Talk:École Polytechnique

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I don't think only French are allowed to access ecole polytechnique, so this phrase might be changed "Both male and female French polytechniciens (or "X")"

I don't think you can list X as a military academy. First, it has lost this status years ago. Second, there's no military training after the 8 first months, except for sports. David.Monniaux 08:05, 6 Jul 2004 (UTC)

Is it relevant to name the Prytanée de la Flèche along with Louis-le-Grand or Henri IV here ? Maybe the author of the article attended it but to my knowledge it represents a very small minority at the École Polytechnique. In promotion 2004, only 2 people come from the Prytanée for exemple. Most students actually come from Louis-le-Grand or Sainte-Geneviève; and seeing the Prytanée mentionned here is quite surprising !

Right, one author added it, perhaps deluded by the idea that a military highschool was better to enter X. Could you perhaps start an article on "Ginette"? David.Monniaux 07:05, 7 Feb 2005 (UTC)

A "national public establishment of an administrative character" is probably a literal translation of "établissement public (à caractère) administratif" but is not helpful/intelligible to the native English speaker. How about simply a "state university"? No-username-yet 12:45, 15 Oct 2005 (UTC)

Right, but X is not a state university. It does not follow the same statutes as French universités, by far! David.Monniaux 16:46, 15 October 2005 (UTC)

What is the English/American equivalent of the degrees offered? It says in "The Polytechnicien studies", "(students are awarded a Master after the third year of their studies at Polytechnique);" but I am not sure if they mean the equivalent of a "Master's degree"(M.A. or M.S.) in English, or if this is a French term meaning something different. Getting a M.A. or M.S. in 3 years would be rather remarkable in the U.S. - about 5 years would be the typical minimum, maybe 6 or 7 more typical.

Also, it says they take military training, but does not say if it is at the school, like Virginia Military Institute, or if they take it from the real military off-campus. Identity0 11:38, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

The master awarded at X is not a "master's degree" but a master (french word !) wich is quite the same thing as a M.S. It is awarded after 5 years of studies, 2 in the classes préparatoires and 3 at the school.

As said in the article, the basic military training takes place in the french Army moutain warfare center in Barcelonette in the Alps. It is completed by classes taken in french military academies such as école spéciale militaire de Saint-Cyr for the Army, école navale for the Navy, école de l'air for the Air Force and so. Specific affectations such as Navy Air Force requires even a third formation in specific warfare schools. During their years at X, the students have some military ceremonies wich require to wear the uniform and are still organized in platoons and companies but do not do any real military service. Some of them, very few really, choose at the end of the studies to enter in the military and a little more in the technical and ingeneer services of the defense department. 62.34.90.57 13:48, 22 February 2006 (UTC)

I'm confused. I was under the impression that after 3 years of study, an X student is awarded a "Diplôme d'Ingénieur", which is not equivalent to a "Master" (the French word). Fourth-year students at the Polytechnique may be however admitted directly into the second year of a "Master Recherche" program in a regular university, upon completion of which they will be awarded a true master's degree (equivalent to an old French D.E.A). The Master Recherche degree in turn enables them to seek admission into a doctoral school. As far as comparisons with American degrees are concerned, I personally disagree that a 5-year German undergraduate "Diplom" or any Bac+5 French degree are comparable to a combination B.S.+ M.S. from a top American university like, let's say, MIT or Caltech. I tend to think that the models of undergraduate and first-year graduate (master's) education in the US are so different from those in continental Europe that direct comparisons are not possible. 200.177.26.167 23:11, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Dear Infinity0, entrance to X is possible normally only after 2 to 3 years of university-level studies in mathematics/physics. Remember to count these when you try to evaluate equivalences. David.Monniaux 18:40, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

It is wrong to establish equivalences between degrees based solely on the number of years of schooling that are needed to get them. It normally takes 18 years to get a "Diplôme d'Ingénieur" from the Polytechnique (13 years of elementary and secondary school + 2 years of prep classes + 3 years of Engineering School). That is indeed roughly the same number of years that are normally necessary to get an M.S. degree in the U.S (12 years of elementary and secondary school + a 4-year college major in engineering (B.S.) + 1.5 to 2 additional years of Grad School work for the master's). The two degrees however are fundamentally different in nature. American B.S. degrees aim at producing in 4 years a professional that is ready to go straight into the labor force and work as practicing engineer. Therefore, a B.S. curriculum is structured around a small math/science core (normally at the level of the 13th French school year + 2 years of prep classes) followed by breadth and depth classes in one single engineering specialty (electrical, mechanical, etc), including possibly a great deal of industry-oriented design courses. An M.S. in engineering on the other hand is an opportunity to go deeper into a given sub-area of your undergrad major (for example, within EE, in signal processing, control, communications, microelectronics, etc...) with an additional coursework that is similar in nature e.g. to the fourth-year (Part III) curriculum for a British undergraduate MEng degree in a top school like Cambridge or the Imperial College London. An M.S. degree in engineering is also an opportunity for American students to get preliminary research experience in preparation for possible future PhD studies. The "engineering" education at the Polytechnique has, on the other hand, a completely different set of goals. At least as I see it, the aim of the Polytechnicien curriculum is to provide a broad and, by American standards, fairly advanced background in (pure and applied) mathematics, computer science, and natural sciences (physics, chemistry and biology), while the teaching of professional engineering properly takes lower priority and is merely incidental as an illustrative example of application of the basic scientific subjects. The opportunity for professional engineering training/specialization (of the type that exists in the U.S. or, indeed, in the 5-year German Diplom curriculum) exists within the modern "cycle polytechnicien" only in the 4th-year (i.e. beyond the Ingénieur de la Polytechnique degree) when students may choose to move to a specialized engineering school to get another degree in a specific engineering major. Mbruno 03:47, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Ecoles d'Application

Hello people, this is to inform you that the article dedicated to SUPAERO has been placed into the peer review thread. I invite you to take a peek at it and say what you think of it. Thanks! Flambe 04:11, 27 April 2006 (UTC)