Lugano · time Montagnola
Lugano is not a Zurich suburb and not a Geneva lake campus. The portrait we have is an American day-and-boarding hill in Montagnola. Boarding starts at Grade 6. Time the funicular, not Bahnhofstrasse.
Lugano is not “the international school.” It is a Ticino city whose Italian mornings are allowed to be first, plus one official American door posting families name in the first week: TASIS on the Collina d’Oro.
The portrait we have is TASIS The American School in Switzerland at Via Collina d’Oro 15. Use it for the 2026–27 franc table — boarding all-inclusive, day by band, Campus Enhancement Fund from Grade 1. This note is the city around it. The Switzerland country page is the wider map — Geneva, Zurich, Basel, Zug.
TASIS sits in Montagnola, not on the lake promenade. Day from Pre-K at 3. Boarding from Grade 6. American diploma, AP, optional IB. Italian with English in Grades 1–9 because the canton says so. English primary from 10. It is not TASIS Portugal in Beloura. Same family name. Different hill.
Walk it, then an Italian liceo courtyard in Lugano, so you can hear which language the child relaxes in.
If you might stay, an American diploma is not automatically the kindest paper. A Ticino liceo, a municipal door — those are official mornings. Zurich is two hours on a good day. Geneva is another lake. Do not treat Montagnola as a Tuesday from Wädenswil.
The language of the yard is the test. A child can thrive in English at 9 a.m. and still be lonely at 11 if the piazza is speaking Italian.
Leysin and Zuoz are other mountains. We name them on the country page. We have not yet written their portraits.
Ask whether you are buying day or a bed from Grade 6. Ask how much Italian a shy eleven-year-old actually meets after lunch. Add the Campus Enhancement Fund before you compare the annual line to Geneva.
Time Montagnola on a Sunday evening if you are buying a bed.
The city hub is the short map. The TASIS portrait is the long one.
Friendly orientation, not formal admissions advice. Always confirm dates with the school.
The oldest American boarding school in Europe sits on the Collina d’Oro above Lugano, not on Lake Geneva and not in Sintra. Boarding starts at Grade 6. The 2026–27 table prints francs. Time the funicular hill, not Bahnhofstrasse.
Chesières, Villars-sur-OllonChesières sits above Villars at about 1,200 metres. The school will send a tuition document. We will not borrow a number from a directory.
Pully, LausanneA Nord Anglia Swiss-international on the Vaud shore, not the UN quarter. Pully takes boarding from 11. Nyon stops at 12. The 2026–27 PDFs print day totals and a full-boarding year of CHF 112,000.
GenevaA Nord Anglia day-and-boarding campus in Versoix, not the UN quarter. High school offers IB, IBCP, an American diploma, the French Bac and the Swiss Maturité. The 2026–27 boarding year is a published CHF 117,500.
The letters on the leaver’s certificate matter. They are not the whole child. Here is how to tell them apart without a headache, and without pretending every door stays open.
16 minYou do not need a perfect algorithm. You need a few true things about your child, a boring list on the fridge, and the courage to ignore a beautiful campus that does not fit.
15 minTuition is the number on the homepage. The PDF is the number that arrives in March. Here is how to read the second one, without inventing a euro, a krona, or a deadline.
12 minSkip the question about last year’s average. Ask the ones that make a teacher’s face change. Then look at the corridor while they answer.