Frequently Asked Questions - FAQ - Graduate admissions
For dual degree programmes, you MUST include a resume in English and if possible also in the language of the partner university.
No, deferrals will not be accorded for dual degree programmes.
Please check the admissions calendar and status of programmes.
For dual degree programmes, please write at least one paragraph in one of the other language of the programme (i.e. English, German, Russian). If you are applying for more than one programme, please explain both of your choices.
No, you cannot apply for two dual degree programmes. However, you may apply for a dual degree programme as well as a Master's programme. In this case you will need to put the dual degree programme down as your first choice in your application, and the Master's as your second choice. Furthermore, if deadlines for these two programmes differ, you must have submitted your application by the earliest deadline.
Sciences Po students need to submit an application only if they are applying for a dual degree programme. Please do not indicate any choice of Master's as a second option. This decision will be made with the "Direction de la scolarité".
If you are already a student at the Ecole Polytechnique or at the ENSAE, you can either apply through your current institution or through Sciences Po.
If you are not already a student at one of these two institutions, you will need to apply for the Economics and Public Policy Masters through Sciences Po.
If you are already a student at Sciences Po, please check this page for more information.
You may apply for the Eiffel scholarship even if you are applying for a dual degree programme. However, in such a case, you must also apply for a two-year Sciences Po Masters programme as the decision concerning acceptance to a dual degree programme is made long after the one for the Eiffel scholarship.
If you are accepted to study on a Sciences Po Master programme and then subsequently find that you have been selected for a dual degree course, you should ask Egide to change the programme, so that you may benefit from the Eiffel Scholarship. Your application must reach us by the Eiffel scholarship deadline as set out in the Masters admissions calendar.
No, the international admissions procedure only involves the assessment of a written electronic application.
No, a written examination is not part of the international admissions procedure.
You were on an undergraduate or graduate exchange programme with Sciences Po, so you should apply for the Masters programmes via the graduate international admissions procedure.
If you are currently in the final year of an undergraduate degree (the equivalent of a BA/BSc) and you graduate in June 2012, you may begin applying for entry to Sciences Po in October 2011.
Please see our page on calendars and deadlines.
No. You must apply through the admissions procedure "cursus français",because your home university is French and because you obtained your foreign degree through a university exchange programme.
You may apply online during the year prior to obtaining a diploma that will enable you to be admitted for a chosen programme. If you are admitted, your admission will be conditional until you receive your diploma.
No, certainly not. We will ask you to bring your original documents to the administrative registration.
You must include your academic transcript in the original language version accompanied, where necessary, by an official or informal translation in English.
All other required documents must be submitted in English and eventually in the language of the partner university.
When you send us missing documents after having received a message saying that your application is incomplete, the status update is not instantaneous. Please notice that we treat a great number of applications and that the delay between receiving your missing documents and acknowledging such reception is about a week.
Please be patient and avoid sending several copies of the same document, or sending it through every possible means (fax, mail, etc). It will only slow down the process! The preferred way to send missing information/documents is to upload them directly to your on-line application. If, and ONLY if the information/documents cannot be electronically attached, can you either e-mail it, fax it, or mail it. Once we have received your documents and attached them to your application, you will be able to see it directly on your on-line space, but remember it is not instantaneous, so please be patient.
We can only accept documents in .doc (not .docx) or .pdf format. It is also very important that you name each attachment appropriately (for example: "high school transcript"), either in English or in French.
For information on the documents to be included in the international application please visit this page.
For information on the documents to be included in the international application please visit this page.
It means that we have not yet come to a decision regarding your application. However, it does not mean that your application has been refused. You will receive an admissions letter of acceptance or refusal by e-mail, by the end of June at the latest.
There are two types of conditional offers of admission:
Admission conditional on language skills: you have been accepted for study at Sciences Po on the condition that you prove a sufficient level of English/French for the selected programme. You need to send us your language test results by the deadline of the programme you applied for. In the absence of the results at this point, you have one year to send them to us allowing for you to begin at Sciences Po in the following year.
Warning! No grant/scholarship application or dual degree application will be taken into account if we do not receive the language test results before the deadline for the grant/scholarship requested or for the dual degree programme chosen.
Admission conditional on academic qualifications: you are accepted for study at Sciences Po but you must provide, no later than at the time of your administrative registration (beginning in June), the undergraduate degree required for the programme to which you were admitted. If you cannot provide such a document at the time of registration, you will lose your admission offer. Please note that you should have been awarded your degree in the first examinations, and not after having taken re-sits.
