Winter in Japan and Thailand

Published 03/23/2023 in Scholar Travel Stipend

Written by Benjamin Sorkin | 03/23/2023

With the support of the Milken Institute and Milken Family Foundation, I was able to spend my winter break in Jan 2023 traveling in Asia and conducting research and interviews about private school admissions and students’ desire to study abroad in the US. My trip lasted 3 weeks, with time evenly split between Japan and Thailand, and over the course of this trip I was able to meet with education consultants, US private school graduates, and summer program/educational leaders who prepare students to become stronger English speakers. I wanted to better understand these students and families’ motivations for applying, how they learn about US schools, and what domestic education looks like in these two countries.

In conducting this research, I walked away with a new understanding of the domestic elite and international school landscape in each of these countries, the test prep and application consulting landscape, and uncovered new cultural attitudes about schooling, prestige, and the globalizing economy.

My interest in this trip and this research came from my time as an admissions officer at an elite boarding school in Connecticut. At lower tier institutions, international full pay students are a major contributor to schools’ bottom line. Schools intentionally travel and market abroad to attract high net worth families, often to subsidize the cost of domestic students who need financial aid. Asia is a primary international market for boarding schools, with hundreds of students from primarily China, South Korea, and Hong Kong applying to multiple schools in the US every admissions cycle. Prestige is the primary driving factor that families consider when evaluating international options, with a fair segment of the market looking instead to Europe for British and Swiss boarding schools given their greater familiarity with British curricula since that tends to be the most prominent international school focus in each country. Decisions about where to apply in the US are driven almost entirely by the Niche.com and TheBestSchools.com rankings.

My conversations with current boarding school students and recent graduates who came from schools in Asia were an illuminating window into how students experience this process and navigate parental expectations around academic performance and future careers. The most savvy parents started the process earlier on, hiring consultants and looking at junior boarding schools which admit students for 7th and 8th grade and then support students’ applications to boarding high schools. Generally, these are globally minded families who work in financial, consulting, and international relations careers, since awareness of these options so early on is quite limited even among high status families. One of the greatest predictors for a parents’ interest in sending their child to a US boarding school was global travel and US-based experience among the parents. Many had gone to school in the US (private and public) or spent a significant amount of time on international assignments there, and see the benefits and advantages to a US high school education. Or, families come to understand boarding schools as a stepping stone to elite US universities, which is often the end goal for many of these families.

While both Japan and Thailand have strong but different education systems, families clearly see something missing from the training and development that students receive in domestic public and private options. International schools are often the next place that families look before scouting out options abroad, but in Japan, I learned that these schools are uniquely ill-perceived and have difficulty overcoming a broader educational system that does not prepare students for success in the US college admissions process. Parents and students alike shared that international schools in Japan are quite light on workload, poorly managed, and don’t build in enough opportunities for students to beef up their resume. Japan broadly does not have an “extracurricular culture” because of a domestic university admissions process that prioritizes national standardized exams. For global families, this is a key reason why they look abroad – to have their students attend a school where they can build a resume.

My conversations with education consultants and summer enrichment program leaders helped me understand what the preparation and application consulting industry looks like in Japan and Thailand. Developing English language skills and comfort with academic writing in English is the primary goal of many of these countries’ weekend cram schools, summer programs, and individual tutoring. Despite many Japanese students studying English for 10+ years in public schools, most have limited working proficiency and cannot use English in the workforce or in serious academic engagement. In Thailand, English is more widely spoken in daily life and business contexts, so despite a weaker education system overall, Thai students have a more functional grasp of English. Families are often looking for firms with a name reputation and proven track record, with individuals who have prior admissions experience or a name brand university degree getting the most requests from families for support. Thai families have less of an understanding of international education options and the country is seen as an emerging market – prior boarding school enrollees from Thailand have typically been only the most elite families, like the Royal family. Standardized testing is a major part of both schooling systems, and in a way, students are perhaps better positioned to succeed in this portion of the US schools application process once they achieve a strong enough academic English proficiency.

This trip was a fantastic opportunity to hear directly from participants in the US private school industry abroad and how they experience admissions procedures and application preparation. Only the most knowledgeable families and most driven students have access to American education as early as high school, exacerbated by the financial hurdle of needing to be a full pay family who will not apply for financial aid at the majority of these schools. However, a growing awareness of American high school and earlier educational opportunities for international students by test prep and education consulting companies – and in turn students and families – is driving greater marketing and rising application numbers from the region. I am excited to take my findings into my graduate coursework as I complete my Masters in Education Leadership, Organizations, and Entrepreneurship, particularly as I complete coursework in enrollment management and ethnographic approaches to Asian youth. Thank you to the Milken Family Foundation and the Milken Institute for supporting my learning as an academic and educator.