In rue de Vaugirard, at the entrance to the Senate, at the end of February, 160 high school students dressed up as nines. Wide-eyed, they look up at the Luxembourg Palace and point to the stone statues lined along the galleries. Just a few hours ago, they were at their high schools across France. They come from Dunkerque (North), Condat (Cantal) and Gourdon (Lot). One hundred and sixty scholarship students benefiting from equal opportunity programs from each of the ten Institutes of Policy Studies (IEP) to present their professional projects to a panel of judges.
Almost everyone dreams of integrating one of the ten IEPs. And they are not alone. Since the arrival of Sciences Po Paris on Parcoursup in 2021, training on the platform has enjoyed great success. In 2020, almost 10,000 people applied to the university. Three years later, more than 14,000 high school students tried their luck, for only 1,946 places.
IEPs, located across the country, collected more than 18,000 applications in the same year. So, despite the strong selectivity, the training has wind in its sails. At the Bordeaux IEP, the director of the facility, Dominique Darbon, evaluates the first phase of the Parcoursup 2024: “There were about 4,200 applications and in the end only 275 were accepted. Therefore, many very good high school students will be left behind. »
“Quality training, resources and opportunities”
Tydian, 17, from Saint-Raphaël (Var) and a beneficiary of the Equal Opportunities Program, started thinking about Sciences Po Paris at the end of his second year. “When I discovered the geopolitics major, I loved it, but there are very few existing post-baccalaureate courses in the field.”, he remembers. In his senior year, with an average of more than 16/20, he told himself that high school was the best way to get to his dream job: the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. “Sciences Po for me goes beyond the university where everyone goes, it’s a bit of course excellence. If we look at the people who have the most influence in France, they did the IEP. I want to be able to give myself this opportunity too. »
Julia (17) is more indecisive about the profession she wants to pursue as an adult. She loves journalism, politics, is curious and eager to learn. And that’s why he hopes to get on an IEP. “It’s a school that mixes a lot of disciplines and lets you try everything”, she says. Therefore, at Parcoursup, a high school student who lives in Redon (Ille-et-Vilaine) applied for all IEPs as well as political science licenses.
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