The choice between the IB and the French bac is usually made at the end of seconde (age 15 to 16, Year 11 in the UK, 10th grade in the US), sometimes earlier when a family moves country. At that age, very few students know where they will study, let alone what they will do afterwards. So families compare what they can see: how hard each one is, its reputation, the place it gives to English.
The question I ask is a different one. Which doors does each diploma leave open, which ones does it close, and what does it cost to reopen a closed door? On that ground there are precise facts, and they are not always the ones people expect.
| Destination | With the French bac | With the IB |
|---|---|---|
| Prépas, post-bac schools, BUT in France | The normal route, via Parcoursup | Application via Parcoursup, assessed on the same criteria |
| Bachelor's degree (licence) at a French university | The normal route, via Parcoursup | The university first reviews the diploma, and may refuse |
| United Kingdom, Switzerland | Open, with published thresholds | Open, with published thresholds |
| United States | Neither is required; the application is read as a whole | Same |
The door the IB can close: France
This is the point many French families discover too late. The International Baccalaureate is awarded by a private foundation based in Geneva. For the French state it is a foreign diploma, and there has been no automatic equivalence with the bac since 2003.
The ministry restated this in a reply published in the Journal officiel, the government's official gazette, in February 2024. For selective programmes, an IB candidate applies through Parcoursup, the national online admissions platform, like everyone else. For a licence (a bachelor's degree at a French university), the university first examines the diploma and can turn the application down if the subjects taken at school do not match its first year. The ministry also mentions the certificate of level issued by ENIC-NARIC, the official centre for the recognition of foreign qualifications, for enrolling with an IB.
An IB student who decides in terminale (the final year, age 17 to 18) to study law or economics at a French university therefore has no guarantee of getting in the way a bac holder would. Each university reviews the file in its own way, and the answer varies from one to the next. Entry remains possible, but it is not a given.
For the prépas (the two-year preparatory classes for the grandes écoles), the door stays open on paper. In practice, it is the preparation that falls short. Prépa syllabuses carry on from the French terminale, and admissions panels have always read French school reports. An excellent IB student can get in, but arrives with fewer tools than their classmates, especially in maths.
The doors both diplomas open, and at what price
In the United Kingdom and Switzerland, both diplomas are accepted. What remains is the level required, which universities that recruit internationally publish for each of the two.
| With the French bac | With the IB | |
|---|---|---|
| Cambridge, law | Offers based on an average of 17, usually with 17 in the relevant subjects, plus the LNAT test | 41 to 42 points, with 7, 7 and 6 in the three higher level (HL) subjects, plus the LNAT test |
| EPFL, bachelor's | 16 in maths, 16 in physics and an overall average of 16 | 38 out of 42 excluding bonus points, at least 6 in maths and in physics, both at HL alongside a third science |
To give a sense of scale: in the May 2025 session, the worldwide average score for the IB Diploma was 30.6 points, and fewer than 5% of candidates reached 40 points or more. The top universities are no easier to enter by one route than by the other. Whatever the diploma, they want students from the top of the cohort.
American universities require neither. Admission there also turns on the recommendation letter, the activities and the way the grades are presented, which I cover in detail on the page about the Ivy League from France.
Writing and languages
The two diplomas do not train the same kind of writer. The bac is built around writing in French: the early French exams at the end of première (age 16 to 17, Year 12 in the UK, 11th grade in the US), both written and oral, philosophy in terminale, then the grand oral, the final oral exam. The dissertation and the commentaire, the French forms of argumentative essay and text analysis, shape a very structured way of arguing, which is exactly what the prépas expect. The IB asks for other formats: a 4,000-word research essay on a topic the student chooses, a theory of knowledge essay, and coursework assessed throughout the two years.
People often forget that the IB does not have to be taken in English. Outside the language courses, exams can be sat in English, French or Spanish, depending on what the school offers. The IB also awards a bilingual diploma, for a student who takes two language and literature courses, or who studies a subject such as history or a science in a language other than their main one. In my view, the level of English a student actually reaches depends more on the school than on the diploma. A good bilingual track in the French system, or the baccalauréat français international (BFI, the French bac with an international option), produces English of a very high standard.
What it costs
The bac can be prepared free of charge at a state lycée. The IB, on the other hand, is taught in France in schools the ministry describes as mostly private, and these pay an annual fee to the IB foundation. As an order of magnitude, at the International School of Paris the last three years cost €39,000 a year in 2026-2027, plus a €10,000 entry fee for a new student. Over a two-year programme, that budget weighs on the decision, and it is best set against the doors you are trying to open.
