How is the French educational system organized?

Question

What are the biggest differences between the US educational system and French one, especially when it comes to college and high school?

Answer 1

First most universities in France are public, so free. We only have to pay about 200 euros for the health coverage, plus about 100 euros to pay the library, computers, unless your family con't afford it, therefore the State pays for you. Everyone who graduated high school can attend college, there is no selection. The selection is after the first year and is pretty hard, half of the students don't pass. It's very academic, it's not big fun like in the US to go to college, and most students still live at their parents' because there are very few students rooms. We specialize since the very beginning, for example if you chose to study law, you will only study law since the first year. We graduate a "licence" after three years, "master" after 5, and "doctorat" after 8 years.

High school has three years. The first year is general, and we specialize since the second year. Hence the technical branches, we have the choice between the literature specialization with a lot of French, languages and philosophy, or sciences with a lot of maths, physics and biology, or economics, with a lot of economics, maths, history and geography. At the end of the second year, we have the national exam called Baccalauréat of French. At the end of the third year, we take all the other subjects. We have to pass to go to college.There are no sports or arts in highschool unless you chose it as an option. The schedule is usually from 8 a.m to 5 p.m. We graduate when we're or about to be 18.