Most of the families I see are torn between two routes when the time comes to list their choices: MPSI (maths, physics and engineering science) or PCSI (physics, chemistry and engineering science). Both are prépas, the two-year preparatory classes for the grandes écoles. The difference in syllabus is well known: more mathematics on one side, more physics and chemistry on the other. What fewer people know is that the two tracks do not recruit at the same level, and that for a student averaging around 15 out of 20, the choice makes a big difference to the list of classes within reach.
The figures below come from the public data of Parcoursup, the national online admissions platform, for the 2025 intake: the 138 PCSI classes that admitted at least ten students, with the mention their admitted students obtained at the bac and their taux d'accès, the share of applicants who received an offer.
PCSI recruits more widely than MPSI
In PCSI, 49% of admitted students had a mention très bien (the top honours band, 16/20 and above) in 2025, against 59% in MPSI. Students with a mention bien (14 to 16) make up 35% of the intake, against 29%. Out of 138 classes, 93 recruit at least half their students without a très bien. The median taux d'accès is 42%, against 33% in MPSI.
MPSI
- 124 classes.
- 59% of admitted students with a mention très bien.
- 18 classes at 90% très bien or more.
- Median taux d'accès: 33%.
PCSI
- 138 classes.
- 49% of admitted students with a mention très bien.
- 12 classes at 90% très bien or more.
- Median taux d'accès: 42%.
I never advise choosing PCSI just because it is easier to get into. A student who loves mathematics and is bored by physics will wear themselves out there. But for a student comfortable in both subjects, at around 15, aiming for PCSI in a good class is often a better choice than a second-rank MPSI picked for the prestige of the name.
The top of the range: twelve classes
Twelve PCSI classes recruit 90% or more très bien students. Bien students account on average for 4% of their intake.
| Lycée | City | Admitted with très bien | Of whom félicitations | Taux d'accès | Places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louis-le-Grand | Paris 5th | 95% | 74% | 7% | 96 |
| Sainte-Geneviève | Versailles | 99% | 69% | 8% | 126 |
| Henri-IV | Paris 5th | 98% | 55% | 8% | 48 |
| Pierre-de-Fermat | Toulouse | 97% | 40% | 12% | 96 |
| Hoche | Versailles | 90% | 27% | 16% | 96 |
| Le Parc | Lyon | 97% | 44% | 17% | 142 |
| Aux Lazaristes | Lyon | 98% | 44% | 18% | 45 |
| Stanislas | Paris 6th | 93% | 25% | 18% | 142 |
| Lakanal | Sceaux | 93% | 22% | 18% | 96 |
| Saint-Louis | Paris 6th | 96% | 37% | 21% | 240 |
| Michelet | Vanves | 92% | 11% | 23% | 88 |
The twelfth is the PCSI of the École des pupilles de l'air, near Grenoble, which comes under the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
Saint-Louis deserves a comment. It is the largest PCSI in France, with 240 places, and Parcoursup shows that it called applicants down to the 1,740th on its list to fill them. Some of those it calls go to Louis-le-Grand, Henri-IV or Sainte-Geneviève instead. A class of this calibre therefore reaches much further down for its students than its taux d'accès would suggest.
Sainte-Geneviève, in Versailles, works differently from the others: Parcoursup publishes two separate call lists there, one for girls and one for boys. The usual reading of a rank or an overall taux d'accès does not apply to it as it stands.
The core of the list for a student around 15
Sixteen classes recruit between 70 and 90% très bien students, with an average of 19% bien students among those admitted. They include Louis-Pasteur in Neuilly, Janson-de-Sailly, Fénelon, Charlemagne, Condorcet and Fénelon Sainte-Marie in Paris, Sainte-Marie in Antony, Blaise-Pascal in Orsay, and outside the Paris region Clemenceau in Nantes, Montaigne in Bordeaux, Joffre in Montpellier, Faidherbe in Lille, Henri-Poincaré in Nancy, Champollion in Grenoble, Chateaubriand in Rennes and Thiers in Marseille.
Next come thirty classes where bien students make up 41% of the intake on average: Buffon, Jean-Baptiste-Say, Chaptal, Carnot and Lavoisier in Paris, Marcelin-Berthelot in Saint-Maur, Jeanne-d'Albret in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Bellevue and Déodat-de-Séverac in Toulouse, La Martinière Monplaisir in Lyon, Masséna in Nice and Kléber in Strasbourg, among others. For a student with a solid bien profile in the sciences, this is where most of their chances lie.
And below 14
Eighty classes recruit under 40% très bien students. Bien students account for 46% of their intake on average, and students with an assez bien (12 to 14) or no mention for 39%. The median taux d'accès is above 50%. For a student at 13, PCSI remains a real possibility, provided the marks in maths and in physics and chemistry hold up. From what I see every year, those are the marks admissions panels dwell on, more than the overall average.
For a comparison with the other tracks, see Which prépa with which grades. For MPSI in detail, the MPSI page.