Families search for the average needed for the prépa at Louis-le-Grand, Stanislas, Saint-Louis or Henri-IV. The prépas (classes préparatoires) are the French two-year intensive programmes leading to the top engineering, business and humanities schools, and these lycées host the most sought-after ones. None of them publishes an admissions average, and selection is based on school reports from the last two years of lycée, not on the baccalauréat. But Parcoursup, France's national higher-education platform, publishes for each class the baccalauréat honours obtained by admitted students. It is the best public indicator of the real level, and it says a lot.
I used this data for the 2025 round, for the five great prépa lycées of Paris and Versailles: Louis-le-Grand, Henri-IV, Saint-Louis, Stanislas and Sainte-Geneviève, known to everyone as Ginette. A useful reminder: the mention très bien (TB) means an average of 16 out of 20 in the baccalauréat, the jury's congratulations (félicitations) 18.
Science prépas: MPSI, PCSI, MP2I, BCPST
| Lycée | Class | Places | Admitted with TB | Of which congratulations | Access rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Louis-le-Grand | MPSI | 144 | 90% | 46% | 4% |
| Louis-le-Grand | PCSI | 96 | 95% | 74% | 7% |
| Louis-le-Grand | MP2I | 48 | 96% | 58% | 5% |
| Henri-IV | MPSI | 96 | 98% | 45% | 6% |
| Henri-IV | PCSI | 48 | 98% | 55% | 8% |
| Henri-IV | BCPST | 48 | 96% | 38% | 15% |
| Saint-Louis | MPSI | 192 | 99% | 60% | 13% |
| Saint-Louis | PCSI | 240 | 96% | 37% | 21% |
| Saint-Louis | MP2I | 48 | 96% | 38% | 9% |
| Saint-Louis | BCPST | 144 | 81% | 22% | 26% |
| Stanislas | MPSI | 96 | 95% | 32% | 14% |
| Stanislas | PCSI | 142 | 93% | 25% | 18% |
| Sainte-Geneviève | MPSI | 140 | 98% | 74% | 9% |
| Sainte-Geneviève | PCSI | 126 | 99% | 69% | 8% |
| Sainte-Geneviève | BCPST | 40 | 95% | 45% | 13% |
In all these classes, the mention très bien is the rule: with one exception, more than nine admitted students in ten had it. The real difference lies in the congratulations. At Louis-le-Grand in PCSI and at Ginette in MPSI, three admitted students in four had 18 or more. At Stanislas, it is one in four or one in three: the class also recruits students at 16 or 17 with a very strong file in maths and physics.
Saint-Louis deserves a separate note. With 192 places in MPSI and 240 in PCSI, it is the largest of the five, and Parcoursup shows it has to go far down its list: to fill its PCSI, it went down to the 1,740th candidate, because some of those called choose another lycée. For an applicant, this means Saint-Louis remains within reach further down the ranking than one might think.
Humanities and business prépas
| Lycée | Class | Places | Admitted with TB | Of which congratulations | Access rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Henri-IV | Humanities (hypokhâgne) | 192 | 94% | 40% | 16% |
| Louis-le-Grand | Humanities (hypokhâgne) | 96 | 89% | 33% | 23% |
| Henri-IV | B/L, humanities and social sciences | 48 | 100% | 72% | 4% |
| Stanislas | B/L, humanities and social sciences | 40 | 69% | 10% | 24% |
| Louis-le-Grand | ECG, advanced maths and HGG | 48 | 98% | 62% | 11% |
| Henri-IV | ECG, advanced maths and ESH | 21 | 96% | 48% | 3% |
| Sainte-Geneviève | ECG, advanced maths and HGG | 78 | 99% | 53% | 14% |
| Stanislas | ECG, advanced maths and ESH | 45 | 87% | 13% | 19% |
| Saint-Louis | ECG, advanced maths and HGG | 48 | 85% | 24% | 23% |
Henri-IV's B/L is the most closed class in the whole group: 100% mention très bien, 72% congratulations, a 4% access rate. Stanislas's recruits very different profiles, with nearly 30% of students holding the mention bien (14 to 16). In ECG, the business prépa, Henri-IV opens very small classes of about twenty places each, which explains very low access rates.
Source and limits. Public Parcoursup data for the 2025 round: share of admitted students by baccalauréat honours and access rate, class by class. Honours are only a benchmark: committees rank on reports from the last two years of lycée, class rankings and teachers' comments. These figures change slightly every year.
What average to aim for, in practice
For the science classes of these five lycées, a student must be at the top of their class in maths and physics, at a level that will take them to at least 16 in the baccalauréat, and often higher. For Louis-le-Grand, Henri-IV and Ginette, admitted students are mostly at congratulations level. Stanislas and Saint-Louis remain demanding, but accept more students between 16 and 18 when the science file is strong.
At equal level, what makes the difference is teachers' comments, consistency over two years and ranking in the subjects that count. A student at 17 in a very demanding lycée, top of the class in maths, can overtake a student at 18 in a school with generous marking. I covered every MPSI in France in What grades for an MPSI prépa, and the other tracks from Which prépa with which grades.
Building a Parcoursup list that combines these classes with prépas where the student has a real chance is the work we do at Carmine. And because the file is decided in maths, I prepare students in private lessons from the penultimate year.