École Polytechnique

École polytechnique is a French public institution of higher education and research in Palaiseau, a suburb southwest of Paris. It is one of the most prestigious and selective French scientific and engineering schools, called grandes écoles in French. It is known for its ingénieur polytechnicien scientific degree program which is equivalent to both a bachelor and master of science. Its entrance exam, the X-ENS exam, is renowned for its selectivity with a little over 500 admitted students out of the 53 848 students enrolled in the preparatory programs for the French scientific and engineering schools entrance exams.

The school was established in 1794 by the mathematician Gaspard Monge during the French Revolution, and was a military academy under Napoleon I in 1804. Although Polytechnique is no longer a military academy, the school is still supervised by the French ministry of defense, and only a small number of its students choose to pursue a military career. Initially located in the Latin Quarter of central Paris, the school's main buildings were moved in 1976 to Palaiseau on the Saclay Plateau.

Wikipedia