Good to know
Good to Know
- One expat-focused source pointedly argues that, using a strict definition (majority foreign staff/students, less than half local enrollment), there are no truly 'international' schools in Medellín — most 'international' schools are bilingual/international-curriculum schools with a predominantly Colombian student body.
- Colombian private schools bill in two parts: an annual enrollment fee (matrícula) and a tuition fee (pensión, usually monthly). Published totals are revised every year, so treat all ranges here as approximate and confirm current figures directly with the school.
- Schools run on one of two calendars: Calendar A (roughly January–November, the Colombian default) or Calendar B (August–June, matching US/European years). Most of the internationally-oriented schools use Calendar B, which matters a lot if you're transferring a child mid-year from North America or Europe.
- Several of the most IB/international-curriculum-heavy schools (Columbus, Vermont, The New School) are physically located in Envigado or El Retiro, not in central Medellín or El Poblado — factor in a 20–40 minute commute depending on traffic.
- Beyond tuition, budget for a one-time enrollment fee, uniforms, school supplies, and often a separate annual bus/transport fee — these are not included in the tuition ranges above.
- Start the process early — for the most in-demand bilingual/international schools in Medellín, waitlists for preschool spots can fill up years in advance, so inquire as soon as you know you're relocating, even before your exact move date is fixed.
- Phone or WhatsApp gets a response; email to school admissions offices frequently does not — plan to communicate largely in Spanish unless you're dealing with one of the more internationally-staffed schools.
- Get birth certificates and school transcripts apostilled and translated to Spanish in your home country before you leave — doing this from within Colombia can take 4-8 weeks and will slow down enrollment.
- Confirm whether a school runs Calendar A (Jan–Nov) or Calendar B (Aug–June) before committing — nearly all bilingual/international schools relevant to expat families use Calendar B, which avoids a disrupted school year for children coming from Northern Hemisphere systems.
- A child's student visa needs to be filed or already approved before enrollment can be finalized at most private schools — don't wait until you're in the admissions queue to start that paperwork.
- Homeschooling is a viable, if legally undefined, path in Colombia and appears genuinely more common in the Medellín/Antioquia region than in much of the country, but because there's no dedicated law, be prepared for some officials or school administrators to be unfamiliar with how it works.
Schools And Curricula
- Currency Note
- All tuition figures below are ANNUAL unless otherwise marked (Colombian schools typically bill an annual matrícula/enrollment fee plus a pensión paid monthly or annually). Local currency is COP (Colombian peso). USD conversion uses an exchange rate of approximately 1 USD = 3,340 COP.
- Geographic Note
- Several of the most internationally-accredited options (Columbus, Vermont, The New School, Deutsche Schule) sit in Envigado, El Retiro, or Itagüí — satellite municipalities of the greater Aburrá Valley metro area, not inside Medellín's city center or El Poblado. Depending on traffic, that's roughly 20–40 minutes from central Medellín, not a 10-minute trip.
Schools
The Columbus School
- Location
- Envigado (approx. 20–30 min from El Poblado/city center)
- Curriculum
- American-style K-12 curriculum (Common Core for language/math, NGSS for science, AERO for social studies) blended with the IB Primary Years Programme; the school is pursuing IB Diploma Programme authorization as a candidate school, so a full IB Diploma is not yet offered.
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 48,000,000
- Range High
- COP 72,000,000
- Tier Label
- Elite international tier (annual)
Vermont School Medellín
- Location
- Two campuses: El Poblado (urban Medellín) and El Retiro (rural eastern Antioquia, further out)
- Curriculum
- Full IB Diploma Programme delivered across Early Steps through High School; bilingual Spanish–English instruction; part of the Cognita/Redcol school network.
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 48,000,000
- Range High
- COP 72,000,000
- Tier Label
- Elite international tier (annual)
The New School
- Location
- Envigado
- Curriculum
- IB Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme, and Diploma Programme (full IB continuum); bilingual English-Spanish on Calendar B (Aug–June).
