France's CPGE and Grandes Écoles Concours System Explained for Outsiders

What CPGE is

Classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles (CPGE) is a two-year track you enter after the French baccalauréat, taught inside a lycée rather than a university. Instead of a normal undergraduate degree, you follow an intensive, exam-focused program that prepares you for concours, the competitive entrance exams that decide entry into France's grandes écoles. Most students finish in two years , though some repeat the second year once to improve their concours result.

Grandes écoles sit outside the standard university system and include France's top engineering schools, business schools and the École normale supérieure network. A concours result, not a university grade average, decides who gets in.

The three main tracks

Within the scientific track, first-year students choose between MPSI (maths and physics), PCSI (physics and chemistry) or BCPST (biology, chemistry, physics, geology), then specialise further in the second year. ECG replaced the older ECS and ECE economics tracks in 2021. Khâgne students split into Ulm, Lyon or B/L streams depending on which ENS and which subject mix they target.

How you apply to CPGE

You apply to CPGE the same way you apply to any French higher education program taught in France, through Parcoursup . You rank the CPGE programs you want, submit your school record and a short statement for each, and wait for offers during the main Parcoursup calendar. International students holding an equivalent secondary qualification apply through Parcoursup or, depending on your country and current school system, through a separate international admission route some lycées run directly.

Selection for competitive CPGE classes in Paris and other major cities runs almost entirely on your final two years of school grades. Weaker students still get places at less selective CPGE programs across France, since seats vastly outnumber places at the top handful of classes.

How the concours works

Near the end of your second CPGE year, you sit one or more concours, sets of written and oral exams run by groups of grandes écoles together rather than by a single school. A strong result lets you rank across several schools in the same concours group, then choose your preferred offer once results and interviews are complete.

Concours structure differs by track:

• Engineering concours combine written exams in maths, physics and other core subjects with oral exams and sometimes a practical test

• Business school concours (ECG track) test maths, economics, general culture, languages and history-geopolitics, plus oral interviews

• ENS concours (Khâgne track) run written admissibilité exams followed by oral admission exams for a small number of places

Each concours group publishes its own calendar and coefficients for each subject, so check the specific concours pages for your target schools rather than relying on general descriptions.

Why the system sits outside universities

France runs grandes écoles separately from the university sector on purpose. Universities admit almost anyone holding a baccalauréat, run open enrollment for most programs, and set no competitive entry beyond a few selective courses. Grandes écoles cap their intake at a fixed number of places per concours and rank every applicant against every other applicant sitting the same exam, producing a far narrower entry funnel than standard university admission.

This makes CPGE a demanding, exam-heavy two years, often described as harder than the first years of a normal degree. Class sizes stay small, homework load stays heavy, and teachers grade constantly against the concours standard rather than against a course curriculum.

Entering as an international student

International students do enter CPGE and go on to grandes écoles, though the volume of applicants from outside France stays small compared to the domestic intake. Your French language level needs to support intensive coursework from day one, since CPGE classes run entirely in French. Some grandes écoles also run separate international concours tracks or accept international students directly into later years without the CPGE step, bypassing the two-year prep track entirely.

Contact your target lycée or grande école admissions office directly if you hold a non-French secondary qualification, since equivalence rules and application routes vary by country and by school.

Cost and accommodation

Public CPGE programs run inside the French public education system, so tuition costs stay minimal compared to a private institution, in line with standard French public secondary and higher education fees. Many CPGE lycées offer internat (boarding) places, useful if you study far from home, and income-based bourses exist for eligible students. Contact your target lycée's financial aid office directly for current fees and bourse eligibility, since rates and thresholds change from year to year.

If you do not pass a concours

A CPGE record still lets you enter a French university in the second or third year of a bachelor's degree through equivalence agreements if your concours results fall short of a grande école place, so the two years are not wasted without a concours win. Some students also use a strong CPGE record to apply directly to less selective grandes écoles or to schools running admission on file review instead of a competitive concours.