A certificate of admission is available for download by logging on to your application pages" and going to the heading "student services centre'. You should take this certificate to the French Embassy or the Centre pour les études en France in your home country to obtain a visa. Online, in your student space, once you have entered your student ID number, you will find an admissions certificate, on the webpage ‘accueil administratif’. In order for you to obtain your visa, you need to forward this document to the French Embassy in your home country.
You choose your own password the first time you log in. If you happen to forget your password, you can easily create a new one.
You will need to have a laptop computer. You will also need to purchase basic course textbooks.
Please see further information on the budget needed for a typical student at Sciences Po.
Yes, you may ask for a deferral of your enrolment. You must do so in your student area online. There is a section reserved for this. Under this section, you are asked to accept the offer of admission, reject it or ask for a deferral.
Please note that deferrals will not be accorded for dual degree programmes.
No, it is not possible to transfer to a different Master's programme.
If you are going to earn an undergraduate degree validating at least three years of study both from the French institution and the foreign university, you may choose between the international procedure and the cursus français procedure.
However, if you are going to earn an undergraduate degree validating at least three years of study from either one of the two institutions, you must apply through the international procedure if the degree is given by a foreign university, and through the cursus français procedure if the degree is given by a French university.
No, if you obtained your French Baccalaureat in France, you must apply through the French admission procedure ('cursus francais').
For further information on eligibility criteria for the international admission procedure please click here.
Yes, insofar as you fulfill the criteria set for applying through a different procedure. However you will not be able to apply through a different procedure the same year.
If you have taken part in an exchange programme in Sciences Po, either as an undergraduate student or in a Master's, you must apply for a Master's through the international procedure.
No, you may only apply for one Masters programme.
However, you can apply for one Master programme and one dual degree programme. In that case you must indicate the dual degree programme as your first choice and the Masters as a second choice. Please note that if deadlines are different, you must send your application before the fisrt deadline.
No. If you have not been admitted, you cannot apply for another programme for the same academic year. However, you may apply again for the next academic year.
Please note that if your profile does not match the requirements of the programme you applied for, but we think that it would be possible for you to be admitted in a different programme, your application will be re-evaluated accordingly. If you are then admitted, you will have the choice to either accept or turn down our offer.
We offer several Masters programmes taught entirely in English. For more information...
Please also check our dual degree programmes and their language requirements.
You must follow the 'French' admission procedure for Master's (cursus francais) if you are in one of the situations outlined on this page.
You must follow the international admission procedure for Master's if you are in one of the situations outlined on this page.
You can apply as many times as you wish. However, if you are a professional candidate, you may apply a maximum of three times.
There is no age limit for applying to a Master Programme.
There are a number of possibilities:
The Master of Public Affairs (MPA), if you have at least two years of professional experience and hold a graduate degree. For further information, please go to the MPA website.
The Masters programmes, if you have at least three years of professional experience. For further information, please go to the Masters programmes' admissions pages.
The Continuing Education programmes. For further information, please visit the Sciences Po Continuing Education website.
You can apply for a Masters Programme (either professionally oriented ≈ MA or research based ≈ MPhil-) if you have an undergraduate degree (Bachelor's Degree, Licence, First Cycle or equivalent) or if you will graduate from such a course before the beginning of the next academic year.
If you have already obtained your degree at another French IEP, or if you will obtain it in the current year, you can apply for an entry into the first year of a master’s programme at Sciences Po Paris.
No. Depending on the procedure, it is either the nationality of your previous diploma or the country in which you passed it that will be taken into account.
You may apply for an undergraduate programme either through the admissions procedure "cursus français" or through the international admissions procedure, depending on your situation.
You will eventually graduate with a Sciences Po Masters degree after five years of study: 3 years on the undergraduate programme (Bachelor degree) and 2 years on the Masters programme.
If you are in neither of the situations as outlined for these two procedures, you may apply for entrance directly at Masters level.
If you are in receipt of a grant/scholarship in 2011-12 or if you have a certificate or letter from the CROUS attesting that you will be in receipt of one in 2012-2013, you must provide us with this proof so that you may be exempted from the payment of this fee.
Similarly, if you receive a means-tested grant from the French Ministry of Education, hold a disability permit or are in receipt of an adult incapacity benefit, you are exempted from the payment of this fee.
You must include proof of your status when submitting your application.
To apply to the Eiffel scholarship, you need to download the form from the Egide website. Complete the first three pages of the application, attach the required documents, and then attach the complete form to your Sciences Po application. The application must be returned to us by the deadline as set out in the Masters admissions timetable.
For more information on the Eiffel scholarship...
Please see the information on the Eiffel scholarship and the graduate admissions calendar.
Please see the information on grants/scholarships.
