"Which lycée to get into a prépa?" French families ask this at the end of middle school, when choosing a lycée (the last three years of secondary school), or in the first year of lycée, when wondering whether to switch. The prépas are the two-year intensive programmes leading to the top grandes écoles. You hear everything and its opposite: that you need a great Paris lycée to stand a chance, or on the contrary that it is better to be top of an average one. Public Parcoursup data helps clarify, because it shows where each class's admitted students come from.
The school of origin matters, especially in three Paris lycées
In 2025, on average, 8% of students admitted to a prépa came from the very lycée hosting the class. In the great Paris science prépas that also run a lycée, the share is much higher:
| Class | Admitted from the same lycée | From the same education region |
|---|---|---|
| Stanislas, PCSI | 30% | 56% |
| Louis-le-Grand, PCSI | 27% | 47% |
| Henri-IV, PCSI | 23% | 45% |
| Louis-le-Grand, MPSI | 19% | 37% |
| Stanislas, MPSI | 17% | 37% |
| Henri-IV, MPSI | 14% | 43% |
| Saint-Louis, MPSI | 0% | 25% |
| Sainte-Geneviève, MPSI | 0% | 20% |
At Louis-le-Grand, Henri-IV and Stanislas, between one admitted student in seven and nearly one in three comes from the lycée's own final year. This is not favouritism: these lycées already recruit very strong students at age 15, and their prépa teachers know their own final-year reports perfectly. Saint-Louis and Sainte-Geneviève have no ordinary lycée classes: all their admitted students come from elsewhere, and they recruit widely outside their region.
Source. Public Parcoursup data, 2025 round: share of admitted students from the same school and the same education region, for MPSI and PCSI classes. Figures change slightly every year.
Outside Paris, the region matters more than the lycée
Outside Paris, the great prépas recruit mainly in their own education region: over 70% of admitted students at Pierre-de-Fermat in Toulouse, Joffre in Montpellier or Clemenceau in Nantes, 80% or more at Hoche in Versailles and Blaise-Pascal in Orsay. A very strong student from a lycée in their region therefore has a real place in their region's top prépa, without going through a Paris lycée. The Lycée du Parc in Lyon is the exception, with much more national recruitment.
A great lycée or top of the class?
Committees rank on marks, class averages, rankings and teachers' comments. A student who is top in maths at a demanding lycée sends a very strong signal; a student top of a school with generous marking does too, but will be read more cautiously. What does not work is being average at a great lycée and counting on its name.
The right lycée for getting into a prépa is therefore the one where the student can be at the top of the class in maths and physics, with teachers who push them and comments that distinguish them. For a very strong student, a great prépa lycée adds a real advantage, which the numbers confirm. For a good but not exceptional student, a solid lycée where they shine is often worth more than a great one where they sink.
Getting into these lycées from age 15
Henri-IV and Louis-le-Grand recruit at the start of lycée through very selective procedures, and Stanislas, a private school, through its own. These entries are prepared the year before, sometimes earlier. I describe Paris school procedures in Getting into Stanislas and on our School admissions page. Recruitment levels of the prépas themselves are in What grades for Louis-le-Grand, Henri-IV, Stanislas.
Choosing the lycée according to the target prépa, then building the file over three years, is the work we do with families at Carmine. For maths, which decides almost everything, I prepare students in private lessons.