BASIS Independent Silicon Valley Upper School, San Jose | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

Personally as a student I liked BASIS. However there are numerous issues that have been going around:

Advantages of BASIS:
+Good academics. Challenging yet rewarding, the feeling after taking a hard AP you studied hard for is priceless.
+Teachers. Some are passionate about their subjects and try to help their students as much as they can. Oh and they are funny too!
+Control over the school: Basis gives quite a few opportunities to parents and students. One thing I love about the school is that you can start clubs. I did so myself and my club is now two years old. Parent meetings are held somewhat frequently and deans can always take student feedback and help students.

Disadvantages/Cons:
-Physical environment: Terrible campus. The whole school is grey and red, hardly any windows, only about half the classrooms have them! Hallways are always extremely crowded due to limited space, students have to walk up three flights of stairs to get to and fro classes. You only have 5 minute passing periods to get to classes on different floors! School is very small. You can walk from one end to the other in minutes. Really bad design throughout the school, paint peeling off, power outages, construction problems, etc. Oh, and there’s no field. It’s all astroturf. And only a tiny patch of THAT.

-Cost: BASIS tuition alone is over $20k (based on their website). For such a small environment and some bad teachers it’s not worth it. Also they make you pay outrageous money for several things, such as school buses and clubs. School events are also costly to pay for.

-Teachers: Many teachers are not interested in their subjects and sound like they need a year off. Spanish teachers are terrible and are probably to be replaced next year, among other teachers. Some teachers just don’t facilitate an interesting learning experience.

Overall: Doesn’t live up to expectations. Good idea, bad result.

I am a student at BASIS Independent and would prefer to remain anonymous. This is due to various reasons that all point to the flaws of the school. Lately a fellow student had to take down the review he wrote although it contained nothing inappropriate. All he did was give it a one star review. The Head of School had to call his parents to do so. This is very unfortunate. Looking at the school, it’s full of false advertisements. The teachers are not good. Students in 5TH GRADE swear and talk extremely inappropriately to their superiors, who don’t mind so much. I am in a higher grade, however, and it is no better. The curriculum is not even that advanced as it claims to be, and most students don’t care anymore. A friend was the most studious person I ever knew and now he has lost all interest. He, like countless others has been burnt out by the endless swarm and pressure of this school. It really shouldn’t be charging 22,000 dollars per year. Please save your money and be wise to not send your kids to BASIS. They will get corrupted and talk about inappropriate things using bad language that doesn’t get regulated. Students snuck out of campus at lunchtime several times, stealing things from stores before being apprehended. Nobody likes the school. The students hate it. Some teachers hate it. Then why waste your money sending your innocent child to a public school environment and learning system while paying much more than you deserve to pay? Do yourself a favor and save you and your child’s future by not sending them here, ever. Thanks for your time.

As a student at Basis, I feel that overall, the schools curriculum is great. It is challenging, but in no way is it too hard to handle, UNLESS YOU ARE NOT PAYING ATTENTION IN CLASS. To me, this is perfectly acceptable. However, my problem with the school is with the staff. Although most of my teachers are fairly good at relaying the information they teach to me, my real problem is the way that the school is managed. From 2014-2015 school year, three of the best teachers were made to serve as deans. It isn’t that they are doing a bad job as a dean, but I feel that they would’ve contributed a lot more to the school as a teacher. Furthermore, many of the wonderful teachers from last year who were superb at their job were transferred to the new BASIS opening in China. To me, this seems like a business tactic, drawing in students with good teachers and then pulling them away to a new school. Also, I have noticed the major influx of new students pouring in the 2015-2016 school year, making the school even more cramped than before. At this point, I feel the school is more of a business than a center for education. Finally, I have a problem with the current Head of School. To parents, he is showing a false veil of sincerity, but to us students, he is anything but such. I most definitely do not feel safe when he is around, but I feel intimidated, and uncomfortable, which are things I believe you should not feel in a friendly, school environment. But then again, I’m just a seventh grader, so my opinion doesn’t really count, does it?