The International Schools Review Forum

@snowphantom

I would be very hesitant to treat anything in an ISs profile on SA as accurate.
Housing in the Hague will run you about €1900/mth

PsyGuy wrote:
> Housing in the Hague will run you about €1900/mth

Troll alert!!


And so far I've found that the information of the SA profiles of most schools is fairly accurate (apart from savings potential, as an individual's lifestyle has such a big impact on that), but it's always smart to check up on the numbers of things that matter to you, since there are some schools where their profile info is way off.
Also, sometimes the info on the number of 'international' students can be off because some ISs will count nationals who also have a foreign passport as international, and some countries will just sell their passports to any rich parent that want their kid to attend an international school that requires a foreign passport for admittance.

@Heliotrope

I generally find the SA IS profile data in its utility to be inaccurate and outdated.

and its €1900.

PsyGuy wrote:
> I generally find the SA IS profile data in its utility to be inaccurate and
> outdated.

Most information is not so far from the truth that you can't use it all to get an impression, but I've always checked the important numbers once I got closer to shortlisting a school.


> and its €1900.

Trollers gonna troll.

I paid 1200 CHF for a one-bed flat in Zurich.

fine dude wrote:
> I paid 1200 CHF for a one-bed flat in Zurich.

Cost of living is crazy high in Switzerland. But salaries are high too.

Not so high that allows considerable savings. Health insurance will be your biggest expense after housing. Even the economy is losing steam. #SwissBlues

fine dude wrote:
> Not so high that allows considerable savings. Health insurance will be your
> biggest expense after housing. Even the economy is losing steam.
> #SwissBlues

Agree. But teaching couples without kids can still save well though at the higher paying schools, such as the ones in Zurich or Lausanne and a few others elsewhere in Switzerland.

Teaching couples with no children can save very well in Switzerland. Yes, it's crazy expensive, but if you are able to live on one salary then you can bank the other.

And you're banking one whole Swiss salary, which will be decent.

The usual caveats about lifestyle etc. apply...

@Heliotrope

If one is satisfied with impressions, but Ive often described the data on ISs profiles as demonstrating a range within the region. Impressions arent accuracy though.

PsyGuy wrote:
> @Heliotrope
>
> If one is satisfied with impressions, but Ive often described the data on
> ISs profiles as demonstrating a range within the region. Impressions arent
> accuracy though.

That's exactly why, as I wrote, I always check the important numbers once I got closer to shortlisting a school.

@Heliotrope

So you rely on bad data to get you to an intermediary point and then you look at good data?

PsyGuy wrote:
> @Heliotrope
>
> So you rely on bad data to get you to an intermediary point and then you
> look at good data?

No, most SA data isn't all bad, it's an indication. And it's only one of the sources I use to make a longlist.

@Heliotrope

How bad does bad data have to be before its bad?

Granted, that while Ive seen ISs get their own name and address wrong, theres a proportion of their profile, such as identifying information thats accurate but has very little utility. Whereas the data such as salary (BA+4 and MA+8), savings potential, etc. tends to be outdated, or inaccurate more often than it isnt, and those are the data types that are of greater interest to ITs.

It has to be off by a significant margin, and in my experience, the important data provided by most schools is usually within that margin, so it helps to compare schools.
I disregard savings potential because there it exceeds that margin too often (in both directions), but there are plenty of sources to make an informed guess as to what the savings potential will be.