The door you close without noticing: the choice of maths
Within each diploma, a decision taken at 15 carries more weight than the choice of diploma itself. The IB has two mathematics courses, ‘Analysis and approaches’ and ‘Applications and interpretation’, each offered at HL or SL (standard level). For an engineering school, a science prépa or a maths degree, the first one at HL is the only truly suitable option, and Cambridge requires it for mathematics. The bac equivalent is dropping the maths spécialité (spécialités are the subjects chosen for the last two years of lycée) at the end of première. Science prépas then become practically out of reach. Before deciding, you need to know where the child really stands: that is where I start with a family, and I explain how in Which path for my child.
The real difference between the two maths programmes lies in proof. The French maths spécialité, together with maths expertes (an additional advanced maths option in terminale), goes further in written reasoning. This is what the IB students I work with most often lack when they arrive in a demanding science course. They calculate well and know how to use a graphing calculator, but justifying every step takes genuine relearning. The IB, for its part, gives more room to statistics, modelling and independent research.
Reopening a closed door
Both diplomas are prepared over two years: première and terminale on one side, the two years of the IB Diploma Programme on the other. The simplest moment to switch is therefore the end of seconde, in either direction. After première it is possible at some schools, but costly, because subjects, exams already taken and expectations do not carry over.
A student moving from the IB back to the French system mainly has to catch up on method: the dissertation, the commentaire, proof in maths. A student leaving the French system for the IB has to get used to writing a great deal in English and to sustaining long pieces of work, the extended essay in particular.
Pace, the other criterion
French bac
- A common core, plus three spécialités in première, two of which are kept in terminale.
- An optional maths expertes course in terminale.
- Continuous assessment for 40% of the final mark, end-of-course exams for 60%: French and mathematics at the end of première, then philosophy, the two spécialités and the grand oral in terminale.
- Marks out of 20, mention très bien (top honours) from 16.
IB, Diploma Programme
- Six subjects over two years, three at higher level (HL) and three at standard level (SL).
- On top of that: theory of knowledge, an extended essay and an activities programme (CAS).
- Most of the mark is decided in the exams at the end of the second year, in May in the northern hemisphere.
- Each subject graded from 1 to 7, total out of 45, diploma awarded from 24 points, subject to conditions.
With the bac, a good share of the result depends on school reports and on exams spread between première and terminale. With the IB, everything converges on a single exam session. Some students thrive on that. Others go through that last spring very badly. Once the doors have been weighed up, this is often the criterion that tips the balance for a particular student.
Another route: the IB up to quatrième, then the French system
The choice does not have to be made all at once, nor at the end of seconde. One route I recommend to some families is to follow the IB programmes from CM2 (age 10 to 11, Year 6 in the UK, 5th grade in the US) to quatrième (age 13 to 14, Year 9, 8th grade), that is, the end of primary and then the first years of the Middle Years Programme, and to join the French system in troisième (age 14 to 15, Year 10, 9th grade).
The student gets the best of both. Their English is established early, in a genuinely bilingual setting. And in maths, the IB programme moves faster and goes further: from CM2 onwards it covers ideas the French curriculum only reaches much later. The student then joins the French system just as it becomes more demanding about proof, and arrives in seconde with every French door still open and the choice of diploma still ahead.
The move needs preparing. Written French and the write-up of maths solutions have to be brought up to standard, and there is often an entrance test when the target school is selective. That is the work we do for school admissions and, in maths, through private tutoring. For choosing the collège (lower secondary school, age 11 to 15) itself, see the page on choosing a collège in Paris when returning from abroad, which applies just as well to a student leaving an international school.
When you don't know yet
This is the most common situation, and my rule is simple: choose the diploma that closes the fewest doors for this particular child. For a French family, that is generally the bac. It keeps the whole of France open and, with a strong application, the major destinations abroad as well. The IB becomes the better choice when the family knows the child's future lies outside France, or when it moves from country to country and needs a programme it can find from one school to the next.
Finally, there is a route that keeps almost everything open: the baccalauréat français international, a French bac with reinforced teaching in a foreign language. It carries all the rights of the bac in France and is well understood abroad. I cover it in detail on the page about the BFI and where it leads.