Every year, thousands of students join a business or engineering Grande École without going through the traditional preparatory class and post-high-school competitive exam. This path has a precise name: admission sur titre, or AST. Yet it remains poorly understood, often confused with a catch-all "parallel admission," when it actually covers procedures, calendars, and expectations that vary widely depending on the targeted school.
What is admission sur titre
Admission sur titre refers to the set of procedures allowing a student to join a Grande École directly mid-program - generally in the first or second year of the Grande École track - based on a degree already obtained (bachelor's, BUT, BTS, ATS preparatory class, or equivalent) rather than through the traditional post-high-school competitive exam.
The term "AST" is most often used for engineering schools, while business schools tend to say "parallel admissions." In both cases, the principle remains the same: valuing an academic path already underway, through an application file, standardized tests, and one or more oral interviews.
A further classic distinction is made between AST1 (accessible from a bachelor's-2 level, allowing direct entry into year 2 of the engineering track or year 1 of the Grande École Program) and AST2 (accessible from bachelor's-3 or bachelor's-4 level, granting access to a higher year). The choice between AST1 and AST2 depends directly on the degree already validated at the time of application, and strongly affects the relative difficulty of the competition - AST2 generally being more selective, with fewer available spots.
Difference from traditional post-high-school admission
Traditional post-high-school admission relies on at least two years of preparatory class, capped by a common competitive exam taken by all candidates at the same time, on the same written papers. Admission sur titre, by contrast, targets candidates who have already completed a different path - often a university bachelor's degree, a BUT, or an ATS prep class - and relies on a file, tests (TAGE MAGE, GMAT, or a school-specific exam), and an interview, without a written exam common to all.
This difference fundamentally changes the preparation: where traditional prep classes bet on two years of intensive cramming, AST values a path already underway - academic projects, internships, international mobility - that must be showcased in a much shorter preparation window.
Which schools recruit through AST
On the business school side, several joint competitive exams structure the market: the Passerelle competition 🔗, accessible from bachelor's-2 (Passerelle 1) or bachelor's-3 (Passerelle 2), and the Ecricome Tremplin competition 🔗, which grants access to five schools (NEOMA, KEDGE, Rennes SB, EM Strasbourg, Montpellier BS). Other schools, like HEC Paris, run their own internal parallel admission process independently of these joint competitions.
On the engineering school side, the landscape is more fragmented: the Advance Parallèle competition 🔗 grants access to four schools (EPITA, ESME, IPSA, SupBiotech), while the Centrale group runs its own Concours Universitaire and its ATS track for schools like CentraleSupélec. Most major engineering schools (Mines, Ponts, Arts et Métiers, INSA) also have their own parallel admission arrangements, sometimes through joint competitions, sometimes through a school-specific process.
💡 To learn more: find out in detail how to build a file for a specific school, with our guide on the resume and application file for parallel admission to HEC Paris and our guide on parallel admission to CentraleSupélec.
Which profiles are concerned
Three profiles dominate AST applications by far: university bachelor's students (economics-management, mathematics, law, sciences) wanting to join a Grande École after a bachelor's-2 or bachelor's-3; BUT (formerly DUT) students seeking to continue into an engineering track or Grande École program; and ATS preparatory class students, whose training is specifically designed to prepare for parallel admission into an engineering school.
To these profiles are added, more marginally, students reorienting after a first year of medical school, or professionals returning to studies after a few years of work experience.
Why schools open this path
Grande Écoles don't recruit through parallel admission out of sheer generosity: this path meets a strategic objective of diversifying profiles within the same cohort. A student coming from university, a BUT, or an ATS prep class brings a different academic experience than students from traditional prep classes, which enriches group work and exchanges within the program. Understanding this objective helps calibrate one's file better: it's not about passing yourself off as a traditional prep-class candidate, but about valuing the uniqueness of your own path as an asset for the school.
Key steps of an AST application
- Check eligibility: required degree level (bachelor's-2, bachelor's-3, bachelor's-4 depending on the school and competition)
- Choose the appropriate joint competition(s): Passerelle, Ecricome Tremplin, Advance Parallèle, Concours Universitaire, or a school-specific process
- Build the file: resume, cover letter, transcripts, letters of recommendation
- Take the standardized tests: TAGE MAGE, GMAT, or specific written exams depending on the competition
- Prepare the oral interview: generally the most decisive factor, where the final decision is made
- Respect the calendar: registration dates and rounds vary significantly from one school to another - a file sent past the deadline is definitively lost
⚠️ Warning: a given candidate can generally apply to several joint competitions and several independent schools in parallel - but each competition has its own registration fees and its own calendar, to be planned several months in advance.
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