The Rankings — 2026/27
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Independent · Unpaid · Editorial
World's Top Schools, Ranked.
Every ranked and candidate school in the directory, one continuous list from #1 down. Use this view when you want the full picture without switching between tiers.
This ranking is locked. The next ranking update will be on September 1, 2027. How the ranking cycle works · Why this ranking exists
Penny's picks
India · Uttarakhand
The Doon School
At the Himalayan foothills since 1935, this all-boys boarding school helped launch India's post-independence mountaineering movement.
78.2
Score
India · Maharashtra
The Cathedral and John Connon School
Founded in 1860 to sing for a 300-year-old cathedral, now pairing IB rigor with India's original student-run Model UN in Fort Mumbai.
77.8
Score
India · Haryana
The Shri Ram School
Delhi NCR’s sought-after secular day school across four campuses
77.8
Score
India · Karnataka
Mallya Aditi International School
A 1984 Yelahanka campus where teachers write their own curriculum and Eastern and Western learning traditions meet under dual CISCE-Cambridge accreditation.
75.2
Score
India · Delhi
Delhi Public School R.K. Puram
Founded in 1972 as the DPS Society's flagship, this South Delhi campus has long been a magnet for CBSE toppers.
74.7
Score
India · Maharashtra
Dhirubhai Ambani International School
In the heart of Bandra-Kurla Complex, three curricula converge to produce some of India's highest IB Diploma averages.
73.5
Score
India · Maharashtra
UWC Mahindra College
South Asia's only United World College, its 170-acre Western Ghats campus reforested tree by tree by its own students.
72.5
Score
India · Delhi
Modern School, Barakhamba Road
Delhi's first private co-educational school, holding its 27-acre Lutyens campus since 1920
72.4
Score
India · Maharashtra
Aditya Birla World Academy
Mumbai day school delivering the Cambridge IGCSE and IB Diploma curricula.
72.2
Score
India · West Bengal
St. Xavier's Collegiate School
Founded on Park Street in 1860, this Jesuit day school ties a 'Nihil Ultra' ethos to rare annual exchanges with Ireland and China.
72.2
Score
India · Delhi
Mother's International School
Set inside the Sri Aurobindo Ashram since 1956, this CBSE day school built its ethos on integral education long before wellness curricula were trendy.
72.0
Score
India · Andhra Pradesh
Rishi Valley School
Founded by philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1926, this valley campus is both a certified bird sanctuary and a pioneering lab for rural education reform.
71.6
Score
India · Maharashtra
The Bombay Scottish School, Mahim
A seaside Mahim campus rooted in an 1847 Scottish orphanage, still turning in some of India's top ICSE and ISC results.
71.4
Score
India · Delhi
American Embassy School
Beside the U.S. Embassy in Chanakyapuri, a Joseph Stein-designed campus mixes American college prep with IB rigor for over 70 nationalities.
70.8
Score
India · West Bengal
La Martiniere for Boys, Kolkata
Born from a French soldier of fortune's 1836 bequest, its chapel still stands ringed by Corinthian pillars in south Kolkata.
70.0
Score
India · Uttar Pradesh
La Martiniere College, Lucknow
Housed in a French general's Gomti-side palace where he lies entombed, it remains the only school ever awarded royal battle honors.
70.0
Score
India · Maharashtra
Oberoi International School
A full IB continuum from Nursery to Diploma, spread across twin Goregaon campuses inside Mumbai's Oberoi Garden City enclave.
69.9
Score
India · Delhi
St. Columba's School
An all-boys Christian Brothers institution beside Lutyens' Delhi's Sacred Heart Cathedral, home to North India's premier school quiz.
69.7
Score
India · Rajasthan
Mayo College
Historic all-boys boarding school in Ajmer offering the CBSE and Cambridge IGCSE curricula.
69.5
Score
India · Tamil Nadu
American International School Chennai
Born of a 1995 US-India accord, this Taramani campus blends AP and IB rigor with the world's first K-12 LEED Platinum campus
68.9
Score
India · Delhi
Springdales School
A 1955 progressive-education pioneer whose 'world is one family' motto powers a student-run literacy drive across Delhi since 1989.
68.8
Score
India · Uttarakhand
Sherwood College
Since 1869, a Gothic-arched campus above Nainital Lake where houses named for Robin Hood's band shape ICSE scholars and athletes.
68.6
Score
India · Tamil Nadu
Kodaikanal International School
Founded in 1901 at 6,998 feet in the Palani Hills, it became India's first IB school and runs its own 135-acre wilderness campus for outdoor learning.
68.1
Score
India · Maharashtra
Campion School
After eight decades as a boys-only Jesuit institution in Fort, this ICSE stalwart admitted girls and adopted the Cambridge IGCSE in 2025.
