Notes / Madrid
University Destinations from Madrid
Where Madrid's international school graduates land. The Spanish, UK and US split, the dual-track families, and which schools place strongest where.
The brief
- Three destination systems, not one. Madrid graduates split across Spain, the UK and the United States, with smaller flows into Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Canada. Most cohorts run dual-track: Selectividad alongside UCAS or US applications.
- Spanish universities sit at the centre of the data. Public-tuition Universidad Complutense, Carlos III and Autónoma are nearly free for EU passport holders; IE University, Comillas ICADE, CUNEF and Universidad de Navarra are the private prestige tier and take large slices of the international cohort.
- UK Russell Group is the second-strongest pipeline. Runnymede, King's, ICS, ISM, ASM and Hastings publish regular Oxbridge, Imperial, UCL, LSE, Edinburgh and Bristol placements. Russell Group accounts for the majority of UK-bound graduates from these schools.
- US top-50 admissions are real but narrower. ASM, ICS, Brewster and Runnymede send students to Ivies, NESCACs and the top liberal-arts colleges each year. Volume sits below the UK flow at every school except ASM.
- Selectividad runs in parallel for most students. A-Levels, IB and AP all convert to a Spanish entrance grade through homologación, so the Spanish track stays open even when the curriculum is foreign. BiBac and Spanish Bachillerato schools skip the conversion and feed Selectividad directly.
- What "placement" depends on. The qualification, the school's track record with the target admissions office, and the depth of the counselling team. The first is portable. The other two are not.
The dual-track default
Madrid is one of the few European capitals where every graduating cohort runs two university applications in parallel. A Year 13 at Runnymede sits A-Levels for the UK and homologates for Spain. A Year 12 at ICS combines an IB Diploma with UCAS and Selectividad. A senior at ASM holds a US transcript, APs and an SAT, then sits the Spanish Bachillerato for IE or Comillas. Dual-track is the default.
The Spanish track is the largest by volume. Public tuition runs around EUR 700 to 1,500 per year for EU passport holders and keeps a substantial share of every cohort in Madrid. The UK track is the prestige pipeline for British-curriculum graduates: Russell Group offices read IGCSE plus A-Levels as native and the IB Diploma at 38-plus as equivalent. The US track is narrower at most schools and broader at ASM, where the American transcript, AP scores and SAT/ACT make the path most direct.
Where Madrid graduates go
Spanish public. Universidad Complutense (UCM), Universidad Autónoma (UAM), Universidad Carlos III (UC3M), Universidad Politécnica (UPM) and Universidad Rey Juan Carlos. Heavy intake from BiBac, Spanish Bachillerato and dual-track families. UC3M and UPM carry the strongest international reputations for economics and engineering.
Spanish private prestige. IE University (Madrid and Segovia, undergraduates in English), Comillas ICADE (law and business) and ICAI (engineering), CUNEF (finance) and Universidad de Navarra (with IESE in Madrid). IE, Comillas and Navarra sit at the top of every domestic ranking.
UK Russell Group and Oxbridge. Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, UCL, LSE, KCL, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Bristol, Manchester, Warwick and Durham appear repeatedly. Oxbridge offers land every year at Runnymede; the wider Russell Group is a baseline at every British-curriculum school below.
United States. The Ivies (Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Stanford, Columbia, Penn, Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth); NESCAC and small-LAC (Williams, Amherst, Pomona, Bowdoin, Middlebury); city tier (NYU, BU, Northeastern, Tufts); public flagships (Michigan, UCLA, Berkeley). ASM is the dominant source; ICS, Brewster and Runnymede contribute smaller volumes.
Continental Europe and rest of world. Bocconi, Sciences Po, HEC, Erasmus, TU Delft, ETH, EPFL, Trinity College Dublin, McGill, Toronto, Melbourne. The IB schools place into Bocconi and the Dutch system most frequently.
Which schools place strongest where
Runnymede College runs the strongest UK and Oxbridge pipeline. A-Level 57% A\/A and IGCSE 67% A\/A in 2025. Multiple Oxbridge offers each year and deep Russell Group volume. No IB by design. Spanish-track families homologate into UCM, UC3M and IE.
International College Spain (ICS) is the strongest IB-to-UK-and-US pipeline. IB average 35.2 in 2025, around 1,200 students, Nord Anglia. Published destinations cover roughly 100 universities a year across Russell Group, US privates, the Dutch system and the Spanish tiers.
American School of Madrid (ASM) is the strongest US track. AP plus IB overlay, MSA-CESS accredited. Top 30% of IB averaged 37.9 in 2024. Regular Ivy, NESCAC and US state flagship placements alongside strong UK and Spanish flows.
The British School of Madrid runs the strongest dual UK and Spanish route via the Bachillerato Internacional Bilingüe (BiBac). BiBac PAU average 7.91 in 2025. Graduates leave with A-Levels for UCAS and a Spanish Bachillerato plus EvAU, no homologación required.
The Global College posts the highest published IB scores: average 36.2 in 2025, top third 40.1, 37% above 38. Two-year sixth-form anchored at IE University.
King's College, ISM and Hastings School sit in the same UK Russell Group band: King's IGCSE 52% A\ in 2025; ISM A-Level 38% A\/A on a 99% pass rate; Hastings IB 35 and A-Level 47% A\*/A in 2024.
