Grandes écoles in the context of "List of public universities in France"

The Lycée Henri-IV (French pronunciation: [lise ɑ̃ʁi katʁ]) is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges (lycées) in France.

The school educates more than 2,500 students from collège (the first four years of secondary education in France) to classes préparatoires (preparatory classes to prepare students for entry to the elite grandes écoles such as École normale supérieure, École polytechnique, Centrale Paris, Mines ParisTech, ISAE-SUPAERO, HEC Paris, ESSEC Business School, and ESCP Europe, among others).

The Classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles (French pronunciation: [klas pʁepaʁatwaʁ o ɡʁɑ̃dz‿ekɔl], Higher school preparatory classes, abbr. CPGE), commonly called classes prépas or prépas, are part of the French post-secondary education system. They consist of two years of study (extendable to three or exceptionally four years) which act as an intensive preparatory course (or cram school) with the main goal of training students for enrolment in one of the grandes écoles. Whereas enrollment in public universities in France is open to any school leaver with an adequate baccalauréat, enrollment in the grandes écoles is restricted to the highest-ranked students in a separate national competitive examination. Preparation for this examination entails one of the highest student workloads in Europe (29 to 45 contact hours a week, with up to 10 hours of guided tutorials and oral exam sessions).

The grandes écoles are higher education establishments (graduate schools) delivering master's degrees and rarely doctorates. They include science and engineering schools, business schools, the four veterinary colleges, the four écoles normales supérieures and the École Nationale des Chartes but do not include medical or law schools, nor architecture schools. Because of the competitive entrance exams, having attended one of the grandes écoles is often regarded as a status symbol, as they have traditionally produced most of France's scientists, executives and intellectuals. Each grande école uses one of three different examinations, each with its own prépas: scientific, economic, and literary.

The Collège Stanislas de Paris (French pronunciation: [kɔlɛʒ stanislas də paʁi]), colloquially known as Stan, is a private Catholic school in Paris, situated on Rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs (fr) in the 6th arrondissement. It has more than 3,000 students, from preschool to classes préparatoires (classes to prepare students for entrance to the elite grandes écoles such as École Polytechnique, CentraleSupélec, ESSEC Business School, ESCP Business School and HEC Paris), and is the largest private school in France. Stanislas is considered one of the most prestigious and elite French schools. The school was ranked 1st from 2019 to 2022 for middle school and 1st in 2019 for high school.

Paris-Saclay University (French: Université Paris-Saclay, pronounced [ynivɛʁsite paʁi saklɛ]) is a combined technological research institute and public research university in Orsay, France. Paris-Saclay was established in 2019 after the merger of four technical grandes écoles, as well as several technological institutes, engineering schools, and research facilities; giving it fifteen constituent colleges with over 48,000 students combined.

With the merger, the French government has explicitly voiced their wish to rival top American technological research institutes, such as MIT. The university has over 275 laboratories in particle physics, nuclear physics, astrophysics, atomic physics and molecular physics, condensed matter physics, theoretical physics, electronics, nanoscience and nanotechnology. It is part of the larger Paris-Saclay cluster, which is a research-intensive academic campus encompassing Paris-Saclay University, the Polytechnic Institute of Paris, combined with a business cluster for high-technology corporations. Paris-Saclay notably also includes the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques, where many contributions to the development of modern mathematics have been made, among them modern algebraic geometry and catastrophe theory.

Rangueil (French pronunciation: [ʁɑ̃ɡœj]; Languedocien: Ranguèlh) is a residential area south-east of Toulouse in Haute-Garonne, France, where grandes écoles and Universities are located as well as an important scientific complex. It has 2,295 inhabitants (2018).