67.6
Score
India · Madhya Pradesh
The Scindia School
Storied boys' boarding school inside Gwalior Fort, delivering a CBSE curriculum with a British public-school ethos.
67.1
Score
India · Himachal Pradesh
The Lawrence School, Sanawar
Perched at 1,750 metres in the Shivaliks, Asia's oldest co-educational boarding school sent the first team to summit Everest in 2013.
66.5
Score
India · Uttarakhand
Welham Boys' School
Founded in 1937 in the Doon Valley, its four houses bear the names of India's great rivers within a Round Square boarding tradition.
66.2
Score
India · Karnataka
Bishop Cotton Boys' School
Where Indian scouting was born in 1909, a 14-acre St. Mark's Road campus still runs on century-old house traditions.
64.7
Score
India · Uttarakhand
Woodstock School
IB, American Diploma and Cambridge boarding amid the Himalayan foothills since 1854
64.6
Score
India · Maharashtra
Cathedral Vidya School Lonavla
Set among Sahyadri hills near Lonavala, a boarding campus extends Mumbai's Cathedral School ethos into IB Diploma and IGCSE classrooms.
64.2
Score
India · Karnataka
The International School Bangalore
A 140-acre campus in Whitefield's NAFL Valley moves students from Cambridge IGCSE into the IB Diploma, with boarding open from Grade 5.
63.9
Score
India · West Bengal
St. Paul's School, Darjeeling
Founded in 1823 and perched near 7,600 feet in the Jalapahar hills, this boys' boarding school still runs on a century-old house system.
63.9
Score
India · Maharashtra
Jamnabai Narsee International School
One Juhu campus, three exam boards - ICSE, IB and Cambridge sit side by side under a single Vile Parle roof
62.3
Score
India · Assam
Assam Valley School
Set inside a working tea estate in Sonitpur, this co-ed boarder carries the Williamson Magor legacy into North-East India's only pan-Indian residential school.
61.4
Score
India · Delhi
Sanskriti School
Founded by civil servants' wives for transferred officers' children, this Chanakyapuri campus now blends CBSE rigor with the IB Diploma.
61.4
Score
India · Karnataka
St. Joseph's Boys' High School
On Museum Road since 1858, a Jesuit day school where four houses and Cantonment-era hockey rivalries still shape every term.
60.7
Score
India · Delhi
Vasant Valley School
Founded in Vasant Kunj by the India Today family in 1990, its classrooms run on no bells, only rhythm and process over outcome.
59.8
Score
India · Uttarakhand
Welham Girls' School
Founded in 1957 as a bold counterpart to boys-only boarding, with bird-named houses and a legacy museum honoring the women who dared.
58.8
Score
India · Himachal Pradesh
Bishop Cotton School
Perched on a Himalayan ridge since 1859, this all-boys campus pioneered India's first house system of schooling.
57.4
Score
India · Delhi
Sardar Patel Vidyalaya
In Lodi Estate, primary classes run in Hindi, not English -- a stance no other private school in India makes.
56.7
Score
India · Maharashtra
Ecole Mondiale World School
In Juhu since 2004, Mumbai's first full-continuum IB school runs Primary, Middle Years and Diploma under one roof
53.7
Score
India · Haryana
Heritage Xperiential Learning School
A sixth-grade cycling project born on this Gurgaon campus grew into Raahgiri Day, now staged across 11 Indian cities.
49.1
Score
India · Uttar Pradesh
Step by Step School
In Noida, CBSE, IGCSE and IB tracks converge on a campus built around dedicated special-education pathways and a 1:6 support ratio.
47.2
Score
Methodology
How we rank
Our composite weights eight categories. Each is scored 0–100 by our editorial panel and audited against 30 sub-criteria drawn from school records, university placement audits, alumni surveys, campus visits and parent interviews. Schools cannot pay for placement or preview scores.
Weighting
- Academic Outcomes20%
- University Placement17%
- Prestige & Heritage13%
- Alumni Network13%
- Facilities13%
- Transparency & Communications8%
- Peer & Industry Review10%
- Admissions Selectivity & Demand8%
Score key
Reading the scores
Bands out of 100
Every category, sub-criterion and composite total across this issue uses the same six-band editorial palette. Bands are calibrated against the full 300-school cohort — a "Distinguished" mark is meaningfully harder to earn than a "Strong" one.
- Exceptional90–100
Top of cohort
- Distinguished80–89
Elite tier
- Strong70–79
Consistently high
- Solid60–69
Reliable performer
- Average50–59
Room to grow
- Below par< 50
Underperforming
The same colour bands are used inside each school profile, on category chips, radar charts and the annual score-history line — so a colour glimpsed on the Rankings page always means the same thing everywhere else.