Bombay International School vs Dhirubhai Ambani International School
🇮🇳 Mumbai · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
Which should you choose?
Both run IB, British, so the difference is inspection rating, boarding, and fees rather than the curriculum itself. The choice comes down to target curriculum, whether you need boarding, and budget — verify fees against each school's own figures.
Neither Bombay International School nor Dhirubhai Ambani International School sits in a market with a public inspectorate, so both are assessed on verifiable accreditation, curriculum authorisation, and published data rather than an official quality rating.
Key Facts
| Bombay International School | Dhirubhai Ambani International School | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | IB / British | IB / British / National |
| Ages | Lower Prep (approx. age 4) to Grade 12 (approx. age 18) | Kindergarten to Grade 12 |
| Languages of instruction | English | English |
| Annual fees | not public | not public |
| Enrollment | — | 1,087 |
| Boarding | Day only | Day only |
| Accreditations | Cambridge International (Cambridge Assessment International Education), International Baccalaureate Organization (IB World School) | CISCE (Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations), CAIE (Cambridge Assessment International Education), International Baccalaureate Organization (IB), Council of International Schools (CIS), New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) |
Strengths
- ✓Unbroken international pathway from IB PYP through Cambridge IGCSE to the IB Diploma, removing curriculum-switch friction between phases.
- ✓Strong, transparently published IGCSE outcomes (Class of 2025: 81% of grades A* and A across 43 candidates).
- ✓Dual international accreditation — Cambridge International and IB World School (PYP and DP) — rather than a single board.
- ✓Deep heritage and a deliberately small scale ('the small school with a big heart'), founded 1962 with a progressive, anti-rote ethos.
- ✓Need-based financial aid and a dedicated university counselling and CAS provision for the senior years.
- ✓World-leading published IB Diploma average of 39.7/45 for 2025 with a 100% pass rate across 110 candidates
- ✓Layered accreditation across CISCE, Cambridge (CAIE), IB, CIS and NEASC
- ✓Authorised IB Diploma Programme school continuously since the school's 2003 founding
- ✓Five perfect 45-point IB scores and 55% of the 2025 cohort scoring 40 or above
- ✓Strong faculty depth with 187 teachers, including 27 expatriate staff, for 1,087 students
Trade-offs
- !Fees are not published online — families must contact admissions, reducing cost transparency.
- !No published enrollment figure, so overall school size cannot be verified.
- !Small cohort sizes (43 IGCSE candidates in 2025) mean limited subject breadth and peer-group scale versus larger international schools.
- !No external graded inspection rating exists in the Indian context, so quality must be inferred from accreditation and results.
- !No published fee schedule, so cost is opaque to prospective families
- !ICSE pathway is being phased out, with the final ICSE batch sitting examinations in March 2026
- !No government graded inspection band exists in India to externally benchmark the school
- !Headline IB results are school-published and not independently audited
Best Fit For
- • Families committed to an IB-anchored education from the early years through to the Diploma.
- • Expatriate and globally mobile families wanting an internationally portable curriculum in central Mumbai.
- • Students who thrive in a small, pastorally attentive school community rather than a large campus.
- • Households seeking a progressive, inquiry-led alternative to India's national exam boards.
- • Academically ambitious families targeting top global university placement via the IB Diploma
- • Mumbai-based families wanting an Indian-board plus Cambridge plus IB pathway under one roof
- • Students who thrive in a high-performance, results-driven environment
- • Internationally mobile families seeking CIS/NEASC-accredited continuity
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
School-reported, unverified: BIS publishes IBDP results-and-placements material and a university counselling programme, and reports IGCSE highlights such as 81% of Class of 2025 grades at A* and A; specific university destinations were not independently verified.
School-reported, unverified: DAIS published an average IB Diploma score of 39.7/45 for the Class of 2025 against a worldwide average of 30.58, a 100% pass rate across all 110 candidates, five perfect scores of 45, and 61 students (55%) scoring 40 or above, with a mean grade of 6.2 versus a worldwide 4.9.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Should I choose Bombay International School or Dhirubhai Ambani International School?
Bombay International School is best for: Families committed to an IB-anchored education from the early years through to the Diploma.. Dhirubhai Ambani International School is best for: Academically ambitious families targeting top global university placement via the IB Diploma. The right choice depends on target curriculum, budget, and family priorities — the two are not linearly comparable.
How do fees compare between Bombay International School and Dhirubhai Ambani International School?
Bombay International School: not public. Dhirubhai Ambani International School: not public. Verify against each school's own published fees; some figures are sourced from third-party aggregators.
What curricula do Bombay International School and Dhirubhai Ambani International School offer?
Bombay International School: IB, British. Dhirubhai Ambani International School: IB, British, National.
Do Bombay International School or Dhirubhai Ambani International School offer boarding?
Bombay International School: day school only. Dhirubhai Ambani International School: day school only.
Questions parents ask
This comparison is BrightKey's independent assessment using verifiable public data only. University-placement figures are school-reported and not independently verified. BrightKey takes no payments from schools. Our method →