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 48,000,000
- Range High
- COP 72,000,000
- Tier Label
- Elite international tier (annual)
Deutsche Schule Medellín (Colegio Alemán Medellín)
- Location
- Itagüí (Barrio Pilsen), within the Medellín metro area but outside the central city
- Curriculum
- Trilingual German-Spanish-English model. Authorized IB World School for the Diploma Programme since November 2008 (IB school code 003779), with exams held in November on Calendar A. Graduates can earn the IB Diploma, the Colombian Ministry of Education diploma, and the German Sprachdiplom (DSD) at B2/C1 level. Note: the German Abitur itself is offered at the sister Colegio Alemán in Cali, not in Medellín.
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 32,000,000
- Range High
- COP 56,000,000
- Tier Label
- European-curriculum tier (annual estimate)
Specific Reported Figures
- Pension Monthly
- COP 2,612,000
- Matricula Annual
- COP 2,940,400
Liceo Francés De Medellín
- Location
- Medellín
- Curriculum
- French international curriculum leading to the French Baccalauréat; trilingual French, Spanish, and English instruction; part of the AEFE (French education abroad) network, though one source notes the formal network affiliation should be reconfirmed directly with the school.
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 32,000,000
- Range High
- COP 56,000,000
- Tier Label
- European-curriculum tier (annual estimate, school-specific figure not published)
Marymount School Medellín
- Location
- Calle 7 #25-64, Medellín (central)
- Curriculum
- Cambridge International Curriculum (Cambridge Checkpoints, IGCSE), plus DELF and IELTS testing; French taught from grade five. The school explicitly does not offer AP or IB programs. Catholic, co-educational, double-accredited by CIS and NEASC. Runs August–June trimesters.
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 22,000,000
- Range High
- COP 36,000,000
- Tier Label
- Mid-tier bilingual (annual estimate)
Colegio Montessori (Medellín)
- Location
- Medellín, with a second campus in Oriente/Rionegro, Antioquia
- Curriculum
- Montessori method from Day Care through Bachillerato (High School); authorized IB Primary Years Programme; also offers Cambridge English qualifications; accredited by NEASC.
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 30,000,000
- Range High
- COP 48,000,000
- Tier Label
- Upper-tier bilingual (annual estimate)
St. George's School
- Location
- Medellín
- Curriculum
- IB Primary Years Programme, with candidate status for the IB Middle Years Programme; bilingual education focus.
Tuition
- Tier Label
- Not independently confirmed; likely falls in the upper-tier bilingual range
- Note
- No specific published figure found; contact school directly.
Colegio San Ignacio
- Location
- Medellín (one of the city's oldest private schools)
- Curriculum
- Jesuit-tradition, Spanish-language national curriculum with English instruction; does not follow IB or an American/British diploma track.
Tuition
- Range Low
- COP 14,000,000
- Range High
- COP 28,000,000
- Tier Label
- Catholic/traditional bilingual tier (annual estimate)
Colombo Británico Envigado
- Location
- Envigado
- Curriculum
- Nonprofit bilingual school serving students from 18 months upward; specific curriculum framework (IB status, British-curriculum elements) could not be fully confirmed from available sources — verify directly with the school.
Tuition
- Note
- No reliable published figure found for this specific campus.
Additional Named Bilingual Schools Referenced For Pricing Tiers Only
- Cumbres
- San José Las Vegas
- Los Pinares
- Montemayor
Enrollment And Homeschooling
- Realistic Expectation
- Multiple family-relocation guides converge on the same message: budget at least six months, and ideally closer to a year or more, between first contact and a confirmed seat, and expect slow or informal communication (WhatsApp voice notes rather than email replies) as the norm rather than the exception.
- How Far In Advance To Apply
- Admissions offices at Medellín's main bilingual/international schools (Vermont, Columbus, Marymount, Colombo Británico, Colegio Alemán, San José de Las Vegas, Cumbres, Montessori) generally open enrollment 10 to 14 months before the August start date, since most of these schools run Calendar B (August–June). For sought-after preschool and early-grade spots, local guidance is blunter: parents are advised it is never too early to get on a waitlist, and some families begin inquiring before the child is even born.
