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GSIS vs CIS vs HKIS

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  1. #101

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    the funny thing they don't teach in these top school is that when you join them, you are already set for success. First of all, your parents have the money to pay for your education by avoiding the public school. The campus are better, teachers usually come from a more international background (which is useful if you want to work in these large corporate).

    Now, they can also afford to pay for private tutors which is a big help. You probably have a maid helping you with everything and in general a bigger flat where you can study in better conditions. When you study you probably do not have to have a side job either so you have already all the cards in your end to succeed.

    There is also this bias that if you made it to a top school, then you are way more intelligent than someone who failed by a few points. Maybe that person did not have all the help the well off kid got, was tired from the noise coming from the upstairs neighbor in these public housing.

    There was a study in the US that said if you compared the student that got into a school by a few points, and compare to those who missed by a few points, they end up having similar careers, but there is still the bias and these school cast system.

    Are these schools worth the price? In today's world nope. Look at how they coped with Covid, they had no digital plans on how to cope with these kind of situations, which shows you how bad they would cope as a business.

    I have worked for the same company in the UK and then in HK. In the UK it was a mix of background and honestly I saw people who were grown up adults with real life experience, they all worked in the summer while studying etc... every time there was an issue they would trouble shoot it without crying and fix it. Some came from good schools, others not. You could not tell the difference in most cases.

    Now in HK, HR had a completely different approach, they would only hire tier 1 university with International school background. The result was like working in a kindergarten. They were all acting like babies and you could see a lot of them did not even have to pay for their rent, it was just a job to keep mommy and daddy happy. Most would quit the moment it gets a bit tough, of course it's easy when you have a big net underneath.

    Anyway, rant over. Do these schools prepare you for the real world better? I doubt. I was amused on how they don't even teach Excel in HK. I started learning it in school at like 15-16. Even learned the old Excel (forgot the name) in MS-Dos at 10.

    I did graduate in a decent business school (from my own pocket), I am still trying to find what skills I learned there that I could not have learned in books or online. The only thing that helped was having that piece of paper for the work visa here.

    schoolthrowaway likes this.

  2. #102

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    First I should set this straight. HKIS, CIS, and GSIS unequivocally provides the best education money can buy in Hong Kong full stop.
    No. You're never ever going to win any argument on the interwebs with a throwaway account and resorting to "mine is bigger / better than yours".

    A fair few schools offer excellent education in HK - HKIS, CIS, GSIS are just a few of them. What may be good for you or for your money might not be as good or even good for others. DSS schools and a fair few local tier 1 schools offer excellent education and you don't need the "money" bit.

    As far as "money can buy" .... playing with your stereotypes - I'd disqualify HKIS and GSIS - they are really "wannabe" new money type schools. Kids of people who work for the folks whose kids are at CIS.

    Fuller stop.

    (What is with these posts coming from HKIS ... can we get them all tested and back to school so we can go back to our usual covid / politics / mark six rants?)

  3. #103

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    Plutark you seem to have some deep grudge against kids/people that grew up rich and used that money to give their kids advantages in life? What's up with that? As you pointed out yourself different upbringings have their advantages, a poor kid could be more hungry/driven and street smart, vs the rich kid being more book smart. I don't see anything wrong with either and its natural that rich parents try to make the best possible life for their kids.


  4. #104

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    its natural that rich parents try to make the best possible life for their kids.
    It is not about "rich parents" - it is about most parents wanting the best for their kids. What little benefits life has given us, we hope to pass some of them on to the next generation and hope to lift them up and put them in better situations than we're in.
    hullexile, Jillypots and hongkong7 like this.

  5. #105

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    It is not about "rich parents" - it is about most parents wanting the best for their kids. What little benefits life has given us, we hope to pass some of them on to the next generation and hope to lift them up and put them in better situations than we're in.
    That's a pretty universal sentiment regardless of culture. Most parents, regardless of their religion, race, ethnicity or nationality, want the best for their children. How they do that varies by family and culture, that is true, but those differences should not cloud the fact it is driven by the same desire everywhere, for parents to want their children to succeed.
    schoolthrowaway likes this.

