Just wanted to hear you admit you’re paying the expat bubble price :) there are only a handful of international schools in all of Thailand that run up to ฿1M+ a year, the intentionally overpriced/fanciest ones like Harrow or NIST. The ploy is they’re basically grooming mini-diplomats with helicopter pads and alumni networks that whisper “Ivy League” in your ear.

But let’s not pretend that’s the “going rate” for education private or otherwise here, like it’s a ฿40 pad thai. That’s a ฿3000 pad Thai plated by a model-waitress at Icon Siam. That’s like bragging about your Ferrari and calling it a commuter vehicle—sure, it gets you places fast, but most folks are fine with a Toyota (or in this case, a solid bilingual or even public school with a fraction of the cost).

Average international school fees for high school hover around ฿400k-700k per year, and that’s for good ones—not the ultra-elite tier you’re describing. Thai public schools are free or dirt cheap, with plenty producing sharp kids who go on to Chula or Mahidol without mortgaging the family rice farm. You’re paying for the Americanized “College Experience”, and fair play to you, you can afford/have the extra money to play with. But normal it is not.

You’re framing this as “the only path” to Stanford/Oxford/Harvard (already ludicrously presumptuous, basically admitting that you are trying to buy your way in) but that’s selection bias. Globally, admission rates to those universities are under 5% even for the best-prepared applicants; in Thailand, it’s a unicorn hunt. Mentally, you should start preparing for your kid to go to an average—> above average state school, unless they are truly exceptional in literally every way.

Most international school grads end up at solid but not world-top-5 schools, and that’s if they even aim that high. For ฿1M/year, you could hire a pack of PhD tutors, enroll in online MIT courses, and still have change left for a gap year in Europe—building a network that’s global, not just the Chiang Mai cocktail circuit. If networking’s the real sell, why not join a country club? Cheaper dues, same schmoozing etc.

I understand why you are doing it and if resources were unlimited, I would probably do it too. But it’s a far cry from normal even in the world of private schooling.

How much did you pay per year for the private elementary/middle school..?