All about parallel admissions

Today, more and more students are turning to what is known as "parallel admissions" to enter the leading courses of the best French business and engineering schools. Let's take a look at this concept, which has been increasingly successful in recent years.

What is a parallel admission?

Also known as "admission sur titre" (AST), parallel admission offers students the opportunity to enter a Grande École after two to three years of higher education, without necessarily going through a preparatory course. Thus, the post-prep business and engineering schools diversify their recruitment during the course of the curriculum by opening up to profiles other than those from the CPGE (Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles). As for post-baccalaureate management or business schools, this type of admission allows them to open up their programmes to students who, at the outset, have chosen another path for their first years of study.

Grande École

When should you opt for parallel admission?

Parallel admissions are open to all students who have completed at least two years of higher education (120 ECTS credits). They are therefore of interest to students with a traditional or professional Bachelor's degree who wish to enter a business school, as well as to holders of a Bachelor's degree or a BTS who wish to continue their studies.

The courses concerned by parallel admissions

Parallel admissions, strictly speaking, now concern Master's level courses (5-year) in many higher education institutions, both public and private. However, a distinction must be made between two types of admissions according to their entry level:

• AST1, which allows students to enter a Master's level programme in the third year,
• AST2, which offer the opportunity to join a Bac+5 programme directly in the first year of the Master's cycle.

Some schools, such as IPAG Business School, offer both possibilities (AST1 and AST2) to enter its Grande École Programme through the Ambitions+ exam, common to four schools.

Parallel admissions and common entrance exams

Today, ASTs are more and more frequently the subject of "admission exam", also called "entrance exam", grouping together several schools (e.g. Concours Passerelle, Ambitions+, Tremplin, etc.). Often members of the CGE (Conférence des grandes écoles), they organise common written tests. The oral exams are then specific to each school, which hosts the eligible students on its campus. This admission procedure allows students to apply for admission to several schools and avoids having to send in an application for each school.

Focus on the possibilities of admission to IPAG's Grande Ecole Programme

For example, a Master's degree course such as IPAG's Grande École Programme can be taken by students with a high school diploma just after their final year of high school, but also in the 3rd year (after a BTS, two years of a Bachelor's degree, etc.) or in the 4th year (after a Bachelor's degree, etc.).

In all cases, and apart from the specific procedure for international students, you must take an exam to enter the IPAG PGE:

• Post-bac admission -> SESAME exam + Parcousup
• Parallel admission in 3rd year -> Ambitions+ exam
• Parallel admission in 4th year -> Ambitions+ exaam

Grande École Programme