Chiang Mai International Schools

[lannarebirth]

Again, thank you all, especially Mapguy, for some really quite thought provoking input. I have been hunting around the different school's websites to see what academic qualifications (Advanced Placements; IB; ALevel) each offers. I do realise that this is not the be-all and end-all of education and all of the "extras"matter a lot to me in choosing where to put my daughters, but good academics is a good starting point too.

So, to summarise the academic courses on offer it seems that (PLEASE correct me if I am wrong):

CMIS - Advanced Placements (10 courses available)

NIS - Advanced Placements (only 3 courses available?)

LIST - A Levels (17 courses available)

PTIS - IB Diploma or Certificates

GIS - not relevant to my family, but does do Advanced Placements

I will be visiting Chiang Mai later this year to have a look around these schools and try to get a feel for them. I will visit all of them I think, but due to the academics it seems to me to be a three horse race for us at the moment: CMIS, LIST and PTIS.

LIST seems to get some very nice write-ups on Thaivisa in recent years and I am astonished to see that they offer such a full range of British A Levels up in Chiang Mai, whilst still charging reasonable fees, so they are top of my list at the moment.

PTIS is second on my list. I like the idea of the IB, but I am a little wary given what I have been reading on this forum. It's also very expensive. I will just have to go visit and form my own opinion I suppose.

CMIS is also very much on my radar, with 10 Advanced Placements on offer. I'd like to know more from any parent of students attending CMIS.

Again, thank you al for sharing your insights. At least now I have a great starting point. THANK YOU.

My daughters have gone to LIST for the past 10 and 11 years respectively. I would have pulled them out a couple ff years ago if they hadn't upgraded their breadth of IGCSE's significantly. Just in time for my eldest daughter thye did upgrade that breadth and I am more than pleased that they attended the school for that qualification. I do not like the "A" level system which is extremely narrow (though deep) in it's focus. I'm sorry one of my daughters has already started on that path and unless the breadth of that system changes dramatically next year I think I will pull my other daughter out of that school and put her in an American school which will offer AP classes and better SAT preperation.

[jonhartmann]

PTIS changed its name during the Red Shirt crisis for very well advised reasons.

The top IB Score was 42 NOT 34!

Our average pass rate of 31 was above world average. We allow all students who want to have a try at the IB Diploma to do so. We do not follow the practise of some schools to artificially raise their scores by only allowing very good students to attempt the Diploma. We would hope the public can see through this.

To explain destinations it is important to know that all students are counselled on the basis of their predicted grades to apply for at least 5 suitable Universities. Two of these are described as Reach,two as Fit and one as Safety. The results for the Class of 2011 were particularly pleasing as the great majority got into their Reach Universities. Some got into their Fit and a few got into their Safety as normally happens in any school.. Apart from 3 students who elected to take a gap year, placement was 100%. We were particularly pleased to produce the only student from Thailand (15 applied) to gain a full scholarship ($62,000) to NYU AD. I have had some extremely positive feedback from students all over the world on their University experiences and how well prepared they were for this experience.

I would urge prospective applicants to PTIS to study our website for our destinations information and seek informed advice from our specialist staff (www.threegeneration.org)

Jon Hartmann

Careers Counsellor

PTIS

This thread is a wonderful idea. I hope lots of people share what they know.

The only one I know about is PTIS, a school that changes its name according to the prevailing weather conditions it seems. It is more commonly known here in Chiang mai by its old name of Prem.

A friend of my son's attends Prem. My son tells me that the highest International Baccalaureate score this year was 34, from a maximum of 45. This isn't a bad score, but hardly impressive if that is really the highest score. A score of 34 would apparently still get you into a fairly decent university, but not top drawer. I am led to believe that many of the students reported in the CityLife magazine by Prem as going to various prestigious institutions didn't actually get the grades required to be accepted and ended up going elsewhere. Can anyone confirm this?