Phillips Exeter charges USD 71,797 for a boarding year and supports half its students with aid. The family looking at Switzerland already knows.

Picture this: a family in Hong Kong has two tabs open on the laptop. One shows the costs page of Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire: USD 71,797 for a boarding year. The other shows a boarding school on Lake Geneva: CHF 164,400. One parent does the sum on a phone, and the other asks the only question that matters: what does our child get for the difference?

Many Swiss schools prefer not to enter that conversation. They talk about excellence, tradition and scenery, and leave the price in a PDF. I think that is a mistake. The family makes the comparison anyway, and if the school does not explain it, the calculator will.

The two figures.

For 2026-27, Phillips Exeter publishes tuition of USD 71,797 for boarders and USD 56,077 for day students, plus about USD 900 for books. For 2027-28, Institut Le Rosey publishes a fee of CHF 164,400 for board and tuition, before extras. At the European Central Bank reference rate of 12 October 2026, one dollar was worth about 0.83 Swiss francs, which puts Exeter’s fee at around CHF 59,800. By my calculation, the Swiss price is about 2.7 times the American one. They are different courses, but a family does not make that distinction in its first sum.

Why Exeter can charge less.

Exeter explains it on its own website: its tuition is lower than that of peer schools because it limits tuition growth and supplements it with annual fundraising and endowment income. It admits students without any regard to a family’s financial circumstances and meets 100% of demonstrated need with grants that are never repaid. Families earning less than USD 150,000 pay no tuition. 49% of its students receive financial assistance, the average annual grant for boarders is USD 60,000, and the school awards some USD 30 million in outright grants.

In other words, Exeter’s price is not what half of its families pay, and what the rest pay is underpinned by donors and alumni. Philanthropy exists in Switzerland too, but on a different scale. Aiglon College, which describes itself as a philanthropic school, has welcomed 134 scholars since 1991, and half of its current scholars are funded through the generosity of parents and alumni.

What the comparison does not say.

Exeter is highly selective, and its price is a reference point, not a direct competitor for every place. And the two figures do not cover the same things: education system, languages, class sizes, travel, mountain sports, insurance, extras. The family does not know all that when it does the sum. And nobody will tell them if the school does not.

The blind spot: the best explanation of the price is on a scholarships page.

Looking for how Swiss boarding schools explain their price, I found the clearest explanation in an unexpected place: Aiglon’s scholarships page. To describe what a full scholarship covers, it lists tuition, International Baccalaureate fees, textbooks and examinations, university application support, accommodation, all meals, wellbeing programmes, tutoring, on-site healthcare, sports with ski passes and equipment, expeditions, cultural programmes, residence tax, permits, laundry and travel insurance. Without setting out to, it describes what a year at a Swiss boarding school really costs.

That list is exactly what the family in Hong Kong needed to see next to the figure. Not to bring the price down, but to stop it looking arbitrary.

Families do not compare schools. They compare what they understand about each one.

Where I stand.

A Swiss boarding school will not win the comparison on price, and it should not try. Lowering fees to look more like Exeter would mean competing against a donor-funded model, and losing. What it can do is explain just as clearly what its price includes, what it does not, what support exists and what a student receives every day. A price that is not explained looks expensive. A price that is explained looks like a decision.

What I would check.

• The fees page. Whether it shows the total cost of the first year, with extras, or only the fee.
• What is included. A list as concrete as a full scholarship’s: meals, trips, skiing, insurance, exams, permits.
• The comparison the family is already making. A calm page explaining the difference from a British or American boarding school, without criticising anyone.
• Financial support. If scholarships exist, how to apply and for whom. If they do not, say so clearly.
• Currency. An indicative conversion into your families’ currencies, with the date of the exchange rate.

Where to start.

1. This week

   Do the family’s sum

   Compare your total cost with two schools your families consider, in their currencies.

2. This month

   Write down what is included

   A concrete list of what the fee pays for, day by day, in all your languages.

3. This quarter

   Publish the comparison

   A page that answers “why Switzerland?” with facts, not adjectives.

4. Every year

   Update the figures

   Fees, extras and exchange rate, when next year’s are published.

The family torn between Exeter and your school has a spreadsheet. In one column there is a figure in dollars and possible aid. In the other, yours. What would you write in the third column, the one that explains the difference?

If it takes you more than a minute to answer, think how long it will take that family. And a doubt worth not dodging: if your price is higher, does your website explain it, or does it hope nobody does the sum?

If you would like me to review how your website explains the price today to a family that has already done the sum, start with the Strategic Diagnostic. What your school charges is for your board to decide, not a designer.