An Introduction to College Counseling at International Schools: Part II
Cory Zimmerman, Singapore American School
June 18, 2025

If my previous blog post was my attempt at a primer on international schools–why they exist and whom they serve–in this follow-up post I’d like to provide a personal view on some of the rewards and challenges of working as a college counselor outside the US. I have just concluded my eighth year as a college counselor in Asia, and the experience has been a boon for my professional and personal development. While I miss my stateside independent school colleagues dearly, I wouldn’t change my decision to make the leap those years ago, and that’s partially due to ongoing support that ACCIS has provided while I’ve been abroad. In case you’d like to make a similar transition, you might consider the following:

Rewards

• Depending on the school/region, benefits packages allow one to live comfortably while continuing to save. This is especially true for teaching couples. Typically, multiple children’s tuitions are also remitted at the school where one is employed.
• If you are not cordoned off from the surrounding society, your cultural competence has the chance to go through the roof.
• The kids you’ll work with have sometimes already accrued global experiences that it would take many people a lifetime to amass, which can contribute to worldviews typified by empathy and humility (and incredible privilege, which manifests in many ways).
• You’ll likely increase your knowledge of global universities tenfold, especially as enrollment at non-US universities continues to increase each year among international students.
• Travel, travel, travel. International schools typically enjoy all local holidays in addition to those of the origin nation of the school.
• You’ll work with colleagues from around the world.

Challenges

• The pandemic was a reminder that when borders close, home can feel a million miles away.
• Contracts are typically due in November, so if you desire to return stateside for the following school year, options can be limited if you want a job secured before you don’t sign.
• Many international schools maintain the comprehensive counseling model they began with. For those who have made the transition to a split model, there can be a general lack of understanding among the community as to what a college counseling office does.
• If your friend base consists primarily of your colleagues, be ready for a fair amount of coming and going, as international schools can feature highly transient faculty populations.
• Efforts to incorporate DEI into the structure of the school can be hit or miss. It has been my observation that trends/best practices in the US take about a decade to reach international schools.
• Most international schools do not have selective admissions, so if you enjoy working at a school with a distinct mission who screens for fit for that mission in the admissions process, you may need to adjust to a less firm sense of why your school exists.

Amidst all these pros and cons, the ACCIS community has been an invaluable resource for the work that we do at Singapore American School. Indeed, my office has been immensely grateful for the decision to include international schools as part of the membership, as resources like the e-list, Annual Conference, DTA Today Webinars, troves of data, and general camaraderie have aided in our work enormously. As alluded to above, working thousands of miles away from the US can feel isolating at times, but ACCIS provides a lifeline for our work. Need help creating a job description for a registrar position that curiously has never existed at your school? Ask the e-list! Hoping to find specific data to counsel a student? Scour the Data Trends and Analysis section of the website! Need to add heft to a policy proposal to your admin? Pull up those slides from a relevant session at the Annual Conference. Simply put, we are a more effective team that can deliver better on our mission with ACCIS.