Dad against boarding school in the us

Parents Forum
1

<p>I live in south east Asia and I want to go to boarding school in Boston for a better education. I asked my dad and he keeps saying I should go to uk to study. He says that America is dangerous and that I'm gonna get shot and die. How can I convince him?</p>

2

<p>Seriously, shot an die in the US vs SE Asia??? Maybe you both should visit the US before making sweeping generalizations…</p>

3

<p>Check out the Prep School Admissions section.</p>

4

<p>You father is falling for a statistical fallacy of interpreting sensationalized news reports as high probably events. </p>

<p>In reality you will be perfectly safe but hooked on a variety of recreational pharmaceuticals.</p>

5

<p>Why do you want to study in the US vs UK? It might help if you could state the reason. Otherwise your parents may think you are just being a difficult kid.</p>

6

<p>Are you hoping to attend college in the US? If so then I think a boarding school here would better prepare you for that path. I think a visit to the area would probably be a good idea for your family before making any decision.</p>

7

<p>Maybe finance is the real reason? Boarding schools in the US are probably as expensive as private colleges. I am under the impression that UK high schools are cheaper, just like their colleges.</p>

8

<p>Perhaps a little research about shooting statistics will put his mind at ease</p>

9

<p>Perhaps your dad would prefer you do a British curriculum. To be honest, if your dad is willing to pay for boarding school in the UK…then go there.</p>

10

<p>The murder rate in the US, per capita, is several times higher than in England & Wales. According to this, the USA has a murder rate of 5.9 per 100,000 population, compared to 1.6 per 100,000 in England & Wales (figures for Scotland (2.6) and Northern Ireland (2.4) are a bit higher, but still less than half that of the USA. That said, you’re less likely to go there anyway, as Scotland has a different education system, and the Northern Irish are still fond of planting bombs and rioting - we’ve had a month of rioting on the subject of how often the Union Jack is to be flown above City Hall in Belfast, so far…).
<a href=“http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/oct/13/homicide-rates-country-murder-data[/url]”>http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/oct/13/homicide-rates-country-murder-data&lt;/a&gt;
According to the reliable source known as wikipedia, Boston has a rate of 11.3
[United</a> States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_cities_by_crime_rate]United”>List of United States cities by crime rate - Wikipedia)</p>

<p>Part of the reason for the lower murder rate is that guns are highly controlled in the UK, with handguns outright banned. If you walked down a street with a gun, you would be arrested and convicted. Even the police don’t routinely carry guns (although they can call for armed backup if necessary), and there isn’t any public clamour for the police to carry guns. I don’t think I actually know anyone who owns a gun, although I have fired a gun before myself (clay pigeon shooting at a country fair). The last school shooting was in 1996 (Dunblane) and I actually can’t think of another one before or since. So (unless you want to go to East Belfast), you are unlikely to win any arguments on the subject of safety, looking at the stats, although it remains highly unlikely that you would be murdered in either country. </p>

<p>However, what your decision should be based on is

  • where do you want to get your degree? In the UK (except Scotland), degrees are normally 3 years long, but they’re specialised from day one, so it’s better for people who know exactly what subject they want to study. The US has four year degrees and more flexibility, but if you wanted to study something like law, then you couldn’t until postgrad level (unlike the UK)</p>

<ul>
<li><p>how much money is available? Certainly a UK university education is cheaper than going to the USA, but I don’t know about the relative costs of boarding school. At the upper end, a UK boarding school costs £30k per year ($49k) plus any extras, but there are plenty of cheaper ones out there. </p></li>
<li><p>do you want to do A Levels (as studied in England and Wales, people normally do 3.5 related subjects between the ages of 16 and 18), IB (six subjects, less choice over what subjects you do, studied anywhere in the world if your school offers it) or do you want to go for the US style of high school education?</p></li>
</ul>

11

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<p>OP is likely in Singapore, which had 16 homicides in a year (and close to zero by shooting), for a rate of 0.3, compared to the US rate of 4.8 (per 100,000).</p>

<p>Even Vietnam at 1.6 and Cambodia at 3.4 are better than US, although Thailand is also 4.8.</p>

<p>[List</a> of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate]List”>List of countries by intentional homicide rate - Wikipedia)</p>