Since January 17, high school students and reorientation students can list their wishes for the continuation of their studies.
The Parcoursup calendar then requires them to validate them by March 14 at the latest.
We dove into the data for 2023 and looked to see if high school students' choices were different depending on their academy.
Each training is not chosen in the same way depending on the high school students' starting academy.
Thus, in the academies of Poitiers and Corsica, candidates make more license wishes than candidates from Créteil, Rennes or Dijon.
In the same way, it is in Paris and Versailles that candidates most turn to CPGE or business schools.
By clicking on your department, the map displays the percentage of wishes for the sector.
The license, the most popular sector among high school students in Poitiers and Corsica
A generalist course par excellence, the license allows candidates to secure a place in teaching at the end of their high school education.
It represents on average 30.9% of choices on Parcoursup but its success is not equal to Marseille or Rennes.
Thus, it is in Guadeloupe, Mayotte, Martinique and Rennes that candidates submit the fewest license wishes.
On the other hand, in Corsica, Poitiers and even Bordeaux, it accounts for more than 30% of wishes.
A weight of the license which is explained by the fact that applying for a license means ensuring you have a place.
“When we license a wish, we receive a proposal but there is a gap between those who receive and those who accept.
And in 9 out of 10 licenses, there is enough room for those who want it,” explains Nagui Bechichi, co-founder of SupTracker and an economics thesis at the Paris School of Economics.
“In the remaining 10%, these are licenses in tension and generally in Île de France and whose profile of those admitted is better than elsewhere - as in law in Paris 1 where 94% of those admitted have a good or very good grade in the bac”.
CPGE, a sector in high demand in Paris, little in Lille or Guadeloupe
Preparatory classes for the grandes écoles, shunned in recent years in favor of post-baccalaureate training such as bachelors, represent on average 6.4% of wishes.
The extremes ?
More than 15% of the wishes of Parisian high school students and 5% in Amiens and 4.3 in Guadeloupe.
Several criteria explain the different choices.
“There is the question of the offer first”, explains Nagui Bechichi: “In Paris for example, there are two candidates for a place in prep, while in Amiens, there are 16 candidates for a place .
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But not only.
“High school students from the Versailles and Créteil academy are very mobile, at 18 years old taking the RER does not pose a problem.
They are heading to the Paris academy, but what distinguishes them from each other is their economic and social levels.
The prep class is very symbolic, but it explains a lot: for two high school students with the same academic record, the same sex and the same social origin, Parisians apply more than others for prep.
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Candidates from the Limoges academy have little interest in business schools, unlike Parisian and Versailles high school students.
It is in the west of the Île de France that the weight of wishes in business schools weighs heaviest: 5% in Paris and 3.7% in Versailles.
On the other hand, the candidates who least choose business schools are registered at the academy of Limoges and Besançon (0.5% of wishes).
On average, business school wishes represent 1.4%.
BTS are enjoying real success in Guadeloupe, Guyana and Martinique, less so in Paris
With an average of 28.1% of wishes, the BTS remains a training in high demand, notably in Créteil, Dijon, Lille and Reims, but even more in Guadeloupe, Guyana and Martinique with between 39 and 41% of wishes.
For this training, the information of high school students counts - as for the preps: "We have observed in practice that when a prep or BTS opens in a high school or these high schools already have prep or BTS, high school students apply more in these two training.
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Low success for BUT in Lille and Paris, unlike Grenoble and Corsica
BUT, formerly DUT, are very successful in Grenoble (14.2%) and Corsica (13.3%), followed by Rennes (13.1%).
On the other hand, in Lille, Paris and Guadeloupe, the training is not really breaking through.
PASS/L.AS: Martinican and Guadeloupean candidates turned to PASS/L.AS licenses unlike candidates from Clermont-Ferrand
It is in Martinique and Guadeloupe that PASS/L.AS wishes are most numerous with 12.5% and 12.6%, compared to an average of 7.9% across all academies.
Engineering schools: more in demand in Lyon than in Limoges
With 2.8% of choices on average, engineering schools are not the preferred choice for high school students.
It is in Corsica and Limoges that high schools have the least demand for engineering schools, while it is a preferred choice in Lyon and Versailles.
Find our other articles on the subject:
University: the licenses most coveted by candidates via Parcoursup
BTS: the specialties most coveted by students via Parcoursup