Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye vs Marymount International School Paris
🇫🇷 Paris · Side-by-side comparison on verifiable public data.
Marymount International School Paris holds a public inspection verdict (CIS / Middle States Association (MSA) "Accredited (joint CIS/MSA re-accreditation visit in progress, 2025)"), while Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye operates in a market with no public inspectorate — the former has a verifiable official quality anchor, the latter is judged on accreditation depth. On cost, Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye has the noticeably lower entry fee — a material difference for budget-conscious families. See the table below for the figures, and verify against each school's own published fees.
Key Facts
| Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye | Marymount International School Paris | |
|---|---|---|
| Curriculum | National / British / American | American |
| Ages | 3-18 | 2-14 (Pre-K to Grade 8; Grade 9 planned for Fall 2027) |
| Languages of instruction | French, English, German, Spanish, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian | English, French |
| Annual fees | Free French state tuition; international-section association fees approx. EUR 2,000-9,300/year (varies by section, grade and payer) | EUR 23,750-39,000/year (2026/2027; first year higher with one-time enrolment fees) |
| Enrollment | — | 360 |
| Boarding | Day only | Day only |
| Inspection rating | — | CIS / Middle States Association (MSA): Accredited (joint CIS/MSA re-accreditation visit in progress, 2025) |
| Accreditations | French Ministry of Education (Éducation nationale, Académie de Versailles), Baccalauréat Français International (BFI / formerly OIB) | Council of International Schools (CIS), Middle States Association (MSA) |
Strengths
- ✓Free state-funded core tuition — by far the lowest-cost route to a recognised international/bilingual education in the Paris area
- ✓Fourteen national sections delivering genuine native-language, native-culture instruction toward the Baccalauréat Français International
- ✓Outstanding documented results — baccalauréat pass rates of 99-100% and a 'mention' (honours) rate above 90%
- ✓Structured one-year immersion ('Français Spécial') that absorbs non-French-speaking newcomers into the French system
- ✓Graduates routinely leave trilingual or quadrilingual, with a strong Concours Général and university-placement track record
- ✓Long heritage and stability as the oldest international school in France (founded 1923), with an established RSHM Catholic identity
- ✓Dual CIS and MSA accreditation, the recognised quality pairing for American-model international schools
- ✓Small, intimate community (~360 students, low student-to-teacher ratio) allowing close pastoral attention
- ✓Genuine dual-language French-English programme that builds local-language fluency alongside English-medium study
- ✓Strongly internationally diverse intake spanning more than 30 nationalities
Trade-offs
- !No boarding — it is a day school across several sites, so it cannot serve families needing residential places
- !Selective, language-dependent admission means it is not the open-access school its 'free public' label implies
- !The 'double enseignement' workload (full French curriculum plus the section programme) is heavy and not for every child
- !Section association fees and one-off entrance charges still apply, and vary confusingly by section, grade and whether an employer pays
- !Not an IB or Cambridge school and runs no externally examined diploma, so no published exam or IB-score outcomes exist to benchmark
- !Provision currently stops at Grade 8 (age 14), so families needing through-to-18 continuity must transfer for high school
- !Premium fees with a notably higher first-year cost driven by one-time enrolment and capital fees
- !No boarding and a single west-Paris (Neuilly) location, limiting catchment to nearby families
Best Fit For
- • Bilingual or expatriate families wanting a recognised international section without private-international fees
- • Academically strong, self-motivated children who can carry a dual-curriculum workload
- • Families targeting the Baccalauréat Français International and multilingual fluency
- • Households already settled in the Saint-Germain-en-Laye / western-Paris area able to commute daily
- • Internationally mobile families wanting an English-medium American-curriculum education in west Paris
- • Families seeking a values-led Catholic (RSHM) environment with an explicit justice-and-service ethos
- • Parents of early-years to middle-school children (ages 2-14) who value a small, high-touch community
- • Anglophone families who also want their children to gain real French through a dual-language programme
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
School-reported, unverified: graduates are described as progressing to leading French and international universities, with a strong record in the Concours Général; no independently audited destination breakdown is published.
School-reported, unverified: the school states a 99% acceptance rate to students' first-choice high school internationally and that 100% of students exceed MAP averages at all grades; these are self-published figures and are not independently verified.
More Comparisons
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I choose Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye or Marymount International School Paris?
Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye is best for: Bilingual or expatriate families wanting a recognised international section without private-international fees. Marymount International School Paris is best for: Internationally mobile families wanting an English-medium American-curriculum education in west Paris. The right choice depends on target curriculum, budget, and family priorities — the two are not linearly comparable.
How do fees compare between Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Marymount International School Paris?
Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye: Free French state tuition; international-section association fees approx. EUR 2,000-9,300/year (varies by section, grade and payer). Marymount International School Paris: EUR 23,750-39,000/year (2026/2027; first year higher with one-time enrolment fees). Verify against each school's own published fees; some figures are sourced from third-party aggregators.
What curricula do Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Marymount International School Paris offer?
Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye: National, British, American. Marymount International School Paris: American. Marymount International School Paris inspection: CIS / Middle States Association (MSA) "Accredited (joint CIS/MSA re-accreditation visit in progress, 2025)".
Do Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye or Marymount International School Paris offer boarding?
Lycée International de Saint-Germain-en-Laye: day school only. Marymount International School Paris: 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 →