  6. #106

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    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    It is not about "rich parents" - it is about most parents wanting the best for their kids. What little benefits life has given us, we hope to pass some of them on to the next generation and hope to lift them up and put them in better situations than we're in.
    Obviously its true rich or poor. But Plutark seems to think that rich people should behave differently somehow?

  7. #107

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    Guess I went the opposite route, daughter was in an academically challenging "gifted" program at the top school in her district but the kids were...obnoxious. For middle school sent her to a small (180 students) girls' school, less academically challenging but nicer humans. She also preferred it...I will pick better at teaching students how to be kind and decent people over academics, every time. She is smart, knew she would do fine whatever school she went to...

    Probably a result of a religious upbringing...morality was highly emphasized (what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but lose his soul and all that...she is an atheist now but a moral atheist).


  8. #108
    @Plutark I agree with your claims. 99% of the students from these schools have a safety net so if any adversarial event happens they have a fallback plan. Very few work summer retail/service jobs. Do they develop some of the soft skills you’ve mentioned? No. However, the spectrum of the people I’ve met ranged from extremely down-to-earth/humble/hardworking characters to entitled/obnoxious a-holes where everything is presented on a sliver platter. Whether the student ultimately develops into the former or latter, I believe the personal element/family upbringing is as influential (arguably if not more) as the school’s influence.

    @Shri My claim was based on the fact that these three schools
    deliver consistency and resources, as well as having a strong alumni network and community. Another reason I can make this claim is that these schools demonstrate a pattern of success year-after-year. Yes, you could be a IB 45 or 7 5** at a less prominent school or government subsidized school, but there are more hurdles to climb over and less resources available at your fingertips.

    Take university counsellors as an example. HKIS has 8, CIS has 4, GSIS has 3. These are all full time staff and they can just pick up the phone and call the regional university rep (say Cornell, Brown, LSE, Imperial). They can petition for the kids who applied to the respective school and the word trickles from the regional rep to the admissions board in the hopes of a favorable admissions outcome. This is the resource advantage that other schools don’t have. I know that some schools only have 1 or 2 counsellors and often it is an additional title in addition to another full time position (e.g. English teacher). It is the difference between getting an immediate response in three hours on a day an important matter is due, or hearing back one week later. The latter also don't have the resources (and time) to build relationships with their university counter-parties.

    If for whatever reason you hold a grudge against these three schools fine, but it would be grossly unfair to slander them based on prejudiced stereotypes from some third-hand impressions/internet gossip, especially in a thread that prospective applicants would read (and presumably make a life-changing decision for their children). If you don’t trust myself, fine. But if anyone here reading is doing research on these schools (I imagine that was the original purpose of the forum) I’d encourage that you’d talk to current students, parents, faculty to get an authentic perspective of the lay-of-the-ground for these places.
    diwakarverma likes this.

  9. #109

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    Original Post Deleted
    most tutorial centers with students in those schools will be able to offer some initial testing of your kids and then perhaps suggest a route forward.

    check with ntk and sylvan... Sylvan helped a friend's kid a few years ago for a few hours to prepare for a cdnis entrwnce test as the kid had never sat an exam before.

    but seriously .. dont mess yiur kids up by focusing on areas that they may not be interested in or might get too stressed.

  10. #110
    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    most tutorial centers with students in those schools will be able to offer some initial testing of your kids and then perhaps suggest a route forward.

    check with ntk and sylvan... Sylvan helped a friend's kid a few years ago for a few hours to prepare for a cdnis entrwnce test as the kid had never sat an exam before.

    but seriously .. dont mess yiur kids up by focusing on areas that they may not be interested in or might get too stressed.

    "Initial testing" is just a marketing ploy to reel parents in, not even always done by actual qualified teachers.