Cairo American College

The short version

The short version

Cairo American College (CAC) is a not-for-profit, co-educational PreK–12 day school in Maadi, founded in 1945 as the Cairo School for American Children. It teaches an American college-preparatory curriculum toward a US High School Diploma, with Advanced Placement courses and the full IB Diploma available in the final years.

It is accredited by the Middle States Association and the Council of International Schools, and it is the only US State Department-assisted school in Cairo — the school the American embassy community is built around.↗↗↗

For an expat family, the practical summary is this: if you are posted to Cairo with the US mission, a multinational or an NGO and you want the American or IB pathway, CAC is the reference school — and its admissions policy literally prioritises you.

If you want a British or French curriculum, or you plan to live in New Cairo or Sheikh Zayed rather than Maadi, the daily commute should push you toward the schools in those clusters instead.

What the school is

Eighty years of embassy-bubble history — villa, palace, Digla

CAC’s origin story is unusually well documented on its own site.

The school opened in autumn 1945 in a rented villa on Road 7 in Maadi, serving American families in post-war Egypt with support from American business leaders — particularly in the oil industry — and a grant from the Socony Vacuum Company, later Mobil Oil.

It was renamed Cairo American School in 1948, and in 1955 it moved into a former royal palace on Road 78 — built for Prince Mohamed Ali Ibrahim and taken over by the government after the 1952 Revolution — adopting the name Cairo American College at the same time.↗

In 1970 the school moved to its current purpose-built campus in Digla, Maadi — four times the size of the palace site, designed by Egyptian architect Salah Zeitoun.

In 2005 the school made a defining decision: it committed to investing in the Maadi campus rather than relocating to the desert suburbs where newer international schools were clustering. That choice kept CAC at the centre of the Maadi expat bubble rather than the New Cairo one.↗

The school’s enrolment history tracks Egypt’s political weather. Numbers peaked at 1,440 in 2001–02, fell after the September 11 attacks, and in January 2011 the Arab Spring forced a temporary closure as expatriate families and teachers evacuated — the school reopened within a week for roughly 300 students who had stayed.

From 2020 to 2025, under Head of School Dr. Jared Harris, CAC recorded its first sustained period of continuous enrolment growth, and in 2025 it marked its 80th anniversary.↗

Facilities on the roughly 11-acre campus are described as including 80 classrooms, 14 science labs, a 520-seat theatre, three outdoor fields and a pool. Treat the inventory as reported rather than audited — the most reliable way to weigh it is a campus tour at lesson time.↗

Academics in practice

American diploma, AP menu, and the IB on top

CAC runs a US standards-based programme — its materials reference the AERO standards — from Pre-K through Grade 12, taught in English with ELL and learning-support services. High school students can take Advanced Placement courses, and the school is an authorised IB World School offering the full IB Diploma alongside the American High School Diploma.

French and Arabic have been part of the programme since the villa years.↗↗

Two structural points matter for planning. First, the school is explicitly private and secular: all students must meet curricular requirements that include health courses with sex education and mixed-gender PE with a swimming component — families for whom that is a constraint should read the policy before applying, not after.

Second, admission to Pre-Kindergarten does not guarantee continued enrolment; early-years places are assessed year by year.↗

CAC publishes its IB results and university destinations through its own channels rather than in a capturable public document, so we do not quote figures here.

Ask admissions for the most recent IB Diploma average and the leaver-destination list, and read them against cohort size — a school that draws from dozens of national systems will always show a wide spread of outcomes.

Admissions and cost

Six priority tiers, a November opening — and fees collected in EGP

CAC codifies the embassy bubble in writing.

When space is constrained, Policy 8.202 ranks applicants in six categories: Category One covers dependents of US citizens and of expatriate employees of organisations with policy-mandated Board appointments, plus children whose tuition is a CAC contractual benefit; Category Two covers other dependents of expatriates; then come qualified siblings, qualified children of alumni, host-country nationals arriving from American or IB curriculum schools, and finally all other applicants.

Age cutoffs require children to be three (PreK-3), four (PreK-4) or five (Kindergarten) on or before September 30 of the entry year, and students must reside with their parents. New admissions open in November.↗↗

Now the honest caveat on money. CAC’s official tuition page offers a 2025-26/2026-27 year selector and a per-grade table, but the figures render in JavaScript and could not be captured for verification.

The most recent itemised schedule we could verify is 2024/25: tuition from USD 9,000 (Pre-K3) through USD 14,000 / EGP 675,193 (KG) to USD 26,100 / EGP 1,258,938 (Grade 5), books and activities included, plus a USD 390 application fee, a USD 1,000 admission fee, an EGP 16,000 re-registration fee, and bus transport at USD 1,000 inside Maadi or USD 1,800 outside it.

An aggregator reports 2025-26 bands of EGP 650,000–800,000 (primary) and EGP 800,000–1,100,000 (secondary/IB). Both figures are dated and secondary — confirm the current EGP invoice with the school.↗↗↗

One Egyptian peculiarity matters more than any number: by law, private and international schools must collect all tuition and education-related payments in Egyptian pounds — collecting in foreign currency is prohibited under a ministerial decision.

CAC’s USD price list is therefore invoiced and collected in EGP, which makes the school’s conversion rate and the timing of the pound part of your real budget.

The Ministry of Education’s tiered cap — schools charging EGP 100,000 or more limited to 6% annual increases — held through 2025-26, but because the EGP figure is derived from a USD schedule, your USD cost can move even when the EGP cap does not.↗↗

The family experience

Maadi, the bubble, and the bus decision

CAC anchors Maadi, Cairo’s most established expat residential district. US diplomatic post reports describe mission families living in Maadi compounds near the school with backup generators, and Maadi-to-embassy commutes of 30 to 75 minutes depending on traffic.

The community is genuinely multinational — more than 50 nationalities, drawn from embassies, NGOs, multinationals and Egyptian business families — but it orbits the American mission calendar and the American curriculum.↗↗

The bus fee structure tells you how the school sees its own geography: transport inside Maadi costs barely half the outside-Maadi rate.

Families living in New Cairo or Sheikh Zayed face long cross-city runs to Digla — reported at 45 minutes to two hours at peak — which is why the school-run question should be settled before the lease, not after. If Maadi living is not your plan, pressure-test the commute at 7am before committing.↗↗

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script