4 ms·

There is gold in being a host family. $1800 a month. Or more. Paid by the School. Little old ladies with an extra bedroom hosting a young Chinese boy. Often wh

There is gold in being a host family. $1800 a month. Or more. Paid by the School. Little old ladies with an extra bedroom hosting a young Chinese boy. Often when they turn driving age I see them in a new car. Over 200 are enrolled at the regional college prep Catholic school Host families are a secret way to make good money. EDIT: its not airbnb-esque. You don't hand over a key. They are children. Hosts can't go away for the weekend. They provide / cook meals or shop or take student to the store for their own food.

kelukelugames 10y ago
How do I become a host family?
- losteverything 10y ago
  Call the school?? What I'm familiar with is the church newsletter (or diocese) asks for interested families to be hosts. Two academic workers at the school are hosts. Plus the reitred lady I mentioned. After one graduated another comes right behind . Many hosts are alums too.
notadoc 10y ago
$1800/month to host a foreign kid while they're in school? That sounds unlikely and dubious, maybe 1/3 of that amount is more realistic. But if it were true, poorer families who are struggling financially should be made aware of this, you'd have millions sign up to host. It'd likely be a good cultural experience for both sides too.
- hkmurakami 10y ago
  Certainly not all, but catholic prep schools can have tuitions of $30,000+ in some cases so in that case the numbers are reasonable as a passthrough to the foreign parents.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- losteverything 10y ago
  I talked to the lady. It's true. Her property taxes are $18k and could not afford to live in her house. When she bought it decades ago taxes were <$900 The Chinese spend the money and the Catholic school churns out ivy and first flight college acceptance letters. The school packages everything for the Chinese families. My $1800 is a 2-3 year old number and low if I had to guess. Tuition for a primary grade is over $10k. So it's private money and lots of it. What a better way to spend your fortune on educating your offspring.
- dxhdr 10y ago
  Well-off families will pay $20k to put their kid in private kindergarten. That's per year per kid and at a local private school, not sending them internationally. And that's kindergarten! Grades 5-12 can be $30k or more in tuition per year.
- zo1 10y ago
  >"But if it were true, poorer families who are struggling financially should be made aware of this, you'd have millions sign up to host. It'd likely be a good cultural experience for both sides too." As much as it'd "help" the poor family, I don't think you'd get a whole lot of interest from the other side. If people have this much money to spend on their children's tuition, they certainly don't want them living in poor neighborhoods, for the "cultural experience", even.
- mahyarm 10y ago
  In other places, it can be $800/$900 a month. This isn't new, it has been going on for over a decade or more. And it's not necessarily just Chinese kids. Korean kids, Japanese kids, European kids even. My family did it in Canada.
- morgante 10y ago
  $1800/m actually seems low to me. For the amount of money that Chinese parents pay on education, it's not much.
- tyteen4a03 10y ago
  Please don't become a host family if all you're looking for is profits. I volunteer for AFS (a global not-for-profit cultural exchange organisation) in the UK, and here the norm is that host families are paid. As a deal to restart AFS in the UK after having closed down, AFS International had us partner with a company that specialises in receiving foreign students; they handle the sourcing of host families (who are paid around £120 per week for "subsidy") and we handle orientations, ensuring that they settle into UK life well. And I have heard of so many horror stories where 4 exchange students live in the same house (Ideally there should be only one, to ensure they don't hang around with other exchange students only), being given frozen food (or sometimes even no food at all) or just generally neglected by the host family. And those are mainly families who treat hosting a student as another form of income. If you have no intention to engage with the host students to give them experience and only intend to look at them like cash cows, please, for the love of god, DO NOT become a host family. You will ruin a student's year.

kelukelugames 10y ago

How do I become a host family?

losteverything 10y ago
Call the school?? What I'm familiar with is the church newsletter (or diocese) asks for interested families to be hosts. Two academic workers at the school are hosts. Plus the reitred lady I mentioned. After one graduated another comes right behind . Many hosts are alums too.

notadoc 10y ago

$1800/month to host a foreign kid while they're in school? That sounds unlikely and dubious, maybe 1/3 of that amount is more realistic. But if it were true, poorer families who are struggling financially should be made aware of this, you'd have millions sign up to host. It'd likely be a good cultural experience for both sides too.

hkmurakami 10y ago
Certainly not all, but catholic prep schools can have tuitions of $30,000+ in some cases so in that case the numbers are reasonable as a passthrough to the foreign parents.
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
losteverything 10y ago
I talked to the lady. It's true. Her property taxes are $18k and could not afford to live in her house. When she bought it decades ago taxes were <$900 The Chinese spend the money and the Catholic school churns out ivy and first flight college acceptance letters. The school packages everything for the Chinese families. My $1800 is a 2-3 year old number and low if I had to guess. Tuition for a primary grade is over $10k. So it's private money and lots of it. What a better way to spend your fortune on educating your offspring.
dxhdr 10y ago
Well-off families will pay $20k to put their kid in private kindergarten. That's per year per kid and at a local private school, not sending them internationally. And that's kindergarten! Grades 5-12 can be $30k or more in tuition per year.
zo1 10y ago
>"But if it were true, poorer families who are struggling financially should be made aware of this, you'd have millions sign up to host. It'd likely be a good cultural experience for both sides too." As much as it'd "help" the poor family, I don't think you'd get a whole lot of interest from the other side. If people have this much money to spend on their children's tuition, they certainly don't want them living in poor neighborhoods, for the "cultural experience", even.
mahyarm 10y ago
In other places, it can be $800/$900 a month. This isn't new, it has been going on for over a decade or more. And it's not necessarily just Chinese kids. Korean kids, Japanese kids, European kids even. My family did it in Canada.
morgante 10y ago
$1800/m actually seems low to me. For the amount of money that Chinese parents pay on education, it's not much.
tyteen4a03 10y ago
Please don't become a host family if all you're looking for is profits. I volunteer for AFS (a global not-for-profit cultural exchange organisation) in the UK, and here the norm is that host families are paid. As a deal to restart AFS in the UK after having closed down, AFS International had us partner with a company that specialises in receiving foreign students; they handle the sourcing of host families (who are paid around £120 per week for "subsidy") and we handle orientations, ensuring that they settle into UK life well. And I have heard of so many horror stories where 4 exchange students live in the same house (Ideally there should be only one, to ensure they don't hang around with other exchange students only), being given frozen food (or sometimes even no food at all) or just generally neglected by the host family. And those are mainly families who treat hosting a student as another form of income. If you have no intention to engage with the host students to give them experience and only intend to look at them like cash cows, please, for the love of god, DO NOT become a host family. You will ruin a student's year.