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RESEARCH – Every year, about 80,000 young people bet everything on the preparatory class, a training that promises them integration into the most prestigious schools in the country. There they learn their skills and are under pressure like never before. Testimonies:
Henri IV, Louis Le Grand, Janson de Cille, “Ginette”… Behind the walls of France’s most prestigious institutions, almost all located in or near Paris, a generation of young people is working to become “the nation’s best”. “. They have their baccalaureate in their pocket: excellent, very good, often even the “congratulations of the jury”, and as soon as the summer holidays are over, with the start of the school year in September, the clock starts. “Preparation” begins. In The elite factory is out of line (1), journalist Iban Rice sums up the challenge. “Two years of deprivation without any social life. no going out, no drinking in a cafe. Thrust, nothing but thrust.” The bet is bold, but it allows the integration of the best schools in the country, such as HEC, ENS, Polytechnique or CentraleSupélec. Who make up the future economic and political elite of the country? The proof: a quarter of CAC40 leaders, ministers and dozens of deputies are graduates of these schools. Except…
Source: Le Figaro