Deutsche Schule Madrid averages IB 38 alongside Abitur and Spanish Bachillerato, with German universities (Munich, Heidelberg, Mannheim, RWTH Aachen) plus the Spanish tiers. Lycée Français de Madrid runs a 99.7% Baccalauréat pass rate and feeds French universities and grandes écoles. Mirabal and Colegios Ramón y Cajal anchor the Spanish-private route into Selectividad with IB 34.5 and PAU 7.8 and 7.59 in 2025.
At a glance
| School | Curriculum | Latest exam result | NABSS | Strongest destination |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runnymede College | British | A-Level 57% A\*/A (2025) | Yes | UK Russell Group, Oxbridge |
| International College Spain | IB | IB 35.2 (2025) | No | UK, US, IE |
| American School of Madrid | American, IB | IB top 30% 37.9 (2024) | No | US Ivies, NESCACs, UK |
| The British School of Madrid | British, BiBac | BiBac PAU 7.91 (2025) | Yes | Spain plus UK Russell Group |
| The Global College | IB | IB 36.2 (2025) | No | IE, UK, US |
| King's College, La Moraleja | British | IGCSE 52% A\* (2025) | Yes | UK Russell Group |
| International School of Madrid | British | A-Level 38% A\*/A (2025) | Yes | UK Russell Group |
| Hastings School | British, IB | IB 35 (2024) | Yes | UK, Spain |
| Deutsche Schule Madrid | German, IB | IB 38 (2024) | No | German + Spanish universities |
| Lycée Français de Madrid | French | Baccalauréat 99.7% pass | No | French universities and grandes écoles |
| Kensington School | British, IB | PAU avg 8.22 (2025) | Yes | UK, Spain |
| Mirabal International School | IB, Spanish | IB 34.5 / PAU 7.8 (2025) | No | Spanish private and public |
| Colegios Ramón y Cajal | IB, Spanish | IB 34.5 / PAU 7.59 (2025) | No | Spanish private and public |
| Alegra School | British, IB | IB 33 (2023) | Yes | UK, Spain |
| Brewster Madrid | American, IB | n/p | No | US Ivies, NESCACs |
NABSS = National Association of British Schools in Spain. n/p = not published.
How to read these destinations
Highlight lists are marketing, not data. A school that names six universities is hiding the other twenty-five. The full destination list over three years and the proportion of the cohort at each tier matter more than the headline acceptance.
One Harvard offer is not a pipeline. A pipeline is a school that places students into the same admissions office year after year. Runnymede's Oxbridge record is a pipeline. ASM's Ivy League volume is a pipeline. A single named acceptance with nothing the following year is a marketing exhibit.
Counsellor headcount and tenure decide outcomes. A US-style office runs 1:30 to 1:50 in Year 12; UK university advice runs 1:50 to 1:80. A school of 800 pupils with one part-time counsellor across the secondary is underresourced regardless of the brochure.
The cohort breakdown reveals what the school graduates through. Some schools list A-Level, IB and Bachillerato on the marketing page but graduate the bulk through only one route.
Homologación experience compounds. Schools that have run families through the Ministry of Education conversion for years know which subject combinations transfer cleanly. First-time conversion cohorts learn in real time.
Related reading
- Best Schools for University Placement in Madrid
- Best International Schools in Madrid
- IB Results in Madrid
- Best British Schools in Madrid
- International School Fees in Madrid
FAQs
Where do most Madrid international school graduates go? Spanish universities take the largest share by volume, split between public-tuition Complutense, Carlos III, Autónoma and Politécnica, and private-tier IE, Comillas ICADE, CUNEF and Navarra. UK Russell Group is the second-largest cluster. The US flow concentrates at ASM, with smaller volumes from ICS, Brewster and Runnymede.
Can my child get into a Spanish university from a British or IB school? Yes. A-Levels and the IB Diploma convert to a Spanish entrance grade through homologación, the Ministry of Education process that produces an EvAU-equivalent score. The British School of Madrid runs the BiBac and skips homologación entirely. ICS, ASM, Runnymede and King's run families through homologación every year.
Which Madrid school has the strongest Oxbridge record? Runnymede College, by a clear margin and over decades. King's and ICS also place into Oxbridge regularly. Brighton College Madrid opens in 2027 and will likely become a second strong contender given the UK school's record of 43 Oxbridge places in 2025.
Is IE University a real prestige destination? Yes. IE runs most of its undergraduate programmes in English and admits internationally; The Global College sits inside the IE pipeline. Comillas ICADE remains the traditional Spanish-elite business and law school, and Navarra ranks alongside both in most domestic rankings.
How important is Selectividad for international students? For Spanish applications it is the entrance exam, scored out of 14. A-Level, IB and AP students homologate; Spanish Bachillerato and BiBac students sit Selectividad directly. Most Madrid families keep Selectividad on the table even when applying to UK or US universities, because the Spanish route stays open at almost no cost.
Do Madrid schools place into US top-50 universities? Yes, but volumes are narrower than UK flows. ASM is the strongest source with regular Ivy and NESCAC placements driven by the US transcript and AP track. ICS places into US privates through the IB Diploma plus SAT route. A US-focused application from Madrid needs SAT or ACT, three or four APs or an IB Diploma at 38-plus, and a counsellor who knows the US system.
Sources
Spanish Ministry of Education centros extranjeros autorizados registry; NABSS member directory; school-published exam results and destination pages 2024 and 2025; IE University, Universidad de Navarra, Comillas ICADE, CUNEF, Universidad Complutense, Universidad Carlos III and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid admissions pages.