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Reading this makes me appreciate the preparatory school / competitive exams / Engineering school system. You could have some hard teachers netting you some 5/2

by arkh 4y ago

Reading this makes me appreciate the preparatory school / competitive exams / Engineering school system. You could have some hard teachers netting you some 5/20 average grade and it would have no bearing on your school entry exam score.

WastingMyTime89 4y ago
The French system has issues too, just different ones. The system is extremely disingenuous. It looks fair if you take a casual glance at it but it’s actually completely rotten. Administrators from the education ministry mercilessly impose on most high schools in the country a strict adherence to the official curriculum and disallow any form of selection but as always in France a few select high schools are above the rule and start preparing selected students years in advance. If you look at the official statistics, you will see that a clear funnel to the top schools exist at least from middle school. When you consider where you get your engineering degree still significantly impact your career in your fifties (I’m not kidding), it’s all kind of a joke actually. My main advice to prospective French students is generally to just go study abroad and then never come back and before I’m taxed of just being bitter I do have a degree from one of the prestigious Parisian schools.
- orwin 4y ago
  > When you consider where you get your engineering degree still significantly impact your career in your fifties (I’m not kidding), it’s all kind of a joke actually. No true in CS, and not true in biology. I'm now 28k above the average (not median) pay for CS engineers in France at 31, nobody asked me for a diploma i don't have anyway (i did not validate my bachelor in math and did not really finish my CS school as i was hired during my last internship and couldn't find the time to validate it) and no questions were ever asked about my school years. Only stuff they asked is previous experience, experience with technologies and amazon architect certification (that i didn't have). For biology (and geology, and probably physics too but i lost touch with my friends in those areas), the thing that really matter is which professor and/or which lab did you work for. Even if you get an biology engineering degree, you can follow through with a doctorate if you went to the right labs. As for geology, you can come from a rural area and be good at one of the worst highschool in the departement, then go to a university ranked 10th and still be the only French astrogeologist doctor in years and work directly with Curiosity teams.
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by arkh 4y ago

WastingMyTime89 4y ago

The French system has issues too, just different ones. The system is extremely disingenuous. It looks fair if you take a casual glance at it but it’s actually completely rotten. Administrators from the education ministry mercilessly impose on most high schools in the country a strict adherence to the official curriculum and disallow any form of selection but as always in France a few select high schools are above the rule and start preparing selected students years in advance. If you look at the official statistics, you will see that a clear funnel to the top schools exist at least from middle school. When you consider where you get your engineering degree still significantly impact your career in your fifties (I’m not kidding), it’s all kind of a joke actually. My main advice to prospective French students is generally to just go study abroad and then never come back and before I’m taxed of just being bitter I do have a degree from one of the prestigious Parisian schools.

orwin 4y ago
> When you consider where you get your engineering degree still significantly impact your career in your fifties (I’m not kidding), it’s all kind of a joke actually. No true in CS, and not true in biology. I'm now 28k above the average (not median) pay for CS engineers in France at 31, nobody asked me for a diploma i don't have anyway (i did not validate my bachelor in math and did not really finish my CS school as i was hired during my last internship and couldn't find the time to validate it) and no questions were ever asked about my school years. Only stuff they asked is previous experience, experience with technologies and amazon architect certification (that i didn't have). For biology (and geology, and probably physics too but i lost touch with my friends in those areas), the thing that really matter is which professor and/or which lab did you work for. Even if you get an biology engineering degree, you can follow through with a doctorate if you went to the right labs. As for geology, you can come from a rural area and be good at one of the worst highschool in the departement, then go to a university ranked 10th and still be the only French astrogeologist doctor in years and work directly with Curiosity teams.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]