Grande école in the context of "Sciences Po"

The École normale supérieure – PSL (French pronunciation: [ekɔl nɔʁmal sypeʁjœʁ]; also known as ENS, Normale sup', Ulm or ENS Paris) is a grande école in Paris, France. It is one of the constituent members of Paris Sciences et Lettres University (PSL). Due to its selectivity, historical role, and influence within French society, the ENS is generally considered the most prestigious of the grandes écoles, as well as one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in France. Its pupils are generally referred to as normaliens, while its alumni are sometimes referred to as archicubes.

The school was founded in 1794 during the French Revolution, to provide homogeneous training of high-school teachers in France, but it later closed. The school was subsequently reestablished by Napoleon I as pensionnat normal from 1808 to 1822, before being recreated in 1826 and taking the name École normale in 1830. When other institutes called écoles normales were created in 1845, the word supérieure (meaning upper) was added to form the current name. In 1936, the institution started providing university-level education.

The School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (French: École des hautes études en sciences sociales, EHESS) is a graduate grande école and grand établissement in Paris focused on academic research in the social sciences. The school awards Master and PhD degrees alone and conjointly with the grandes écoles École normale supérieure, École polytechnique, and École pratique des hautes études.

Originally a department (Section VI) of the École pratique des hautes études, created in 1868 with the purpose of training academic researchers, the EHESS became an independent institution in 1975. Today its research covers social sciences, humanities, and applied mathematics. Degrees and research in economics and finance are awarded through the Paris School of Economics.

École polytechnique (French pronunciation: [ekɔl pɔlitɛknik], lit. 'Polytechnic School'; also known as Polytechnique or l'X [liks]) is a grande école located in Palaiseau, France. It specializes in science and engineering and is a founding member of the Polytechnic Institute of Paris.

The school was founded in 1794 by mathematician Gaspard Monge during the French Revolution and was militarized under Napoleon I in 1804. It is still supervised by the French Ministry of Armed Forces. Originally located in the Latin Quarter in central Paris, the institution moved to Palaiseau in 1976, in the Paris-Saclay technology cluster.

HEC Paris (French: École des hautes études commerciales de Paris, lit. 'Paris School of Advanced Business Studies') is a business school and grande école located in Jouy-en-Josas, a southwestern outer suburb of Paris, France. It offers Bachelor, MiM, MSc in International Finance, MBA, EMBA, executive education, professional development, professional certification, and PhD programs.

École nationale supérieure des télécommunications de Bretagne (ENSTB; French pronunciation: [ekɔl nɑsjɔnal sypeʁjœʁ de telekɔmynikasjɔ̃ də bʁətaɲ]; transl. "Brittany National School of Telecommunications") was a French grande école of engineering, and a research center providing training in information technologies and telecommunications. In 2017, it merged with École des mines de Nantes to form IMT Atlantique, which has consistently been ranked high in French and international rankings, e.g. 98 for Computer Science and 151-200th for Electrical Engineering in the 2023 QS Ranking.

As a member of the Institut Mines-Télécom, it had three campuses:

The École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées de Bretagne (French pronunciation: [ekɔl nɑsjɔnal sypeʁjœʁ də tɛknik(z‿)avɑ̃se də bʁətaɲ]; transl. "National Institute of Advanced Technologies of Brittany"), often referred as ENSTA Bretagne and formerly ENSIETA, is one of the 207 French engineering schools accredited on 1 September 2017 to deliver engineering diplomas (French grande école of engineering). The ENSTA Bretagne is a higher education establishment and a research centre run under the supervision of the French Ministry of Armed Forces which governs a total of 4 engineering schools: École Polytechnique, ENSTA ParisTech, ENSTA Bretagne and ISAE-Supaero. It is the most prestigious engineering school in France which deals with marine and naval engineering.

Moreover, ENSTA Bretagne is an applied school for the École Polytechnique, because of its excellence in lots of strategic fields. The school gets a specific partnership with IMT Atlantique, the second Institut Mines-Télécom of France while the best one is Telecom Paris.