"Our child is more of a humanities type. Do maths really matter for what comes next?" Many parents ask this when their child chooses subjects for the last two years of the French lycée, and the answer often surprises them. In the most demanding admissions, in France and abroad, maths carry a lot of weight, including for courses that are not scientific at all: economics, business, management.
That is good news, on balance. Maths can be worked on, and they keep paying off long after the entrance exam.
The filter the top schools share
In the United States. MIT brought back its SAT or ACT requirement after suspending it during the pandemic. Its dean of admissions explained that the maths part of the test matters most, because it predicts how students will do. Every first-year student there takes two semesters of calculus and two of calculus-based physics, whatever their major: there is no path through MIT without a solid foundation in maths. I go through what the section contains in SAT Math from a French lycée.
In the United Kingdom. For economics, Cambridge requires A-level Mathematics or an equivalent, and the TMUA, a maths test taken in October of the final school year. The LSE requires it too for its economics degree. A course that a French student files under the social sciences is therefore selected first on a maths test. The full list of tests by subject is in Oxford and Cambridge admissions tests.
In Italy and Switzerland. The Bocconi admission test has fifty questions, twenty-four of them in mathematics, including for the management and economics degrees. EPFL requires 80% of the maximum mark in maths and in physics, each one separately, and ETH Zurich counts the maths specialty among the three subjects that decide admission.
In France. To apply to the economics and business prépa, the ECG, the only condition is not to have dropped maths in première and terminale. The level of maths chosen there, advanced or applied, then shapes which business schools are within reach: I put figures on it in what grades for an ECG prépa. On the science side, some prépas, such as the MP2I at Lycée Fermat in Toulouse, list results in the maths expertes option among their essential criteria; that is the subject of preparing for prépa in terminale.
2027 entry: the maths required. Cambridge, Economics: A-level Mathematics or equivalent, and the TMUA is compulsory (registration closed on 28 September 2026, test from 12 to 16 October). LSE, BSc Economics and BSc Econometrics and Mathematical Economics: TMUA compulsory, recommended for several other degrees. Bocconi: 24 maths questions out of 50 in the bachelor test. EPFL: 80% of the maximum mark in maths and physics. MIT: SAT or ACT required. Sources: the websites of the University of Cambridge, the LSE, Bocconi, EPFL and MIT; the ECG prépa FAQ of Lycée Joffre.
Why schools look at maths first
The first reason is practical: the courses use them. An economics degree relies heavily on statistics and models from the first year, an engineering school on maths from the first day. A student who is shaky in maths falls behind quickly, and schools would rather know before admitting them.
The second has to do with what maths reveal. A good maths grade at school cannot be earned by cramming the night before: each chapter builds on the previous one, and a gap from seconde is paid for in terminale. Maths therefore show whether a student works steadily, can reason through a problem they have never seen, and writes with precision. Those are exactly the qualities the most selective admissions are looking for.
And in life, after the exams
Economists have measured what maths do for the rest of a career. In Denmark, a school reform made it easier for students who would not otherwise have done so to choose advanced maths. The researchers Juanna Joensen and Helena Nielsen compared their earnings years later: they find a causal effect of maths on income, partly because these students went on to longer studies. In the United States, Heather Rose and Julian Betts followed high school students for nearly ten years: the more advanced the maths courses they had taken, the larger the earnings gain.
Pay is not everything. Understanding a rate, a risk, a curve or a statistic quoted on the radio is useful to everyone, doctor, lawyer or business owner. And AI strengthens this advantage more than it erases it. A tool that calculates quickly does not tell you whether the calculation answers the right question: someone has to be able to check a model and spot the absurd result. I wrote about what gains value with AI in is a top school still worth it in the age of AI.
If your child doesn't like maths
Not every great course of study requires maths. Law, literature, languages, history and art schools remain open without them. But a student who does not yet know what they will do has every reason to keep some maths in terminale, at least the maths complémentaires option: three hours a week avoid closing off the ECG prépas and a good share of economics degrees.
Falling out with maths is rarely final. It often comes from a notion misunderstood a year or two earlier, on which everything else was badly built. That notion has to be found before judging the student.
I have taught mathematics and physics for fourteen years, and I help families choose subjects, tracks and schools. When a plan depends on demanding maths, that is the purpose of the action plan we build with the family: where the student really stands, what they need to consolidate, and the timeline to get there.