Saigon South International School
🇻🇳 Ho Chi Minh City · Founded 1997 · American / IB · Ages 3-18 (EC 3 - Grade 12)
A well-established, not-for-profit American-curriculum school in Ho Chi Minh City's Phu My Hung district, distinctive as the only school in the city offering both the IB Diploma Programme and Advanced Placement, backed by WASC accreditation and CIS membership.
Curricula
American, IB
Age range
3-18 (EC 3 - Grade 12)
Languages of instruction
English
Annual fees
SGD 2026-2027 annual tuition (VND, pay-in-installments): EC3-4 530,192,000; Kindergarten 603,200,000; Grades 1-5 730,808,000; Grades 6-8 782,687,000; Grades 9-10 832,426,000; Grades 11-12 924,546,000 (6% discount for full prepayment)
Enrollment
1,550
Boarding
No (day school)
IB authorised
DP
Accreditations
WASC, CIS
Tier Profile
We only tier dimensions backed by a public inspection verdict or verifiable accreditation. Other dimensions show a data flag — never a guessed score.
BrightKey's Assessment
Saigon South International School (SSIS) was established in 1997 as a not-for-profit entity of the Phu My Hung Corporation and is located on a six-hectare campus at 78 Nguyen Duc Canh in District 7, Ho Chi Minh City. It delivers an American standards-based curriculum spanning Early Childhood (age 3) through Grade 12, and Wikipedia reports an enrollment of roughly 1,550 students drawn from 47-48 nationalities.
The school is fully accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) and is a member of the Council of International Schools (CIS). In the high school, SSIS describes itself as the only school in Ho Chi Minh City to offer both Advanced Placement courses and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, giving older students two recognized college-preparatory pathways. SSIS is authorized for the IB Diploma Programme only; it is not an IB PYP or MYP school.
Vietnam operates no domestic graded school inspectorate comparable to the UK's BSO or ISI, so no verbatim inspection rating exists for SSIS. The school's accreditation tier therefore rests on the depth of its credentials — WASC full accreditation, CIS membership, and IB Diploma authorization — which places it firmly in the A band rather than the S band reserved for verbatim 'Outstanding'/'Excellent' inspection reports.
The school reports strong wellbeing infrastructure, with eight counselors plus a school psychologist and per-division student support services, and an experienced faculty averaging 17 years. English is the language of instruction, with English-language support referenced per division and Academic Language and Composition courses offered in the high school. No published IB average score or AP results were verifiable at the time of review.
Why These Ratings?
Inspection & AccreditationA — Excellent
Rated A because SSIS holds genuine, independently verifiable accreditation depth — full WASC accreditation, CIS membership, and IB Diploma Programme authorization — but no verbatim graded inspection report (BSO 'Outstanding' or ISI 'Excellent') exists, since Vietnam has no domestic graded inspectorate. The S tier is reserved for schools with such a verbatim top rating.
Strengths & Trade-offs
Strengths
- Only school in Ho Chi Minh City offering both the IB Diploma Programme and Advanced Placement, per the school's own academics pages.
- Full WASC accreditation combined with CIS membership and IB Diploma authorization — a deep, independently verifiable credential stack.
- Long-established not-for-profit (founded 1997), so tuition is reinvested rather than distributed to owners.
- Strong pastoral resourcing: eight counselors plus a dedicated school psychologist and per-division support services.
- Full EC3-to-Grade-12 continuity on a large six-hectare campus with an experienced faculty averaging 17 years.
Trade-offs
- No published IB average score or AP results, making academic outcomes hard to benchmark objectively.
- No domestic graded inspection report exists for Vietnam, so external quality assurance relies entirely on accreditation cycles.
- Among the higher-fee international schools in the city, with Grade 11-12 annual tuition exceeding VND 900 million.
- Authorized for the IB Diploma only — families seeking a continuous IB PYP/MYP pathway will not find it here.
Is It Right For You?
Best For
- ✓Families wanting both AP and IB Diploma options under one roof for the senior years.
- ✓Students seeking a US-style college-preparatory pathway to global universities.
- ✓Expatriate and internationally mobile families valuing WASC/CIS-accredited continuity from age 3.
- ✓Families prioritizing a not-for-profit school with strong counseling and wellbeing support.
Not Ideal For
- ✕Families wanting a continuous IB PYP/MYP/DP continuum (SSIS offers the DP only).
- ✕Families needing a British, Australian, or national-curriculum pathway.
- ✕Boarding families — SSIS is a day school only.
- ✕Budget-conscious families, given premium tuition levels.
Curriculum
American standards-based curriculum from Early Childhood (age 3) through Grade 12, with the high school offering both Advanced Placement and the IB Diploma Programme. SSIS is authorized for the IB Diploma Programme only, not PYP or MYP.
Fees
Tuition figures are taken verbatim from the school's published 2026-2027 schedule in Vietnamese Dong (pay-in-installments option), ranging from VND 530,192,000 (EC3-4) to VND 924,546,000 (Grades 11-12), with a 6% discount for full prepayment and a 20% sibling discount from the third child. Application, registration, and enrollment-deposit fees apply separately, and lunch, uniforms, AP/IB exam fees, and transport are not included.
Admissions
A one-time application fee (VND 10,000,000) and registration fee (VND 60,000,000 for new students) plus an enrollment deposit (VND 45,000,000) apply per the school's published 2026-2027 fee schedule.
Campus Life
Six-hectare campus in the Phu My Hung area of District 7 described by the school as the largest and greenest international-school campus in the city; the mascot is the Dragons and the school motto is 'Connecting Learning to Life.' Students in Grades 4-12 bring a MacBook daily.
University Placement
School-reported · not independently verified
School-reported, unverified: SSIS states a '100% university acceptance' rate with a Class of 2026 acceptance list spanning universities in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Canada, Australia/New Zealand, and Asia.
Sources
Every verifiable fact carries a public source — verify it yourself.
- SSIS official site — About / Our School · 2026-06
- SSIS official site — Academics (divisions, IBDP + AP) · 2026-06
- SSIS official site — High School academics · 2026-06
- SSIS official site — Tuition and Fees 2026-2027 · 2026-06
- SSIS official site — University Acceptances · 2026-06
- Wikipedia — Saigon South International School · 2026-06
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