The American English Academy (AEA) is a private, secular international day school from kindergarten (age 3) to grade 12 near Lozen village, just outside Sofia. It was founded by Frank and Ruth Munsey in 1992 as one of the first international schools in Bulgaria; since 2015 it has been owned by the Bulgarian investment company Markan Holding AD. About 200 students from more than 35 countries attend, and the school keeps roughly equal numbers of international and Bulgarian students. The main international programme follows the US Common Core standards and is taught in English; Advanced Placement courses are compulsory in high school, and the school is itself an AP exam centre. Bulgarian children can choose the optional Dual Language Program in Bulgarian and English, run with the Abraham Lincoln private school licensed by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education; its students receive double certification. International programme graduates receive an American High School Diploma. The school reports Middle States Association (MSA-CESS) accreditation. The average class has 12 students, with 4 students per teacher.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $11 862–16 494 a year
10 500–14 600 EUR
Programmes
AP · American programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English, Bulgarian
Students per teacher
4 students per teacher
Class size
12 students on average, up to 20 in kindergarten and grades 1-4, up to 22 in grades 5-12 pupils
Registration fee
≈ $508
450 EUR
About the fees International programme tuition for 2026-2027: K3-K5 10500 euro, K6 12200 euro, grades 1-7 14500 euro, grade 8 14600 euro, grades 9-10 12200 euro, grades 11-12 13400 euro per year. Dual Language Program fees are the same except grades 1-7 at 15600 euro. Payment is in three parts: 50% by 31 March, 30% by 30 June, 20% by 15 December; a second child gets 5% off the lower fee. Tuition covers textbooks, uniforms, insurance, one compulsory AP exam, Cambridge English exams, psychology and university counselling. Students joining mid-year pay a quarterly share of the annual fee.
Admissions Admission is selective and year-round when the grade has a place; there is no deadline. The school looks for motivated children with good English; all applicants for grades 1-12 have an entrance interview and an English assessment, and a general placement test if needed. A decision usually takes 10-15 days, and enrolment follows the signed agreement. When places are short, priority goes to siblings of current students, children from other international schools, children of parents with international citizenship, then children of Bulgarian citizens. Placement follows previous schooling and age (no more than 12 months older or younger than the grade average); kindergarten placement is by year of birth only. The Dual Language Program is open only to local students who are native Bulgarian speakers, from age 5 to grade 12; transfer from it to the international programme is allowed, but not the reverse.
Stages and year groups Grades K3-K6, 1-12. Kindergarten: K3-K4 and K5-K6 groups (K6 is the preparatory group for grade 1). Elementary: grades 1-4; middle school: grades 5-8; high school: grades 9-12. The international programme follows the US Common Core standards in English; Advanced Placement courses are compulsory from grade 10, and students prepare for five AP exams during high school. Graduates receive an American High School Diploma (apostilled), and a certificate of promotion after each grade. Cambridge English exams are prepared and taken in grades 8 and 11 (B2 and C1 levels). The optional Dual Language Program for Bulgarian students follows US and Bulgarian standards in Bulgarian and English with double certification, together with the Abraham Lincoln private school.
Address 1 Orlova Krusha Str., Lozen
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
MSA · accreditationCollege Board · authorised programmeThe school is accredited by MSA (Middle States Association), with Active status in its directory. The College Board AP Course Ledger lists it for the 2025-2026 school year.
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
MSAMiddle States Association of Colleges and Schools
One of the oldest American accreditations, working since 1887 in more than a hundred countries and linked to the Office of Overseas Schools of the US State Department. It judges the school as an institution across twelve areas, including finances, governance, premises and student support.
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 →College BoardCollege Board, the AP programme
An American organisation that allows a school to put the letters AP on a pupil's transcript. The permission is granted course by course and tied to a particular teacher, it has to be renewed every year, and College Board reads the course syllabus before granting it.
What the badge means for this school. The school is allowed to run advanced AP courses - not the school as a whole, but one by one: by subject and by teacher. Governance, safeguarding and the primary years are not part of that check. Which subjects are actually approved is visible in the ledger. The entry stands in the organisation's public register - anyone can check it. Authorisation here runs a year at a time: the register lists the school for the 2025-2026 school year.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →AP
Advanced Placement: American advanced courses for the senior years. The exam for a course is set and marked by the College Board, not by the school. A good result is counted by American universities as a first-year course already passed, which saves a student time and money.
What this means for this school. A school does not get to call a course AP automatically: the College Board reads the course syllabus and approves it separately for every subject and every teacher, and the permission has to be renewed each year. Every approved school in the world is listed in the open AP Course Ledger, and this school's entry there stands as a line in the accreditation block above. How many courses a school is approved for, and in which subjects, the ledger does not show in its general listing. AP has no leaving certificate of its own: it sits on top of the school's main programme rather than being a separate system.
American programme
The American school programme, with the High School Diploma at the end. It usually comes together with AP courses, which the College Board stands behind, and with an American accreditation - MSA, NEASC or Cognia.
What this means for this school. The diploma is written out by the school itself: the American programme has no common leaving exam, and the content of the senior years is set by the school. Outside checking therefore rests on two things here - the accreditation of the school, and the AP exams if the school runs them.
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
✓Laboratories
·Theatre or assembly hallnot stated on the website
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Clubs and activities: Piano · Ballet · Art · Lego · Basketball · Soccer · Debate Club
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 sizein the key facts above
Teachers come from the USA, Bulgaria, Canada, India, the UK and Macedonia; 55% have more than 7 years of experience. Staff speak 12 languages.
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 roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
·Child protection policynot stated on the website
·Staff trainingnot stated on the website
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school holds an Anti-Bullying Week with lessons on the personal and social aspects of aggression; tuition includes school counselor and psychology services and annual student insurance.
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%)75 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 data80 Clubs and activities (8%) scored on disclosed data78 "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 8 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
Lozen, Bulgaria · est. 1992 · Private