Do not disturb Mélanie. At 5 pm sharp, this Tuesday, May 19, this high school student from Alençon (Orne) will only exist for the screen of her computer. Like her, more than 950,000 people, including 658,000 high school students, await the verdict of Parcoursup, the platform that centralizes the higher education desires of high school students, but also of students in reorientation and adults in retraining.
"I am afraid of being immediately refused on my favorite wish, a sports license (Staps) with health option, at the university of Caen" (Calvados), says the 19-year-old girl, who, "by security ”, applied to fifteen schools for the start of the school year. On average, the candidates expressed ten wishes each.
From this Tuesday, a long game of musical chairs will begin for them: the best ranked, in view of their academic records, will first receive a "yes" for the course of their dreams. They will then abandon their other requests, leaving room for the comrades on the waiting list ... and so on until the end of the main proceedings, on July 17.
Some 2000 disrupted courses
This vast machinery seems to have been little disturbed by the health crisis linked to the new coronavirus. And for good reason. “The entire procedure and the files are computerized. The teachers were on video instead of meeting in the flesh, "explains Pascal Charpentier, principal at the Lycée du Parc, in Lyon (Rhône), whose preparatory classes, very popular, attracted 20,000 candidates.
However, some 2,000 courses, out of a total of 16,000, had to adapt to the cancellation of oral or written selection. The Institutes of Political Studies, for example, have chosen their students on the basis of records. "Candidates may have been unseated, but the training has done their job of providing information to families," says Jérôme Teillard, in charge of Parcoursup at the Ministry of Higher Education. According to him, “the students were also very well supported by their high school teachers, from a distance, to validate their wishes. "
Even in full confinement, 98.3% were validated on April 2. A rate, up 2 points compared to last year, which is explained by the increase in the number of training courses offered on Parcoursup, but also by the greater flexibility left to candidates. Crisis obliges, nearly 5000 latecomers had the right to finalize their files after the deadline, between April 2 and 7.
42% of students are afraid of not having the level
"My main teacher called me, I was well accompanied," said Mélanie, who has an appointment with this same teacher, and the rest of her class, for a videoconference on the results of Parcoursup, this Thursday.
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Despite this reassuring follow-up, the schoolgirl is a little worried: "I wonder if I will be able to visit student accommodation, how will enrollment go for September ..."
Shared concerns. According to a survey of students by the free guidance support platform Inspire, 54.1% of the 1,350 respondents said they were worried about the practical organization of their return to school and 42% fear that they would not have the required level in the course, failing to have completed the final year programs.
