Chiang Mai International School (CMIS).

The campus, and how you actually get there

Address: 13 Chetupon Road, Chiang Mai 50000 (17-acre campus off Kaew Nawarat Road)

A 17-acre walled campus in the middle of the city — unusual in Chiang Mai, where most international schools sit in the surrounding districts. The central position buys convenience rather than acreage: expect an urban school with established facilities rather than the rural estates north and south of town.

Getting there: Chiang Mai has no urban rail, but of the city's international schools CMIS has the least demanding commute: it is genuinely central, on the east bank of the Ping River, minutes from the Old City, Wat Ket and Chang Klan. Families living in the city core can often do the run in ten to fifteen minutes, and this is one of very few Chiang Mai campuses where a red songthaew or a short Grab is a realistic daily option rather than a fallback.

Chiang Mai has no urban rail — no BTS, no MRT, no commuter metro. The city's railway station serves intercity trains to Bangkok, and the long-discussed Chiang Mai light-rail scheme remains unbuilt, so every school run here is a car, a motorbike, a red songthaew, a Grab or the school bus. Read the Chiang Mai getting-around guide and the Chiang Mai area guides before you commit to a neighbourhood.

Smoke-season air quality at this campus

Chiang Mai International School (CMIS) does not publish detailed smoke-season filtration information that we could verify from primary sources, so we are not going to imply provision that may not exist. That is not a criticism of the school — most Chiang Mai schools handle this well and simply do not document it publicly — but it does mean you must ask directly. The due-diligence list below tells you exactly what to ask.

Northern Thailand's burning season runs roughly February to April, when agricultural burning and forest fires push Chiang Mai high into the global air-quality rankings — IQAir placed the city among the ten most polluted in the world on 4 March 2026, with AQI above 150 and PM2.5 the dominant pollutant. For a family with young children this is a legitimate school-selection criterion, not a footnote. Our Chiang Mai air-quality guide covers the season in full.

The curriculum pathway

How a child progresses through the school, stage by stage:

• Elementary — American-sourced curriculum from Kindergarten
• Middle school
• High school — Grades 9–12, American diploma pathway

Accreditation & memberships

Accreditation is the closest thing to an objective quality signal in international schooling — it means an outside body has inspected governance, teaching and safeguarding. BAANLYY does not rank schools, so this is what Chiang Mai International School (CMIS) and its accrediting bodies publish, not our verdict:

• Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) — accredited since 1987
• Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) member
• East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) member
• International Schools Association of Thailand (ISAT) member

Boarding and the size of the school

Boarding: A day school — CMIS does not operate boarding.

Scale: A roll in the region of 500–515 students is commonly reported, with a long-established community of expatriate, missionary and Thai-international families, many of whom stay for the full K–12 run. Roll and nationality figures move every year and schools report them differently — treat these as indicative and ask the admissions office for the current numbers.

Who this school tends to suit

Families who want a central campus and a short commute, who are comfortable with the school's explicit Christian affiliation, and who want an American diploma pathway. Its age — seventy years in the city — makes it the school with the deepest local alumni and parent network.

This is our editorial read for relocation planning, not a ranking or a recommendation — and no school pays to appear on BAANLYY. Visit shortlisted campuses before you decide.

Living near Chiang Mai International School (CMIS)

This is the one Chiang Mai school where living in the city centre genuinely works. The BAANLYY area guides for this run:

Check the school's bus catchment before you sign. Chiang Mai's international schools cluster in two distinct belts — the northern one around Mae Rim and San Sai, and the far larger southern one through Hang Dong, Mae Hia and Saraphi — and picking a home in the wrong belt turns a fifteen-minute run into a daily hour.

What to confirm directly with the school

BAANLYY deliberately does not publish per-school tuition figures: they change annually, schools publish their own current schedules, and a stale number is worse than none. Take this list to the admissions office:

• How the school's Christian affiliation shapes daily life — chapel, Bible classes, staff statements of faith and admissions preferences — if that matters to your family either way.
• Smoke-season filtration: CMIS does not publish a detailed air-quality page in the way Prem and Panyaden do, so ask directly which buildings are filtered and what the outdoor-activity policy is.
• The current fee schedule — tuition, application and registration fees, any refundable deposit or capital/development levy, uniforms, lunches, the bus and trips.
• Whether the year group you need has a place, or a waitlist, for your intended start date.
• Smoke-season provision in detail: which buildings are filtered, whether the sports halls and canteen are included as well as classrooms, whether indoor and outdoor AQI readings are published to parents, and the school's written policy for cancelling outdoor activities. This is the single most important Chiang Mai-specific question a family can ask, and provision varies enormously between campuses.
• School bus routes, catchment zones and pick-up times for the specific neighbourhood you are considering — several Chiang Mai schools sit well outside the ring roads, and a home ten minutes further out but on the route can be the easier morning.
• Entry requirements: assessments, interviews, English-language support and the school reports or transcripts you must supply.
• How far the school takes your child, and on which exam pathway — Chiang Mai mixes American/AP, Cambridge IGCSE and A-level, and IB Diploma routes, and switching between them mid-secondary is disruptive.

Visit the official Chiang Mai International School (CMIS) website →

Sources & References

• Ministry of Education, Thailand

Primary and official sources are cited above. Government rules, fees and procedures in Thailand change over time and vary by office; always confirm current requirements with the relevant authority before relying on them. BAANLYY never takes paid placement in editorial content.