Tarsus American College is a private school of the Health and Education Foundation (SEV) in Tarsus, founded in 1888 as an American college. It has 615 students, 140 of whom board: 65 girls and 75 boys. Its stages are an English preparatory class and grades 9 to 12. Graduates receive the Turkish national high school diploma, and those who complete the two-year IB Diploma Programme in grades 10 and 11 leave with the IB diploma as well. The school has produced 6,730 graduates since it was founded, and the Class of 2025 had 124 students. Boarders come from more than twenty provinces, from Kars and Diyarbakir to Istanbul and Izmir. Classes start at 8:30 and end at different times depending on the day, with a 45-minute lunch break. A second school of the same foundation stands at the same address, Ozel Tarsus SEV Ilkogretim Kurumlari, covering kindergarten, primary and middle school; the two share the auditorium, the dining hall and the indoor gymnasium, and the high school dormitory sits inside the junior school building. Each of the two schools holds its own registry entry.
Key facts
Programmes
IB · DP · National programme
Languages of instruction
Turkish, English
Languages taught
German, French
About the fees The school does not put fee figures on its registration page: the 2026-27 terms are kept in a separate financial registration letter and in the calendar and guide for preparatory classes. Beside them sit a scholarship letter listing the documents to be uploaded to the system and a page of other scholarship opportunities.
Admissions Students enter the preparatory class after grade 8 on the results of the nationwide high school entrance examination. A limited number of transfers into upper grades is possible where places are available. For 2026-27 the school has published the preparatory class registration calendar and guide, a separate financial registration letter, a scholarship letter with the list of documents and the rules for applying, and a page of other scholarship opportunities.
Stages and year groups An English preparatory class and grades 9 to 12. Average class size at preparatory level is 20 and varies between 16 and 24 by grade level. Preparatory students take 24 hours of English a week; alongside the language the programme builds organisational skills, study skills and critical thinking strategies, and includes Outside Lesson days. Second foreign languages are German and French. Students decide at the end of grade 9 whether to take the IB Diploma Programme, which runs through grades 10 and 11.
Address Caminur Mahallesi, Cengiz Topel Caddesi No: 44, 33440 Tarsus, Mersin
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
CIS · accreditationIB · DP · authorised programmeThe school is accredited by the Council of International Schools and is listed in the IB registry with a Diploma Programme entry, code 002205. It applied for accreditation in 2004, when the accrediting body was the European Council of International Schools, and was one of the first schools in Turkey to receive it; the accreditation was renewed in 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2024. The school was authorized to offer the IB Diploma Programme in 2004 and describes itself as the first IBDP school in the Mediterranean region and the only IB school there today.
school is in an official registryconfirmed by a school document, by membership or by taking part in a networkclaimed by the school, no confirmation, not counted in the scoreGuide to all organisations → What stands behind each entry
CISCouncil of International Schools
It accredits international schools and is a paying association at the same time. It examines governance and ownership, the curriculum, teaching, student wellbeing, staff and premises; a team of volunteers from other CIS accredited schools visits the school. Membership and accreditation are different things here, and schools confuse them more often than anything else.
What the badge means for this school. The school has been through this organisation's accreditation. It was judged as a whole: governance, safeguarding, staff, premises, teaching. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →IBInternational Baccalaureate
A Swiss non-profit, working since 1968. Its programmes are among the most widely recognised school programmes in the world. Authorisation is granted stage by stage, so a school with the final stage does not necessarily run the younger ones; which stages this school holds is set out in the line below.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run this programme and to award its certificate. This is a confirmation of the programme, not a judgement on the school as a whole. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. At this school: DP (ages 16-19). DP is the final stage, ages 16 to 19: six subjects plus a compulsory core of theory of knowledge, an extended essay and CAS. The diploma is accepted by universities all over the world, and in a number of countries it counts for admission on the same footing as the local leaving certificate.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →National programme
The state school programme of the country the school stands in: it is set by that country's ministry of education, which also licenses the school and awards the leaving certificate. That certificate is used for entry to local universities, and abroad it is matched to the local one.
What this means for this school. This entry does not count towards the score, and that is deliberate. Every lawful school in a country works to the national programme, so on its own it tells one school apart from no other - unlike the French, German or Russian programmes, which are carried abroad and confirmed by the register of their organisation. We show it because a parent needs to know what programme their child is taught and what certificate the child will get. Counting it would lift the whole ranking at once and still tell nobody apart.
Exams and destinations from the school's official website
The school publishes nothing about where its leavers go: no share going on to university, no exam results, no list of universities.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
·Laboratoriesnot stated on the website
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
✓Boarding
Campus: A campus about a century and a half old; opposite it stands the foundation's new junior school building of roughly 10,000 sqm, which also houses the high school dormitory.
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
·Teacher qualificationsnot stated
·Number of teachersthe school does not say
·Students per teacher or class sizenot stated
In the 2024-25 academic year the school has 82 teachers and 125 staff in total including office staff. Against 615 students that is roughly eight students per teacher. Two college counsellors work at the school.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
Reviews
No reviews yet. The community rating counts towards the score once a school has five verified reviews - until then we do not show a zero, so as not to mislead.
Criteria breakdown criterion weight in brackets
Academics and programmes (16%)82 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data55 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data65 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)90 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data55 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data55 Value for money (6%) scored at the median71 "Scored on disclosed data" stands where we count only what the school has written about itself on its own site: exams and destinations, safety and wellbeing, teaching staff, facilities, clubs and activities. A low score here means the school does not write about this, not that the school does not have it: a school with good security and a sparse site will score low. A school can fill in its profile, and the score will be counted again.
The score is counted from 7 of the 9 criteria.Only those with checkable data count: programmes and accreditations from official registers, the fee from a published price list. Where it says "scored on the median", the school has no data and the middle of the list is put in its place, so that a gap gives no advantage. Admissions, teaching staff and reviews come in as their data arrives.
The full methodology → Similar schools in the country
Tarsus, Turkey · est. 1888 · Private