THINK Global School

Prep School Admissions
21

<p>This school makes me nervous for so many reasons. Among them:</p>

<p>-There are more lawyers than educators on the advisory board, board of directors and faculty combined.</p>

<p>-The school lists 5 faculty member, 2 of whom are interns without college degrees. One of these interns is doing this work as her gap year. The other just finished his freshman year in college.</p>

<p>-Although I couldn’t confirm it I’m pretty sure there has been a lot of turnover on the advisory board and BOD. I remember looking at the website last year and at least finding these boards compelling. Not this time. Of the six member Board of Directors only two members have any experience in secondary education. Two of the six are a married couple, parents of a staff member. And what the heck is a “certification as a Oneness Facilitator and Blessing Giver” (one of board member Marlene Waxman’s credentials)? The advisory board is similarly thin.</p>

<p>-Where are the former teachers at leading secondary schools? I’m pretty sure I saw a few on my last visit. Not now. How many people involved in this school have ever even taught a teenager?</p>

<p>-Credentials. The school doesn’t yet have any accreditation. It doesn’t give formal grades. Will colleges really take an application from this school seriously? </p>

<p>-Curriculum. I love the idea of experiential learning, but how about giving us some real information on the courses my child is likely to take. </p>

<p>“The seven core disciplines are as follows:
Anthropology (a new course in 2011)
Creative Arts
Global Studies (history, geography and cultural studies)
Mathematics
Sciences (currently general sciences, but evolving into specialized sciences)
World Languages (currently Mandarin and Spanish)
World Literature”</p>

<p>Really? That’s it? “Math” and “General Sciences”? If my kid’s ready for calculus who’s teaching them? Is the same person trying to teach algebra 1 to the kid next to them at the same time? Are the kids split up and put in standard classes in the host country? If so, how does the school fill in gaps left by different teaching practices?</p>

<p>-Who are the host schools? The website lists two, one of which is a girls’ school. When there’s more information about how to become a host school than on the existing host schools I consider it a red flag.</p>

<p>-The school says it encourages extracurricular activities. I challenge you to find a top music instructor or sports coach who’s willing to take on a new kid for 3 months. No youth orchestra, no team captainships (or whatever the noun for this would be!), no one with any real level of skill to write you a recommendation for college or help you find a summer internship.</p>

<p>-Safety, health, etc. Who’s watching out for these kids? Who do they go to when they’re concerned their roommate’s developing an eating disorder or they’re trying to figure out how to come out safely? The 19 year old intern? The teacher they met 6 weeks ago and who will be out of their lives for good 6 weeks later? How are these kids receiving health services in foreign cities? A blog entry about a particularly virulent bug that swept through the group was accompanied by a photo of a sick kid sleeping on a bare institutional floor with his head on his backpack. Uh, no, not my kid.</p>

<p>-Money. For what students pay the entire family could take 9 months to travel around the world or rent housing in foreign cities and attend local schools.</p>

<p>One of my kids attends a progressive school which emphasizes experiential learning, group work, use of technology and out of the box thinking. We do a tremendous amount of educational travel, have attended high schools abroad, and considered sending one of our kids to an immersion program for 8th grade. We are this school’s target audience. No way I’d send one of my kids to TGS.</p>

22

<p>Sue22 this school is a humongous opportunity for anyone who’s interested in applying. Could you imagine the amount of colleges that would want such a wise 18 year old to go to their college? The amount of knowledge your child will gain from traveling to 3 countries every year? It’s a GROWING school, key word growing. If everyone was so skeptical like you nothing would ever get done!! When they talk abou extra curricular activities they mean that they encourage kids to play guitar, sing, create songs, cook etc. In fact they love it. If you look at pictures you can see that the kids are split into groups, probably based on their level in a particular subject. The interns are there to mentor the children just like at boarding school they have advisors. They are well taken care of, look at pictures of the bedrooms and that one child may have just not wanted to create a fuss. The host schools just let them use some classrooms and the occasional science room. also, your child doesn’t HAVE to go for all 4 years, and all that money pays for the HUNDREDS of field trips they take, the food, salary for teachers, sleeping arrangements, the constant iPhone service, the iPads, the MacBooks, and the many speakers they have, the host schools etc. So all in all your too hard on this school, lighten up, this is their 1st year and so far they’ve done extremely well.</p>

23

<p>Somehow I get the feeling that the user with one post defending THINK Global School might be connected to it somehow…</p>

<p>Regardless, @Sue22 pretty much sums up why I chose not to apply to TGS. I looked at it, but it “made me nervous” as well for pretty much the same reasons.</p>

24

<p>I’m okay with Bluedot9 joining to defend the school if he or she is connected to it. Bluedot, if you do have some inside information…</p>

<p>Who teaches the students math or science? I don’t see anyone listed on the TGS website with qualifications in either subject. Perhaps TGS students take courses at the host schools, but BISS (their current school) is on a semester system, while TGS is on a trimester system, which means that any TGS students joining a class would do so well after the start of the semester.</p>

