Undergraduate Admissions for applicants from French secondary schools
Who applies through this admissions pathway?
The admissions pathway for undergraduate applicants from French secondary schools applies to all candidates currently enrolled in study for the general or technological French Baccalaureate in a secondary school in France or abroad (including schools participating in our Equal Opportunity Programme).
Candidates must create and submit an application through the admissions platform Parcoursup, following the same deadlines as for all French higher education institutions.
As part of the unified procedure for applications to the Sciences Po Undergraduate College, admissions are decided on the basis of four equally weighted evaluations. These evaluations are marked out of 20 and are the same for all undergraduate applicants:
Candidates from secondary schools participating in our Equal Opportunity Programme (CEP)
These candidates apply through the Parcoursup platform and are assessed by the same evaluations as all other candidates studying for the French Baccalaureate, but are admitted through a specific admissions pathway. The application phase allows for their specific academic background and training as part of the Equal Opportunity Programme to be taken into account. Applications from CEP students will be monitored and examined separately from those of other candidates.
Admissions calendar
Admissions for the 2021/2022 academic year
- Online registration opens on Parcoursup: end of January 2021 (exact date set by Parcoursup (Fr))
- Deadline for submitting preferences: end of March 2021 (exact date set by Parcoursup (Fr))
- Interviews: May 2021
- Admissions results: May 2021 (decisions will be published on Parcoursup, exact date tbc)
Before applying
Discover Sciences Po’s programmes and campuses
Review the eligibility criteria
- You are eligible for this admissions pathway if you are currently enrolled in in a French highschool (lycée) in France or abroad and you are preparing a general or technological French Baccalaureate (including diplomas such as the Abibac (Fr), Bachibac (Fr) and Esabac (Fr), or the Mention Européenne or Option Internatonionale sections)
- You are preparing to sit a general or technological French Baccalaureate in November/December of the next academic year, in a region where the school year ends in November.
- You are a student at a secondary school participating in Sciences Po’s Equal Opportunity Programme (CEP) and you participated in the programme workshops.
- Sciences Po has approved your request for a special dispensation prior to your applying.
Please note: for students who have obtained two separate diplomas of secondary education, over the course of two different years, it is the first of the two that determines through which admissions pathway he/she should apply.
Please consult
Apply
Applicants must complete each of the following steps.
Create your application
All candidates will need to create and complete an application on the Parcoursup admissions platform, keeping to the platform’s own deadlines.
- Online registration opens on Parcoursup: end of January 2021 (exact date set by Parcoursup (Fr))
- Deadline for submitting preferences: end of March 2021 (exact date set by Parcoursup (Fr))
- Interviews: May 2021
- Admissions results: May 2021 (decisions will be published on Parcoursup, exact date tbc)
Choose your programmes
When completing your application on Parcoursup, you will be able to select a maximum of 10 preferences from the higher education programmes available on the platform. Sciences Po offers multiple programmes that count as a whole preference (voeu). You may choose more than one preference from among our programmes:
- One preference for the Bachelor’s degree at the Sciences Po Undergraduate College. Selecting this preference will give you access to two sub-preferences (sous-voeux) from among the programmes offered on each of the Undergraduate College’s different campuses. Please note that these two sub-preferences cannot be placed in order of preference. If your application is successful, Sciences Po will assign you to one of the two programmes you have requested.
- One or more preferences from among our dual degree programmes.
Important: For candidates who wish to apply to a dual undergraduate degree, the admissions platform you should use to submit your application will depend on the dual degree in question. We encourage you to read the information page for each dual degree carefully, in order to identify which platform you need to use.
Complete your application
Applications must be completed online on the platform Parcoursup. Candidates must include all the required documents in their applications.
Candidates commit to providing a complete application. Should any elements prove to be missing or unfinished, the application will be deemed incomplete and will not be processed by Sciences Po.
