petersørensen

Hi all,

Are any of you familiar with the French school system?

I really would love to study in France - that's something I've always wanted. The Grandes Écoles system sounds really interesting - very different from any other school system I've ever heard of. It, however, requires two years in a preparation class.

Now, my question is: Do these preperation schools (lycées) accept international students?

I hope someone is able to answer my question.

bluebayou

you might post on the parents' thread...several of them were schooled in France.

Grande Antilles

Petersorensen, I think that the lycee will accept somone as long as that person can speak French. Les lycees in France are just regular HS. I don't live in France so my information might not be accurate. I think that the best thing you can do is to contact a French embassy or L'attache culturel of the embassy. They might be able to help you find the information you need.

Bonne chance

petersørensen

Thank you for the answer.

Well, it's not the high school lycée I want to attend but the Classe Préparatoire which, as far as I'm concerned, is the same as the two first years of college. Am I completely wrong?

Grande Antilles

Well in the francophone system we have something called prefac, it is something that we do before colelges. When you say preparatoire, in French it would sound like primary school. However as I said before, I am not in France and every Francophone country are different even if we often follow the French system. I think that contacting a French embassy will be the best way to get your answer. "Une classe preparatoire or Prefact" would not be two years of college. It would be two years that prepare you for the college that you wants to go. To which school in France do you want to go? Does it have a website?

zules01

What you just said couldn't be more wrong. A CPGE is basically a two-year program at an honors level, which is quite selective for us domestic applicants. The only internationals who make it at Africans whose native language is french, and there is absolutely no way an American with an high school language education can get in--let alone succeed in that program.

Why don't you apply to regular colleges instead? The CPGE system takes away two years of your life and the placement rates is often very low (<25%, the rest just transfers to regular colleges). Honestly, it's a bad idea.

If you want to make it to a Grande Ecole, you should go to college in the US and then apply as an international. That'd be a completely different story and being accepted would be a lot easier.

zules01

and the classes CPGE students take are in fact in high schools but they're obviously a lot more demanding. It's a whole different game.

Grande Antilles

you can get into a French school as even if you are an international student however, you would have to demonstrate high proficiency in French. If your French is not good enough, you will definitely fail. Especialy litteratue courses. Even international students who went aux lycee Francais find it difficult. Why don't you apply to the United World Colleges? They are very different from other school too. If you go to the UWC in Norway or other European countries, you will have the opportunity to visit France during field trip or vacation.

petersørensen

Thank you for all the answers,

Actually I do speak French fluently so I think I would be able to handle the academics.

zules01

Well... if you say so. Just know that the required math level for freshmen is comparable to Calc. III, and basically every class would be an advanced junior class in the U.S.. But it's worth the try.

cafe_ks

i'm really confused!!!
so if we wanna go to la grande ecole, we MUST be in the preparatory class right?
or should i just go to the public universite first, and then apply to MBA in france or america?