The very short list

In some ways, the viral popularity of the IB curriculum among Beijing schools was a great favour to us. It really limited the number of schools a potential 11th-12th grader could possibly apply to as a new student. We were no longer overwhelmed by the 30-plus high schools in existence.  We were looking at schools that offered general high school diplomas.

However, even a short list of schools in Beijing can still be an intimidating list. It is still an expensive list.

Perhaps that first step, initiating contact, would not have been so daunting if we were asking schools to sell themselves to us, like they did at school fairs. Being able to ask confidently, "Why is your school the best fit for our child?" would have been a stronger position to be in. Instead we would be imploring them to consider our son's and our family's worthiness to join their community. We felt more like supplicants than applicants.

So, how do I go about describing what happened next? This post has been re-written and saved to drafts multiple times since my last post. The point here isn't to portray the schools in a bad light, but rather, describe what we learned along the way. The schools' policies are their policies. 

We approached the first school with candid honesty, mostly. We did not want to waste anyone's time if this school was going to remain out of reach financially and academically. Omitting the part about our race against time for a student visa, we emailed them a brief introduction with a few questions that would let us know immediately if we had any chance to proceed.

The very first question was about possible tuition instalment plans. I did not think it was an unusual inquiry, especially for families like ours who would be wholly responsible for paying without support from an employer or diplomatic mission. The answer was disheartening. Paying month-by-month was, according to the school's finance department, not possible, but there were small finance charges to pay one semester at a time. I was glad I did not even think about asking about financial aid.

The other answers, even about how to evaluate Myles' aptitude and previous studies, were not really encouraging either. But the payment question was most discouraging, and that was not the school's fault. As much as we really wanted this next step to be about what was best for Myles, we could not avoid the money question. 

I followed up their responses with a thank you email, and "we obviously have a lot to consider." The application fee was considerable (multiples of these), and there was a chance we could spend that money and a month applying and testing, and Myles would not get in. Or, we could waste the admissions team's time after achieving acceptance and still could not cough up the tuition at the deadlines. Or, even worse, Myles could get a good evaluation, we could figure out the money problem, and there would be no place for him because the class was full with returning students and higher priority admits. 

There was a next school to contact on my short list. One that was even smaller than the first one I contacted, and previously I had spoken generally to the director about transitioning Myles into their high school. There were still money questions, but this school had more flexibility to work with us academically. This spring, though, when I reached out, I learned one of the most important things maybe I should have known already had I been paying better attention. This school was not licensed to enroll foreigners after the age of 18. Most of this school's students transfer to boarding schools abroad before that, though this school does still have some upper grade high school of students who do not need X visas to live in China after they turn 18. 

I was already well aware that local Chinese schools need to have permission from the Ministry of Education to enroll foreign students. This had been our situation all along in Changping.  However, I had not known that private schools that accept foreigners might also have restrictions. In August, this lesson would be further clarified in a very frustrating way.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. These two inquiries happened in May and June, and then, for a time, we stopped working our way down the short list. We were led to believe that we had more time and less things to worry about. Again, I should have been paying closer attention, but I was told that probably the X visa was not our only option to keep Myles in China with us.