The French system of education differs in any possible way from the American one. It is organized in three cycles, the first two of which every student has to go through. After that, things get more complex. France has many public and private higher education institutions; the public institutions are state-funded, which means they can offer education that is virtually free. Because of the number and diversity of those institutions, classification is very difficult; we can however identify three main groups : Universities, Grandes Ecoles and Institutions of technological leducation.
Grades 6 through 12: College and Lycee
Schools in France are mostly public, and do not necessarily benefit from a better academic reputation if they do happen to be private. As a consequence, most students attend their local public school until they reach university level.
Focus is largely on academics in the French schooling system. Extracurricular activities such as sports and the arts remain in the margin. Several classes are required in these areas, but the workload is light and is not taken as seriously as in the US. Students who wish to focus on non-academic subjects must do so on their own initiative, independently of the school curriculum.
Academically, the program covers a wide range of subjects. From 6th grade through 10th grade, students study Math, Biology, Physics/Chemistry, History/Geography, French, and usually two foreign or ancient languages. Additional classes in Art, Music, and PhysEd constitute a very small portion of the weekly schedule.
For the last two years of high school, each student chooses one track: Scientific, Literary, Socio-Economic, or Technological (pre-professional). The course load is almost entirely focused on this area of concentration as they prepare for the Baccalaureat exam, equivalent to a high school diploma in the US.
Universities
The structure of a French university is focused as well: students enroll in a specific track as soon as they enter, i.e. Biology, Physics, Philosophy, History, etc. Classes are divided between lecture courses with up to several hundreds of students, and smaller discussion sections (travaux pratiques or travaux diriges). In theory, the organization resembles that of a large American university. In fact, because universities are most often public, funding is low in comparison with US institutions, often to the disadvantage of increasingly large numbers of enrolled students. At undergraduate level, the learning experience is generally more impersonal than in the US, and a greater independence and autonomy is expected of students.
Admission to university is granted upon completion of the Baccalaureat degree. Only a few programs are selective, usually in professional programs such as law or medicine, or in specialized schools offering various post-baccalaureate diplomas in areas such as dentistry, social work, business, etc.
There are around 90 universities, most of them offering a large variety of departments. Since 1968, universities have a lot of autonomy, their management being led by boards where all the people working in the university are represented: professors, students, the administration, technical services. The recteur, a senior civil servant designated by the government, controls the legallity of the decisions taken by these boards.
Studies in a French university are divided into 3 cycles: two years to get a DEUG ( Diplome d'Etudes Universiatires Generales), then two years to get successively a Licence and a Maitrise, and finally doctoral studies beginning with one year of DEA (Diplome d'Etudes Approfondies) that can be followed by 3 years to get a doctoral thesis. Students are tested every semester and their evaluation takes both these exams and some work done along the year into account.
Grandes Ecoles
Grandes ecoles are uniquely French institutions that offer specialized education of a very high standard. And this high standard is reflected in the strict admission requirements. Strictly speaking, the term grande ecole should only really apply to the oldest and most prestigious of these institutions, but in practice many of the more recent institutions also use the title. Over the years, the grandes ecoles have opened their doors to an increasing number of students, while retaining their traditionally high standards. They offer places to many foreign students, and actively promote an international outlook to education and professional life.
Some of the grandes ecoles enjoy worldwide renown. Classic examples are l'Ecole Centrale, founded in 1829, l'Ecole Polytechnique, founded in 1794, l'Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales (HEC), founded in 1881, and the younger Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), founded in 1945. Most of France's senior political figures and captains of industry graduated from these schools. Programmes at the grandes ecoles may be primarily economic (at HEC and les Ecoles Superieures de Commerce), or scientific (Ecole Polytechnique, Ecole Centrale, Telecom Paris, Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, etc.).
The grandes ecoles are known for their extremely selective admission policies. Entry is usually by competitive examination, though some schools may accept students on the basis of academic record. Two-year preparatory courses are available for students wishing to prepare for these competitive examinations; the baccalaureat is required for admission onto these grande ecole preparatory courses. Most grande ecole programmes last three years after the two-year preparatory course.
Most students are admitted to grandes ecoles following the special preparatory courses which terminate with the competitive admission examination. But over the last few years the grandes ecoles have set up a parallel admission (admission parallèle) scheme in an attempt to broaden the range of students admitted. This works by allowing a student to transfer to a grande ecole from a university or other type of establishment on the basis of academic record. The transfer requires special preparation, since students must take tests to prove their aptitude for transfer to the grande ecole of their choice.
Here are some links towards major French grandes ecoles: