← Back to the rankingAmerican International School of Bucharest
Voluntari, Romania · est. 1962 · Private
Illustration · Voluntari
The American International School of Bucharest (AISB) is a private not-for-profit international day school in Voluntari, just north of Bucharest, for students aged 2 to 18. It opened in September 1962 as the American School of Bucharest in two rooms on Strada Vasile Conta; after an earthquake, the years of dictatorship and the 1989 revolution, when the building was hit by gunfire, it moved in 2001 to its purpose-built campus on Pipera Boulevard. Today it has more than 850 students from more than 60 countries and more than 280 staff. The school offers all three IB programmes: the PYP in the Early Learning Center and grades 1-5, the MYP in grades 6-10 and the Diploma Programme in grades 11-12; from grade 11 there is also the Global Impact Diploma pathway, and all graduates receive the AISB High School Diploma. The language of instruction is English, as the school states directly; Romanian is taught as a subject. The school does not follow the Romanian national curriculum and therefore, it says, is not accredited by the Romanian Ministry of Education. The school reports NEASC accreditation and IB authorisation and takes part in CEESA. The Chair of the Board of Trustees is appointed by the US Ambassador.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $8 823–31 689 a year
7 810–28 050 EUR
Programmes
IB · PYP, MYP, DP · American programme
Admits from
2 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
French, Spanish, Romanian, Turkish
Students per teacher
6 students per teacher in grades 6-12
Class size
no more than 20 students per class, no more than 12 in the youngest Early Learning groups, 15-19 in grades 1-5, 15-20 in grades 6-12 pupils
Registration fee
≈ $282
250 EUR
About the fees Annual tuition for 2026-2027: EC2 half day 7810 euro, EC2 full day and EC3-EC4 13600 euro, KG 24850 euro, grades 1-5 26040 euro, grades 6-8 26270 euro, grades 9-12 28050 euro. Non-residents pay in euro; Romanian residents may pay in lei at the National Bank rate. Families paying personally may split payment into two installments for an extra 1000 euro; this is not available to corporate-sponsored families. Lunch and bus transport are paid separately to external providers.
Admissions The school accepts applications throughout the year, including mid-year, if space is available. Steps: a visit, an online application with school reports and passport copies, an age-appropriate assessment (in the Early Learning Center a meeting with leadership, in grades 1-5 literacy and math plus an English test for students still learning English, in grades 6-12 supervised English and math tests), and a decision by the Director within 2-4 weeks. The application fee is 250 euro. Up to grade 5 the school accepts children with any level of English and provides an English as an Additional Language programme; entry to the Diploma Programme in grade 11 requires advanced writing and math. When places are short, priority goes to children of US Government employees, former students, children of foreign embassy staff and international students, then siblings and children of alumni; no single nationality may exceed 30% of a grade. Age is counted on 1 September.
Stages and year groups Grades EC2-EC4, KG, 1-12. The Early Learning Center (EC2-EC4 and KG, ages 2 to 6) follows the PYP with a Reggio Emilia influence. Grades 1-5 follow the PYP with the Grade 5 Exhibition. Grades 6-10 follow the MYP with the Personal Project in grade 10. Grades 11-12 offer four pathways: the IB Diploma Programme, the Global Impact Diploma, a dual diploma combining both, and the AISB High School Diploma only; all graduates receive the High School Diploma. The grade structure is North American.
Address Bd. Pipera 196, 077190 Voluntari, Ilfov
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · PYP, MYP, DP · authorised programmeNEASC · accreditationCEESA · part of the associationThe IB register lists the Primary Years, Middle Years and Diploma programmes at the school. It is accredited by NEASC and is a member of CEESA, the Central and Eastern European Schools Association; alongside the IB it awards its own American high school diploma.
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
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: PYP (ages 3-12), MYP (ages 11-16), DP (ages 16-19). PYP is the primary stage, ages 3 to 12. It is not a set of subjects but a frame for the whole school: learning is built around lines of inquiry, and there are no exams at the end. MYP is the middle stage, ages 11 to 16. There are no exams here either; at the end an optional electronic assessment of pupils' work is possible. 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 →NEASCNew England Association of Schools and Colleges
An American accreditation working since 1885. For international schools it uses an approach where the visitors look first at live lessons rather than at folders of paperwork: the team works in the school for about a week. It is the only one here whose public directory honestly separates accredited schools from candidates.
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 →CEESACentral and Eastern European Schools Association
About thirty international schools in the region. It runs conferences, teacher development and competitions between schools: robotics, football, volleyball, debating. An accreditation from CIS, NEASC, MSA, WASC or Cognia is a condition of entry here, not an outcome.
What the badge means for this school. The school belongs to the association. CEESA runs no inspection of its own, but a school is not admitted without somebody else's accreditation - so the school holds one, and that is what to look at. The entry is confirmed in the organisation's open directory.
Register to check for yourself, and the full guide →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
Average IB score
34 (world average 30.88)
Exam results IB Diploma: the school average is 34 against a world average of 30, and in 2025 100% of candidates passed; the school says 93% of the Class of 2025 sat the full Diploma. Most graduates go to universities in the UK and the Netherlands, with the US and Canada also popular.
Where leavers go: Dartmouth College · University College London (UCL) · University of Edinburgh · King's College London · University of Warwick · Bocconi University · Purdue University · University of British Columbia · University of Amsterdam · Leiden University
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
·School transportnot stated on the website
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Playground · Makerspace
Clubs and activities: Football · Basketball · Volleyball · Swimming · Tennis · Badminton · Softball · Cross-country · Track and field · Golf · Rock climbing · FLL and VEX robotics · Mathcounts · Model United Nations · Speech and Debate · The Bite · Rock bands · Theater and Dance
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
The school has more than 280 faculty and staff from 23 countries. Locally and overseas-hired teachers are paid on the same scale; initial overseas contracts are for two years. Every employee provides police clearance from the home country and the last country of employment before starting; candidates are asked child protection questions at interview. All Early Learning Center teachers are trained in the Circle of Security programme.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
·CCTVnot stated on the website
✓Security staff
✓Access control
·Nurse or medical roomnot stated on the website
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
✓Staff training
✓Anti-bullying policy
The school has a Designated Safeguarding Lead and a trained team, a Child Protection Policy that families confirm every year and a Safeguarding Handbook. All staff, board members and contractors receive annual training. The Keeping Safe programme teaches children from EC3 to grade 12 to recognise abuse and seek help from adults; from grade 5 the confidential Safe@AISB online reporting tool is available. The school has an anti-bullying code and a restorative approach to conflict. There are counselors in every section. Campus entry requires a school badge, and guards admit cars by parking sticker.
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%)97 Community rating (16%)no dataparent reviews are needed: the criterion switches on at the fifth verified one Exams and destinations (12%) scored on disclosed data80 Safety and wellbeing (12%) scored on disclosed data90 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