If you cannot pay online, you may pay by cheque or by bank transfer. You will receive an e-mail from us confirming receipt of payment when the money reaches us. Once the payment has been registered, this will be shown on the online application form. Following this, you will be able to finish completing the form and submit it for our assessment.
Beware: Just because you have paid this fee does not mean that the application has automatically been submitted. You must manually submit your application by clicking 'submit application'.
The administrative application fee is not reimbursable.
Please refer to the information on tuition fees at Sciences Po.
The academic year at Sciences Po starts in September. Only exchange students may begin in January (second semester). The academic year is split into two semesters each lasting 12 weeks. There are also several vacations during the semesters.
You may submit your application without your language test results and send them afterwards, as long as we get them by the deadline of the programme you are applying for. You will not be admitted without your language test results.
Warning! We will not proceed any grant/scholarship applications or dual degree applications if we have not received language test results by the deadline for the grant/ scholarship or dual degree programme requested.
Please visit the IELTS website to find your nearest test centre. Your local British Council office will also be able to provide you with more information about this.
Please visit the TOEFL website to find your nearest test center.
For Master's programmes, you should include a resume written in French or English, depending on the language of the programme you are applying for.
For dual degree programmes, you MUST include a resume in English and if possible also in the language of the partner university.
Yes, you can re-sit just the compulsory section again. We must receive the final results of both the compulsory and the optional sections by May 20, 2011, if you are applying for a Masters programme, or by the deadline of the required scholarship or dual degree programme. There can be no admission if we have not received the entire test results by this date.
In order to find out about TCF exam locations please contact CIEP.
Ahead of the TCF exam, please do let the exam centre know that you are a candidate to Sciences Po; please send an email to tcf-sciencespo@ciep.fr with the date and location of the exam you are taking.
Register at least two months ahead in order to take the language exam within the required timeframe.
The TCF language test is preferable as it enables us to get the results faster.
Admission into a Master's programme is conditional upon receipt of the candidate's language test results. We need to have your results by the deadline of the programme you are applying for. You need to register for the language test at least two months ahead of the date on which you need to send us your results.
Warning! No grant/scholarship application or dual degree application will be taken into account if we do not receive the language test results before the deadline for the grant/scholarship requested or for the dual degree programme chosen.
Please refer to the Master's admission calendar.
Test results are valid for two years, except Cambridge proficiency certificates which have unlimited valididty.
Please refer to our page on French level requirements.
No, you must write your personal statement yourself and it should reflect your own personal writing style.
Academic referees:
When you have filled in (and saved) your academic referees' contact information on the online application, an e-mail will be sent automatically by the system requesting them to submit a reference. You should check that they have received this e-mail.
Professional referees:
The professional referees you indicate will be contacted as soon as you have submitted your complete application (and not when you save the page).
Yes, you may. However, your application form must have been completed and include the required references in time for the deadline for the chosen programme. It is up to you to check and make sure that this is the case, in order for us to evaluate your applcation.
References can be written in French, English or one of the languages of the programme you have chosen.
For international dual degree programmes, they must be written in English, or if that is not possible, in the language of the programme you are applying for.
For more information on references...
When you have completed your referees' contact information in the online application, an e-mail will be sent automatically by the system requesting them for a reference. You should check that they have received it.
All e-mails regarding your application to Sciences Po will be sent from the following address:
admissions@sciences-po.fr
Please add this address to your e-mail address book (and ask your referee to do the same) to avoid our e-mails being sent to your spam mail folder.
If they do not receive the automatic e-mail, you can download a form in PDF format and e-mail it directly to your referees. Once they have completed the form, they can fax it or e-mail it to us.
No, applicants are not allowed to read references. They are strictly confidential and will only be read by those people responsible for assessing your application.
No. The signature and date are not compulsory, unless the reference has been scanned.
References are very important for us, so you should take care when choosing the people to do this. Do not choose someone because of their title or position. What matters most is that you choose someone who knows you very well and who can evaluate your academic work and intellectual ability. It is important for us to see that your referees have assessed your written work, and that they are able to be both impartial and precise. Please note that your referees should not be personal contacts, but rather teachers or hierarchical superiors.
If your referees are teachers, choose those who have taught the main disciplines you have studied or those that are taught at Sciences Po. Do not choose language teachers, because we already have indicators of your language level elsewhere in your application. If you have been enrolled in several institutions in the last two years, you should choose referees from each one of them.
Do not assume that the person you choose will necessarily give a positive reference: take time to meet her/him in order to explain your motivation and the reasons of your choice. Take this opportunity to remind him/her of the strong elements of your personality or of your experience that you would like him/her to bring out in the letter, so as to make it as clear and precise as possible. Don't forget to mention your interpersonal and leadership qualities too.
