Founded
1938

As The Anglo-American School

Curriculum
American + AP

US diploma for all; Colombian Bachillerato option; 32 AP courses

Years
K4–12

Primary, Elementary, Middle and High schools

Location
Chapinero Alto

Cra 2 Este #70-20, eastern-hills edge

Accreditation
Cognia + MEN

Colombian Ministry of Education; ICFES A+

Students
1,671

51 nationalities; 44% Colombian, 16% US

The short version

The short version

Colegio Nueva Granada (CNG) is a private, co-educational day school teaching K4 to Grade 12 on a single campus in Chapinero Alto, at Carrera 2 Este #70-20 on Bogotá’s eastern-hills edge.

Founded in 1938, it delivers a US-oriented college-preparatory programme in English, accredited by Cognia and the Colombian Ministry of Education, in which every student graduates with the US High School diploma and about 80% also earn the Colombian Bachillerato.↗

For a relocating family, the practical summary is this: CNG is the default shortlist entry for an American pathway in Bogotá, and one of the two schools the US embassy community clusters around. It runs calendario B (August–June), keeps high-school classes at an average of 11 students, and sends 99% of graduates to university.

The opaque part is money: the school publishes no fee schedule, so budget from the dated third-party figures below — roughly COP 5.1 million a month in pensión on January 2025 directory data, plus matrícula, transport and food — and confirm the current year directly with admissions.↗↗↗

What the school is

An 88-year-old American school with a dual-diploma engine

CNG was founded in 1938 under the name The Anglo-American School — by Frederic Dever, Doris de Samper and Irwin C. Byington, with Dr.

Gabriel Jinich as first director, per the reference record — making it one of the oldest American-curriculum schools in South America. Today it teaches 1,671 students of 51 nationalities: 44% Colombian, 16% US, 31% dual-national and 9% other, with 56% of students holding international passports.↗↗↗

The structural feature that defines CNG is the dual-track diploma. All classes are taught in English except Colombian social studies, Spanish, French and Mandarin; every graduate leaves with the US High School diploma, and roughly four in five add the Colombian Bachillerato — a combination that keeps both US and Colombian university systems fully open.

The school also hosts the first Confucius Institute established in a K-12 school in Latin America (2009), reflecting an unusually serious Mandarin programme for the region.↗↗

Academics in practice

An AP powerhouse with published proof

CNG’s upper school is built around Advanced Placement at a scale few Latin American schools match: 32 AP courses and 9 PreAP courses, with 90% of students in Grades 10–12 enrolled in at least one AP class and 803 AP exams sat in 2025.

Sixty-three students earned AP Scholar Awards in 2025 — 60 of them with Distinction — and 30 earned AP Capstone Diplomas. Average high-school class size is 11, with a policy maximum of 23.↗

Beyond AP, the profile documents a Senior Research Project (a defended 4,000–5,000-word paper), a Classroom Without Walls experiential programme, a minimum 80 hours of high-school community service — students logged 13,309 hours in 2024-25 — and a consistent A+ classification on Colombia’s ICFES Saber 11 national exit exam.

The Class of 2025 earned $11.8 million in US college scholarships, part of $37 million over five years; recent destinations include Los Andes (74 across three classes), Northeastern, NYU, MIT, Stanford, Yale, Cornell and IE University in Spain.↗↗

Colombia has no government inspection of private schools comparable to the KHDA or BSO, so the external quality evidence is the Cognia accreditation cycle — CNG cites the top rating in Latin America from Cognia/AdvancED — the Ministry of Education licence, and the ICFES results.

One honest caveat: CNG’s own “5:1 student-teacher ratio” marketing figure and its “average class of 11” measure different things; the class-size number is the one that shapes your child’s day.↗

Admissions and cost

Admissions, and a fee picture you have to triangulate

CNG’s admissions office runs the standard inquiry-to-campus-visit process and accepts families relocating from abroad through the year. What it does not do is publish fees.

The best triangulation available: directory data from January 2025 lists a monthly pensión of COP 5,092,272, with cafeteria around COP 400,000 and transport around COP 500,000 per month; July 2025 press coverage put the 2024 pensión at COP 5,225,833–5,492,477 for kindergarten to grade 7 and COP 4,787,338–5,038,889 for grades 8–11; and a US State Department-based compilation put the 2023-24 annual cost at $11,774–13,508 depending on grade.

Treat all three as dated and directional, and get the current schedule from admissions in writing.↗↗↗↗

Two Colombian mechanics shape the bill.

