Every year, students from French lycées in Singapore, New York, Dubai or London aim for a prépa in France, the two-year intensive programmes leading to the top grandes écoles. On paper, nothing distinguishes them from a student in Lyon or Paris: same baccalauréat, same platform, same classes. In practice, three questions arise for them and not for others: how committees read grades from a school they do not know, where to live when arriving alone at 17, and how to build a list of choices from the other side of the world.
Parcoursup from a French lycée abroad
A final-year student at an accredited (homologué) French lycée abroad goes through Parcoursup, France's national higher-education platform, just like a student in France. The school provides the registration identifier, the student's record is uploaded automatically, and the school completes the fiche Avenir, the form in which teachers give marks, class averages and their assessment. Choices are made before mid-March, offers arrive from early June.
The time difference is not a detail during the admission phase: an offer must be accepted within a deadline set by the platform, and a family in Singapore or Los Angeles has to organise its monitoring accordingly. Parcoursup's other traps for expat families are covered in Parcoursup for returning expats.
How committees read grades from a lycée abroad
Prépa committees rank on reports from the last two years of lycée, looking at the student's mark, the class average and their ranking. For a lycée in France that they see every year, they know what a 16 is worth. For a school abroad that sends them one applicant every two years, they have fewer reference points. A small final-year class, generous or very harsh marking, and the file reads badly.
That is why teachers' comments and the consistency of the file matter even more. A student who is top in maths and physics, with precise comments that place their level, reads well anywhere. A student at 17 with no ranking or useful comment reads badly, even from an excellent school.
Boarding, the question that often decides
For a student arriving alone from abroad, boarding (internat) changes everything: safe accommodation, a working environment, classmates in the same situation. On Parcoursup, boarding can be requested with the prépa choice, and boarding places are allocated through their own ranking. In 2025, 26% of students admitted to prépas obtained a boarding place, and the large majority of programmes offered the option.
| Lycée and class | Admitted | Of whom boarders |
|---|---|---|
| Sainte-Geneviève (Versailles), MPSI | 140 | 140 |
| Stanislas (Paris), PCSI | 142 | 107 |
| Stanislas (Paris), MPSI | 95 | 75 |
| Louis-le-Grand (Paris), MPSI | 144 | 63 |
| Pierre-de-Fermat (Toulouse), MPSI | 144 | 60 |
| Saint-Louis (Paris), MPSI | 189 | 49 |
| Henri-IV (Paris), MPSI | 96 | 35 |
| Le Parc (Lyon), MPSI | 134 | 35 |
The differences are considerable. At Ginette, every admitted MPSI student is a boarder; at Stanislas, nearly eight in ten; at Saint-Louis, one in four. For a family abroad, the question is therefore not only "which prépa" but "which prépa with boarding", and it arises when choices are made, not in July.
Source. Public Parcoursup data for the 2025 round: number of admitted students and number admitted with a boarding place, class by class. Figures change every year.
Building a list of choices from abroad
The list should combine ambitious classes, classes where the student has a real chance, and enough programmes with boarding not to end up admitted without accommodation. Recruitment levels class by class are in What grades for an MPSI prépa and What grades for Louis-le-Grand, Henri-IV, Stanislas.
This is work we often do remotely with expat families at Carmine: reading the file as a committee will, choosing classes and boarding options, preparing the school for the fiche Avenir. And because prépa is decided in maths, I prepare students in online private lessons, whatever the time zone.