have enough time to join any sport camps there  this year.  :cry:

mugtaitai

Hi acdad,

How old are your girls? Are they close in age? My 2 boys are 14 and 8 now, which this big gap in age creates a problem on schooling plan. If we do take the older one to US for high school, the younger one will have no choice but to come along. That would pretty much take away his opportunity to study Chinese (although many schools in US offer Chinese program but it's hardly the same as learning Chinese in HK) from P4 onward. With China playing a bigger and bigger role in world economy, not knowing Chinese could be a major disadvantage for his future career. We are still debating on this.

I heard some schools, particularly one in Cupertino, was quite hectic in terms of academic curriculum. Gunn High in Palo Alto is similar but those in Belleveue are still far from this Asian influence. In fact there was concern from parents in Bellevue that school were too easy so the Bellevue School District established an International School as a special school within the district. This school has more vigorous curriculum, and is becoming more and more popular. The waiting list there is long as I heard. It's funny that international schools in HK are seen to be less pushy in works while it's the other way round in US.

So you already have a residence set up in the Bay Area? That really saves a lot of headache. We'll spend the whole summer there this year. I signed the younger one up for some sport and science camps. The older one will be doing some volunteer work. It's gonna be awesome fun

acdad

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Hi mugtaitai,

Mine are 14 and 10, similar concerns  as yours, especially in Chinese. We normally stay in  Milpitas when we are in the bay area. Don't U think things are actually cheaper in US, especially those in Costco and  outlets?

mugtaitai

Hi acdad,

So will you move back to the States for good when your girls are ready to go to schools there?

Yes I do think a lot of things are cheaper in US. It's a different life style. People go shopping when there's sale. They do all the house work and maintenance on their own. They tend to eat out less. We are very used to this life style so there's no problem moving back. The only big item that worries me is medical. My husband's job nature and experience is very local so it's unlikely that he can find anything similar in US. We'll have to live on our savings so medical will be entirely on our own. I've been casually exploring options on health insurance and it can easily cost over U$2000/month for our family of 4 with affordable annual deductible and co-pay. It's going to be quite a burden...

acdad

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Hi mugtaitai,

We probably would not move back to US for good. A few months a year is good enough.

I guess it is easier for your family  to make a decsion  as your elder kid is a boy,  who should learn to be independent at age 17 anyway, the younger one is too young to quit Chinese and leave HK, etc.

Anyway, I just tried to plug in my family age info in the insurance website http://www.ehealthinsurance.com/ and get instant quotes for a family of 4. May be you should check as well.

mugtaitai

Hi acdad,

Thanks for the website. It's very useful. I'll look into it.

If the older boy decides to go to high school there I will have to go with him. He's too young to take care of himself and a house at 16. A compromised solution will be to stay with him for 2 year and move back with the younger one after the older one goes to college/university. There will be some disconnect for the younger one but shouldn't be too hard to pick up at his age

avbee

prepare SAT is very important