- Documentation Timing Warning
- Getting a document apostilled from Colombia itself is possible but takes 4 to 8 weeks and adds friction to a time-sensitive admissions process, so the strong local advice is to apostille and translate birth certificates and school records in the home country before departure rather than after arrival.
- Specific School Example Timeline
- Deutsche Schule Medellín (Colegio Alemán) publishes that Prekinder inscriptions are open from January to November and that its admissions process can take approximately 5 to 6 months from first contact to placement — a useful concrete benchmark for how long the process realistically runs even outside peak season.
- Payment Logistics Note
- A number of Medellín private schools do not accept US credit cards or cash for tuition/fees, requiring a direct transfer from a Colombian bank account, which can mean extra foreign-transaction costs for families paid in foreign currency.
Typical Process Steps
- Initial contact: email is often ignored by Colombian school admissions offices, so calling and asking for a WhatsApp number for the admissions department is the practical way in.
- Attend a prospective-families info session, campus tour, or 'Open House'/'Casa Abierta' event — several schools hold these clustered in September–November, and attending is often the fastest route from inquiry to acceptance.
- Ask directly whether there is an open spot for your child's grade, and if not, ask to be placed on the waitlist for that grade.
- Entrance assessment: IB-affiliated and most upper-tier bilingual schools require an academic entrance exam, an English-proficiency evaluation, and sometimes a family interview.
- Submit documentation and pay the enrollment fee ('matrícula') once a spot is offered; many schools also charge a separate annual or monthly tuition ('pensión').
Required Documents Checklist
- Apostilled birth certificate, translated to Spanish by a certified translator
- Apostilled academic records/transcripts from the previous school, typically covering the last 2-3 years
- Copies of identification documents for the child and parents
- Vaccination card, required for preschool-age children
- Proof of health-system affiliation (EPS or SISBÉN) for those enrolling through the public system
- A student visa for the child — legally required before formal enrollment; families are advised to have this filed or in hand before starting the school application process
Homeschooling Legality Colombia
- Status Summary
- Homeschooling occupies a legal gray area in Colombia rather than being formally licensed or explicitly banned. There is no dedicated homeschooling statute, but the 1991 Constitution (Articles 27, 67, 68) protects parents' preferential right to choose their children's type of education and guarantees freedom of teaching and learning, and Colombian law requires 'education' to be compulsory, not specifically 'schooling' in an institution.
- How It Is Validated
- In practice, home-educated children are certified through mechanisms built for other purposes: Decreto 2832 de 2005 lets any licensed public or private school validate a child's grade-by-grade progress for free via exams or academic activities, the government's grade 3/5/9 Pruebas Saber can be used for certification at those grade levels, and Decreto 299 de 2009 allows anyone over 18 to sit a single validation exam (through ICFES) to obtain the bachillerato diploma.
- Regulatory Gap Caveat
- Sources genuinely differ on how to characterize this: some describe homeschooling as legally protected by the Constitution, while an internationally-focused homeschool-rights organization characterizes it as simply unrecognized and unregulated — neither prohibited nor actively supported — meaning families may encounter officials who are unfamiliar with it or unsure it's permitted, even though it isn't against the law.
Homeschool Community Medellin Antioquia
- Local Co Ops
- At least one Medellín-focused expat schooling guide notes that homeschool co-ops exist in the city, describing them as 'small but growing,' though this is based on a single source and we could not independently verify specific group names or how active/accessible they are to newly arrived foreign families.
- National Support Network
- Families can also tap into Colombia's national homeschooling support network, the Red Colombiana de Educación en Familia, which tracks and supports home-educating families across the country and has been involved in drafting proposed legislation to formally regulate the practice.
- Regional Context
- Antioquia (the department containing Medellín) is described by a homeschooling-focused legal guide as one of the Colombian regions with the strongest homeschooling uptake, with a significant share of the country's estimated 30,000+ homeschooling families concentrated in Medellín and its metro area.
AI-generated estimateData refreshed July 2026
This section has no cited sources.
More About Medellín
Data last updated July 2026 · Verify anything important.