Bombay International School vs Dhirubhai Ambani International School
🇮🇳 Mumbai · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
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 →