<p>On another note, students at boarding schools do have advisors to mentor them, but those advisors are adults, not teenagers themselves.</p>

25

<p>I agree with Sue22. Who teaches Math, Physics, Biology? The Spanish teacher teaches Chemistry and English Literature. </p>

<p>The interns haven’t finished college. That’s too young. In an era when college graduates have a hard time finding a job, the school can’t secure any college graduates as interns?</p>

<p>The school still isn’t accredited. “TGS adheres to global standards of accreditation” (from their Boarding School Review page) isn’t sufficient. On a serious note, which independent authority investigates any complaints (should there be any)? For $125,000, this would not be my choice.</p>

26

<p>Every school has to start somewhere - but the school is unaccredited and in its infancy. I think it’s telling that Bluedot didn’t come back with any specific information over the past year. There are so many scams these days I would be loathe to place my children with adults I couldn’t verify, in a school where the curriculum wasn’t advanced.</p>

<p>Having said that - my experience with School Year Abroad which does the same thing on a lesser scale (I.e. one country instead of many) has been a gem. There is significant travel built into the tuition for less than half the price, the students are full immersion, and the program is vetted and funded by the top boarding schools. Students who are admitted are sometimes grandfathered in if they want to do a second year in a different country while still getting AP and honors coursework.</p>

<p>Just saying - it’s a stretch to send a child to a known boarding school. Sending one around the world with total strangers in a new organization that can’t yet be vetted means being a guinea pig.</p>

<p>Nice concept - tempting, intriguing - but not sure it’s ready for prime time until it works it’s kinks out and gets a stronger faculty line-up. 10 million dollars in an endowment isn’t a lot of money to bank even if the majority of students are full pays. Salaries, benefits, supplies (laptops, phones,etc) and facilities rentals would eat up the bulk of that.</p>

27

<p>This is on the website: THINK Global School is an IB-authorized traveling high school. Every year, our school travels to three international cities to explore, study and learn.
Obviously your information is outdated and WAY off. And here’s a video answering questions about TGS: [FAQs</a> by students of THINK Global School - YouTube](<a href=“FAQs by students of THINK Global School - YouTube”>FAQs by students of THINK Global School - YouTube)</p>

28

<p>MrAnonymous-
The information was accurate at the time when it was written.</p>

<p>I’m happy to see that TGS has completed the accreditation process and has beefed up its teaching staff. The faculty was rather thin when I last posted. The “gap year” interns seem to have been replaced by actual adults with teaching experience.
The curriculum has also been beefed up. For instance, “General Science” has been replaced by courses in biology, chemistry and physics. The school is following an IB program.</p>

<p>MrAnonymous, I’m guessing you’re affiliated with the school so I wonder if you can answer some questions-</p>

<p>What percentage of students receive financial aid beyond the founder’s grants? What is the average FA package? What’s the least a student at TGS pays? For those who haven’t been on the website, TGS costs $125,00 plus the cost of all travel. $46,000 is covered by a grant from the school, leaving $79,000 plus travel. I’m hoping MrA can convince us it’s not just a school for rich kids.</p>

<p>Who will the host school be in Boston? As a Bostonian I’m curious…</p>

29

<p>Sue22,
I’m a student at THINKGlobal School, We will be going to the British School in Boston but that is to be clarified in the near future (you can follow that on the locations tab on thinkglobalschool.org). Depending on the students financial situation the grant may vary. The least a student pays is 5,000 USD + Travel Expenses. The grant is really the basic. The tuition has been lowered to 88,000 USD in total. In some exceptional situations the school supports the student completely including travel expenses (that is a rare case of course). The school is not all for rich kids, quite the contrary. The school is created for students who have a strong desire to travel and learn about cultures first hand, as you may have seen in the FAQ video I gave you. If a student is supported by the schools grant the expectations are very high when it comes to assessments and exams. Hope I answered any questions you had. If you have anymore, don’t hesitate to ask. Are you looking into applying to TGS?</p>

30

<p>This seems so sketchy. Note how the person defended that defended the school and the person who allegedly went to the school both only had 1 or 2 posts, that too only on this thread and didn’t directly answer your questions. Plus, I can’t find anything about it online…</p>

31

<p>You sound a lot like an admissions officer… “The school is created for students who have a strong desire to travel and learn about cultures first hand.”“you can follow that on the locations tab on thinkglobalschool.org”"If you have anymore, don’t hesitate to ask. Are you looking into applying to TGS? "</p>

<p>Really adult-y and super formal. Are you a promoter, MrAnon? I think further investigation is needed-- this might be a scam…</p>

<p>editeditediteditediteditediteditediteditediteditediteditediteditedit
NEVER MIND. IT’S LEGIT.
Forget everything I said…</p>