For a full list of documents required for your application, we invite you to read the following evaluation pages:
- Evaluation 1: Results of the Baccalaureate
- Evaluation 2: Academic performance and progress
- Evaluation 3: The written pieces
Should any information provided by the candidate prove to be false, his/her application will automatically be excluded from the Sciences Po undergraduate admissions procedure.
False declarations will be seen as fraud or attempted fraud and the candidate may be subject to disciplinary measures, up to and including his or her permanent removal from the admissions list.
Pay your application fee
In order for a candidate’s application to be approved and processed by Sciences Po, he or she must pay the application fee. However, any students who can provide proof that they are current recipients of a French secondary education scholarship will be exempt from this fee.
Please note that any fees successfully paid to Sciences Po remain the property of the university and can under no circumstances be reimbursed.
Application fees: €150, non-refundable.
Once you have applied
Invitation to interview
Candidates who have obtained the necessary mark in the application phase will be invited to attend an interview. Selected candidates will receive their invitations by email.
The admissions decision
Once their evaluations are complete, and any readjustments made where necessary, the admissions jury will allocate each candidate an overall mark between 0 and 80. This mark is the total of the mark out of 60 awarded for the three elements of the candidate’s application and the mark out of 20 awarded for his/her interview.
For the standard Sciences Po Bachelor’s degree, all candidates who have attained or exceeded the minimum mark set by the admissions jury will be accepted to the Undergraduate College.
Acceptances are conditional on the obtention of your final secondary school diploma (at first sitting). All accepted candidates will need to provide a certificate of their diploma when completing their administrative registration.
Our decision as to which of the Undergraduate College campuses you are assigned to is definitive. It is made in view of the interests and motivations you demonstrate to us and in order to maintain a balanced range of students across our campuses.
The results of the admissions procedure will be communicated to all students via the Parcoursup platform. Candidates will receive a specific response for each of the preferences they submitted in their application, detailing their acceptance, rejection or placement on a waiting list.
Please note: If candidates have submitted more than one preference for Sciences Po (Bachelor’s programme and dual degrees), they may receive more than one offer of admission and will need to choose just one of these.
The waiting list
The admissions jury may draw up a waiting list of candidates whose admissions marks were lower than the minimum threshold set by Sciences Po, with names placed in descending order. Depending on the number of places still available at Sciences Po, or likely to be vacated by already accepted candidates, these applicants may be awarded subsequent offers.
Candidates on the waiting list will be ranked according to their overall average admissions mark and may be contacted through the Parcoursup system, in the event that any accepted candidates withdraw their applications.
Candidates receiving a rejection will not be placed on the waiting list. All successful candidates, whether accepted directly or from the waiting list, will receive an offer of admission assigning them to one of the two Undergraduate College programmes they requested in their application.
Please note
In line with the framework of the unified admissions procedure, applications from students at schools participating in our Equal Opportunity Programme (CEP) will be processed separately. Dual degree admissions will be conducted in close collaboration with the relevant partner institutions and the list of accepted and waiting list candidates will be decided jointly. All decisions are made in accordance with specific agreements reached with each French or international higher education institution, regarding the admissions procedure for the dual degree in question.
Accepting your offer
Candidates who have been accepted onto the Sciences Po Bachelor’s programme will receive an offer of admission assigning them to one of the two Undergraduate College programmes they requested in their application. The same applies for candidates who are accepted after having been placed on the waiting list.
Accepted candidates who wish to join Sciences Po must accept their admissions offer as quickly as possible via the Parcoursup platform directly. This will allow our staff to begin the necessary administrative and academic procedures to prepare your place at Sciences Po.
If you are accepted
Once you have accepted your admissions offer, you will receive an email from the campus to which you have been accepted, providing full details of the steps to follow as a future student of the Undergraduate College.
Visit the Sciences Po student site to find out about first steps (accessing your online student account, registering, choosing your classes, consulting timetables and all useful information relating to your studies) and discover our international students page.