When a family talks to me about a business prépa (the two-year preparatory classes that lead to the grandes écoles, in this case the business schools), the conversation almost always turns to the lycée: Henri-IV, Stanislas, Sainte-Geneviève, Hoche. Yet the first choice lies elsewhere, and it weighs at least as heavily on the chances of admission. Advanced maths or applied maths.
Since the lycée reform, the general economics and business prépa, ECG, comes in two levels of mathematics, advanced (approfondies) or applied (appliquées), each combined with one of two humanities subjects: history, geography and geopolitics (HGG), or economics, sociology and history (ESH). The figures below come from the public data of Parcoursup, the national online admissions platform, for the 2025 round.
Two maths levels, two different intakes
The gap is clear. In advanced maths, 44% of admitted students had a mention très bien, all options combined. In applied maths the figure is 25%, and students with a mention assez bien (12 to 14) or no honours make up more than a third of those admitted. In 83 of the 141 applied maths classes, they account for over 30%.
For a student who kept the mathematics spécialité (spécialités are the subjects chosen for the last two years of lycée) through to terminale, the final year at 17 to 18, with good results, the advanced track is the obvious choice. It matches their level, and giving it up would be a waste. For a student whose weak point is maths, choosing the applied track is no retreat. It is often the only one where they will keep up with the pace.
Is it possible with an average of 13?
It is one of the most searched questions on the subject, and the answer is yes, on two conditions. The first is to aim mainly at applied maths, or at the advanced maths classes that recruit broadly. Of the 101 advanced maths classes, 62 have fewer than 40% of admitted students with a mention très bien, and in those classes students with assez bien or no honours make up 40% of the intake on average. The second condition is that the maths grades and the teachers' comments do not contradict the plan. A 13 out of 20 with solid maths and comments that speak of steady work is an application a business prépa can read without difficulty.
The most selective classes, in advanced maths
Eight classes take 90% or more of their students from the mention très bien band:
| Lycée | Option | Admitted with très bien | Of whom félicitations | Offer rate | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henri-IV, Paris 5th | ESH | 96% | 48% | 3% | 21 |
| Sainte-Marie, Lyon | ESH | 91% | 13% | 9% | 20 |
| Louis-le-Grand, Paris 5th | HGG | 98% | 62% | 11% | 48 |
| Sainte-Geneviève, Versailles | HGG | 99% | 53% | 14% | 78 |
| Stanislas, Paris 6th | HGG | 90% | 20% | 17% | 45 |
| Hoche, Versailles | ESH | 95% | 17% | 19% | 24 |
| Sainte-Marie, Lyon | HGG | 92% | 35% | 19% | 20 |
| Chateaubriand, Rennes | ESH | 92% | 0% | 19% | 25 |
One feature of ECG stands out straight away: the classes are small. Henri-IV has only 21 places in its ESH option for more than 3,000 applications. With so few places, the slightest change in the number of applicants can shift the offer rate (taux d'accès, the share of applicants who received an offer) from one year to the next, which makes these classes even less predictable than the large MPSI classes (the maths, physics and engineering science prépa).
The second circle
Fourteen classes take between 70 and 90% of their students from the mention très bien band, with an average of 18% mentions bien (14 to 16) among those admitted. They include Henri-IV and Saint-Louis with the HGG option, Stanislas, Janson-de-Sailly and Saint-Louis-de-Gonzague (Franklin) with the ESH option, Notre-Dame-du-Grandchamp and Hoche in Versailles, Lakanal in Sceaux, le Parc and les Chartreux in Lyon, Fermat in Toulouse and Chateaubriand in Rennes.
Then come seventeen classes where mentions bien account for 43% of admitted students on average, among them Montaigne, Saint-Michel-de-Picpus and Saint-Jean-de-Passy in Paris, Notre-Dame-de-Sainte-Croix in Neuilly, Michelet in Vanves, Ampère in Lyon and Joffre in Montpellier. For a student with a 15 average heading for advanced maths, this is where most of their Parcoursup choices will be decided.
HGG or ESH?
In advanced maths, the ESH option recruits slightly higher than HGG: 49% mentions très bien against 41%. The gap probably owes something to the profile of students who took the economic and social sciences spécialité at lycée, but the figures do not allow us to prove it. The right criterion remains the student. One who enjoys following international news will be more at ease in HGG, one who likes economics in ESH. Both lead to the same competitive entrance exams.
For a comparison with the science prépas, see Which prépa with which grades.