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Grandes Écoles

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The grandes écoles (French: grand schools) of France are higher education establishments outside the mainstream framework of the public universities. They are generally focused on a single subject area, such as engineering, have a moderate size, and are often quite selective in their admission of students. Some of them are highly prestigious, and traditionally have produced most of France's managing directors and executives.


Contents

Preparatory classes

The Lycée Louis-le-Grand, in Paris, is one of the most famous lycées providing classes for preparing for grandes écoles. (Here, on the right side of the rue St Jacques; on the left, the Sorbonne.)
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The Lycée Louis-le-Grand, in Paris, is one of the most famous lycées providing classes for preparing for grandes écoles. (Here, on the right side of the rue St Jacques; on the left, the Sorbonne.)

In most cases, grandes écoles recruit students not after the end of their high school, but after two or more years of initial higher education. For the most part, this education takes place in special preparatory classes, known as classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles (CPGE) or prépas, that dispense undergraduate university-level education at an accelerated pace. Prépas are located in a number of select high schools throughout the country; some of them, such as Louis-le-Grand and Henri IV in Paris, are famous in their own name.

There are five main categories of prépas:

There is some specific jargon in these classes. Hence, the year of mathématiques spéciales is called the taupe, which stems from the French name for moles because, according to stereotypes, they are short-sighted (like the little burrowing animal) and hardly ever go out. The students themselves are called taupins. One integrates a school when one succeeds in passing the competitive exam to that school. If you are admitted to a school after two years of prépa, you are 3/2; if you repeat a year, you are 5/2. The story behind those names is the following: one of the most prestigious engineering school in France is the École Polytechnique, often dubbed X, as the unknown variable in mathematics. The integral of X between 1 and 2 (the numbers representing years of study) is 3/2, and the integral between 2 and 3 is 5/2.

Categories

Grandes écoles can be classified into several broad categories:

Écoles normales supérieures

They train researchers, professors and may also be a starting point for executive careers in the public administration or business. There are four of them: Their competitive entrance exams are about the most selective. They recruit mostly from taupes, biology prépas and khâgnes, even though a small number of their students (less than 10 each year) are recruited separately on a highly selective exams from the university.

Unlike most of the others Grandes Ecoles, the écoles normales supérieures do not deliver any specific diploma but rather their students have the possibility to obtain university diploma. Many students obtain more than one univeristy diploma and on an accelerated schedule compared to regular university curriculum.

The normaliens, as the students of the several ENS are known, keep a level of excellence in the various disciplines in which they are trained. Normaliens from France and other European Union countries are considered civil servants in training, and as such paid a monthly salary, in exchange for an agreement to serve France for 10 years, including those of studies.

École nationale des chartes

The school main purpose is to provide archivists and paleographers, but students are trained to become professionnal historians, history professors, library curator and, more broadly, high level executives for the Ministry of Culture.

The competitive entrance exams are about the most selective as the school typically enroll less than 30 students each year, making it the Grande école with the smallest number of students. The competitive entrance exams are split into two ways sorting the students by their speciality between the classical A way focused on medieval history and modern history and for which students are trained in prepa chartes, and the modern B way focused on modern and contemporary history and which is open to student in khâgnes.

The students, known as chartistes, are granted a diploma of Archivist-Paleographer at the end of their 4 year of training, along with the other university diploma that most of the student acquire during their training. The Chartistes keep a level of excellence in History, Archival science and Library science. Their reputation is so broad that many alumni of the Ecole des Chartes are found serving in as archivist in foreign countries or in international organizations. The school also train a small number of foreign students each year.

Quite like normaliens the students at the Ecole Nationale des Chartes are considered civil servants in training, and as such paid a monthly salary, in exchange for an agreement to serve France for 10 years.

Engineering schools

There is a broad spectrum of engineering schools, many recruiting after taupes. Things may be a bit confusing since many schools have a lengthy official name (often beginning with École Nationale Supérieure), a shortened name, an acronym and, for the most famous, a nickname (and often a nickname for their students).

Here follows a list of engineering schools. But such a classement must be taken cautiously as it is not official, but purely subjective to the writter.

The three best schools:

Then there are ten schools which has a equivalent level: Other schools:

Administrative schools

These schools train students for certain civil service and other public-sector positions. However, some students who undertake studies in these schools do end up working in the private sector.

Architecture schools

Food Science, Biological and Agricultural Engineering

Management schools (\"Écoles de commerce\")

French business schools are semi-privately run, often by the regional chambers of commerce. The most well-known are:

In the Paris Metropolitan Area

Outside Paris (Non exhaustive list!)

Sciences Po

The Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) is often considered to be a grande école, though it can also be described as a selective university, as well as the other IEPs.

Military officer academies

While École Polytechnique is run by the Ministry of Defence and its French students are reserve officers in training, it is no longer a military academy and few of its students embrace a military career afterwards.

See also

External links

 

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