← Back to the rankingAmerican Overseas School of Rome
Rome, Italy · est. 1947 · Private
Illustration · Rome
The American Overseas School of Rome (AOSR) is a private non-profit American international school in north Rome from Pre-K to grade 12, for children aged 3 to 18. Parents opened the school in October 1946, it was formally incorporated in 1947, and it has been on Via Cassia since 1951. About 600 students of more than 55 nationalities attend: roughly 30% Italian families, 30% American and 40% from other countries. Teaching is in English to American standards; Italian is taught daily from Kindergarten, and French and Spanish are added in middle and high school. Graduates receive a US High School Diploma; in grades 11-12 students can take the IB Diploma Programme, offered since 1989, Advanced Placement courses (about 20) or a combination. For Italian children, primary and middle school offer a bilingual mathematics and science track preparing for the state terza media exam. The school has 85 teachers; its 2.5-hectare campus borders a nature reserve.
Key facts
Tuition
≈ $14 686–31 971 a year
13 000–28 300 EUR
Programmes
IB · DP · AP · American programme
Admits from
3 years · Pre-School
Languages of instruction
English
Languages taught
Italian, French, Spanish
Class size
on average 15 students in elementary school, about 14 in high school
About the fees Annual tuition for 2026-2027: Pre-K (ages 3-4) 13000 EUR, Kindergarten 17500 EUR, grades 1-3 21000 EUR, grades 4-5 21500 EUR, grades 6-8 24200 EUR, grades 9-10 27500 EUR, grade 11 28000 EUR, grade 12 28300 EUR. Tuition includes textbooks, laboratory materials, college counselling, EAL classes and support for students with mild learning disabilities.
Admissions Admission is rolling all year, with no deadline and no waiting list; students are admitted mid-year too, including families relocating to Rome for diplomatic, military or business assignments. Steps: an inquiry, a conversation with the admissions team and a visit, an application through the online portal with transcripts and references, a review of records and an interview where appropriate; depending on grade an English proficiency assessment may be requested. A decision usually comes within two weeks of receiving all documents. Grade placement is by age on 31 October (Pre-K3 at 3, grade 1 at 6), and in middle and high school by school reports. For the IB Diploma Programme students apply in grade 10: a cumulative GPA of at least 3.0, teacher recommendations and PSAT results are required. The school supports English learners and students with mild to moderate learning differences. About 70% of families are expatriates.
Stages and year groups Grades Pre-K3, Pre-K4, K, 1-12. American programme: Pre-K for ages 3-4 (Reggio Emilia inspired) and Kindergarten at 5; elementary school grades 1-5 to Common Core and NGSS standards; middle school grades 6-8 (about 150 students) to AERO, Common Core and NGSS standards; high school grades 9-12 with the US High School Diploma. In grades 11-12 the IB Diploma Programme (since 1989, more than 20 courses), and about 20 Advanced Placement courses, mainly in grades 11-12 and sometimes from grade 10; the two can be combined. Italian track: from the 2026-2027 school year Italian programme mathematics and science are taught in the morning in Italian and English using CLIL, and middle school offers Matematica e Scienze I, II, III to prepare for the terza media exam in grade 8. The school states that its diplomas are recognised by the Italian Ministry of Education.
Address Via Cassia 811, 00189 Roma
Accreditations and programmes verified against official registries
IB · DP · authorised programmeMSA · accreditationCollege Board · authorised programmeThe school is listed in the IB register and runs the Diploma Programme. The school is accredited by MSA (Middle States Association); its directory status is Active. The College Board AP Course Ledger lists the school for 2025-2026.
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: 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 →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.
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
Average IB score
33 (world average 30.88)
AP scores of 3 and above
93%
Exam results IB Diploma 2026: of 72 graduates, 26 chose the full IB Diploma; the pass rate was 92.3% against a world average of 81.26%, the average score 33 against a world average of 30.88; nine students scored between 35 and 45 points, the best 40 and 41; six earned the IB Bilingual Diploma. Advanced Placement 2026: 93% of exams scored 3 or higher, average score 3.32; 28 AP Scholars with Distinction, 6 AP Scholars with Honor, 12 AP International Diplomas.
Where leavers go: Stanford University · Yale University · University of Cambridge · The University of Hong Kong · Bocconi University · London School of Economics (LSE) · King's College London · Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
The school states that all graduates who apply to university are accepted and that graduates are awarded more than 15 million dollars in scholarships every year; in recent years graduates have been accepted at more than 270 universities. The universities listed are named in the Head of School's welcome and on the IB page.
Facilities from the school's official website
·Swimming poolnot stated on the website
✓Sports hall
✓Laboratories
✓Theatre or assembly hall
✓Library
✓Catering
✓School transport
·Boardingnot stated on the website
Also on site: Sports ground or field · Art studio · Playground · Makerspace
Clubs and activities: National Honor Society · Student Council · Global Issues Network · Model United Nations · Habitat for Humanity · Robotics Club · Engineering Workshop · STEMEC Club · Junk Kouture · TEDx · Jazz Band · High School Chorus · Concert Band · Shakespeare festival · Volleyball · Cross Country · Tennis · Basketball · Cheerleading · Soccer · Track & Field · Artistic Gymnastics · Swimming
Teaching staff from the school's official website
·Teachers listed by namenot published
✓Teacher qualifications
✓Number of teachers85
✓Students per teacher or class sizein the key facts above
What the listings show: 83% of teachers hold advanced degrees, 79% are native English speakers; teachers have taught in 47 countries
The school has 85 teachers. The faculty page gives 83% with advanced degrees and 79% native English speakers; the at-a-glance page gives 75% with advanced degrees and 75% from English-speaking countries. Elementary homeroom teachers are native English speakers, and Italian is taught by Italian specialists. The average class size is about 16 students across the school, 15 in elementary school with two sections per grade, and about 14 in high school.
Safety and wellbeing from the school's official website
✓CCTV
·Security staffnot stated on the website
·Access controlnot stated on the website
✓Nurse or medical room
✓Counsellor
✓Child protection policy
✓Staff training
·Anti-bullying policynot stated on the website
A health clinic with a full-time nurse; school counsellors in elementary and middle school, a social-emotional learning programme and daily advisory time with faculty mentors in middle school. Bus routes for younger students have monitors; drivers and monitors receive regular training and background checks, and parents can track the bus in an app. The school publishes a video surveillance policy, a photo and video policy and a whistleblowing procedure.
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%)87 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 data85 Accreditation and verifiability (10%)95 Teaching staff (10%) scored on disclosed data70 Facilities (10%) scored on disclosed data85 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