First, Bogotá private schools set fees under the régimen de libertad regulada: annual matrícula and pensión increases follow tariff rules issued by the Secretaría de Educación del Distrito, so increases are regulated rather than arbitrary — but they are also annual, so model multi-year costs with a rise each year.

Second, the calendar: CNG runs calendario B (August–June), independent of the public calendario A (2026: 26 January–29 November). A child moving between a local-calendar school and CNG hits a half-year seam; plan the switch at the August boundary.↗↗

The family experience

Chapinero Alto, the commute, and community texture

The campus sits in Chapinero Alto against the eastern hills — central by Bogotá standards, and far more convenient to the expat housing belt of Rosales, Chicó and the Zona T than the far-north campuses of some rivals. The school day runs 7:00am to 2:15pm.

That said, Bogotá traffic is the defining quality-of-life variable for every school run in this city: diplomatic-community reports describe commutes that can double in the rain, so test the morning journey from your shortlisted neighbourhood at 6:30am before signing a lease, and price the school bus (about COP 500,000 a month on directory data) into the budget.↗↗

Community texture: CNG is the school the US diplomatic and corporate community has used for generations — post reports place most embassy children at CNG or Colegio Gran Bretaña — and its alumni list runs from US Congressman Dan Crenshaw to former Colombian ministers and a Miss Colombia, which tells you how deep its roots go on both sides of the bicultural divide.

Sport and service run through UNCOLI (the Bogotá international-schools league) and the school’s sister-school programme with Colegio Fundación Nueva Granada.↗↗

Our readConfidence: Medium

The American-pathway anchor in Bogotá — with an unusual level of published academic proof

CNG’s public record is deeper than most schools in this market: an 88-year operating history, a first-party school profile that actually discloses AP volumes, class sizes, service hours, scholarship dollars and three years of university destinations, and a dual-diploma structure that hedges a child’s options across two university systems.

Our confidence is Medium rather than High because this edition is document-based — we have not visited — and because the school publishes no fee schedule, leaving the single most decision-critical number to dated third-party compilations.

The families it suits: those wanting a US curriculum with serious AP depth, a genuinely bicultural student body rather than an expat bubble, and a campus inside the city rather than a far-north drive.

The families who should look elsewhere: those committed to the IB Diploma (CNG is an AP school, not an IB school — the Anglo Colombiano covers that lane) and those who need published fees before engaging admissions.

Within the American lane, CNG is the school every Bogotá shortlist is measured against — and its own documents give you more to interrogate on a visit than most schools in the region provide.

Take these to the school

Questions that move beyond the tour script

Admissions and transition

  1. For our child’s grade and entry date, what is current availability — and how are mid-year arrivals from non-US systems placed and supported?
  2. What does the admissions process involve for families applying from abroad, and how far ahead should we apply?
  3. How does the school handle a child arriving from a calendario A Colombian school mid-stream?

Academics and support

  1. May we see the most recent AP score distributions and the full university-destination list with cohort sizes?
  2. What learning-support and English-language provision exists — the profile notes 87% of students are non-native English speakers — and is it charged separately?
  3. How do families decide whether to pursue the Colombian Bachillerato alongside the US diploma, and what workload does the dual track add?

Cost and logistics

  1. What is the full current-year cost for our child’s grade — matrícula, monthly pensiones, transport, food, and any one-time entrance charge — in writing?
  2. Under the current SED tariff resolution, what increase should we model for each following year?
  3. Which bus routes serve Rosales, Chicó and Usaquén, what do they cost, and what is the realistic morning journey time?

Continue your research

Choose your next step

City guideInternational schools in BogotáPlace CNG in the full landscape — calendario A vs B, the libertad regulada fee regime, and the northern-corridor school map.Peer schoolColegio Anglo ColombianoThe IB-continuum alternative: British roots, Round Square membership and a published PEI fee annex.Latin America contextInternational schools in Mexico CityHow the region’s other great American-school market compares on curricula, calendars and costs.Latin America contextInternational schools in São PauloThe Brazilian benchmark for American college-preparatory schools in South America.Curriculum guideIB vs British vs American curriculaCNG is an AP school, not an IB school — confirm the American pathway is the right one before you commit.School directoryAll researched schoolsSee which profiles are live and which cities open next.

Sources and further research

Where to verify and keep reading

We favor direct links to the exact page or document a family may need next. Access dates matter because admissions, tuition, leadership, and programs change.