École Normale Supérieure

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See also École Normale de Musique de Paris.

The École normale supérieure (also known as Normale Sup', Normale, ENS, ENS-Paris, ENS-Ulm or Ulm) is a French grande école, whose main campus is located around the rue d'Ulm (Ulm Street) in the 5th arrondissement of Paris. To avoid confusion with similarly-named grandes écoles such as the École normale supérieure de Lyon, the Paris institution is often specified as 'ENS-Paris' or 'ENS-Ulm'. The ENS has annex campuses on Boulevard Jourdan (in Paris) and in Montrouge (a suburb), as well as a biology annex in the countryside at Foljuif.

1 Overview
2 Notable alumni
3 Notable professors
4 See also
5 External link

[edit] Overview

The quadrangle at the main ENS building on rue d'Ulm is known as the Cour aux Ernests – the Ernests being the goldfish in the pond.

Originally meant to train high school teachers through the agrégation, it is now an institution training researchers, university professors, high-level civil servants, as well as business and political leaders. It focuses on the association of training and research, with an emphasis on freedom of curriculum.

Its alumni include eight laureates of the Fields Medal, which is the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for the mathematical sciences, as well as Nobel Prize winners in both science and literature.

Apart from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, three other écoles normales supérieures have been established, with similar goals:

École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (sciences),
École Normale Supérieure Lettres et Sciences Humaines (humanities),
École Normale Supérieure de Cachan (pure and applied sciences, sociology, economics and management, English language).

As in many other grandes écoles, the ENS mostly enrolls its students two or three years after high school. The majority of them come from prépas (preparatory classes, see grandes écoles) and have to pass one of France's most selective competitive exams. Studies at ENS last four years. Many devote the third year to the agrégation which allows them to teach in high schools or universities. ENS-Ulm annually enrolls about 100 students in science and 100 in the humanities.

The normaliens, as the students of the ENS are known, keep a level of excellence in the various disciplines in which they are trained. Normaliens from France and other European Union countries are considered civil servants in training, and as such paid a monthly salary, in exchange for an agreement to serve France for 10 years, including those of studies. Although it is seldom applied in practice, this exclusivity clause is redeemable (often by the hiring firm).

Apart from the normaliens, ENS also welcomes select foreign students ("international selection"), as well as select students from neighboring universities, to follow the same curriculum along with the reception of a stipend. It also participates in various graduate programs and has extensive research laboratories.

The professors at the ENS are called the "caïmans", and the goldfish in the pond the "Ernests".

The fictitious mathematician Nicolas Bourbaki's "association of collaborators" is based at ENS.