Sciences Po or Sciences Po Paris, also known as the Paris Institute of Political Studies, is a private and public research university located in Paris, France, that holds the status of grande école and the legal status of grand établissement. The university's undergraduate program is taught on decentralized campuses in Dijon, Le Havre, Menton, Nancy, Poitiers and Reims, each with their own academic program focused on a geopolitical part of the world. While Sciences Po historically specialized in political science, it progressively expanded to other social sciences such as economics, law and sociology.
Émile Boutmy, Sciences Po founder
Students and staff in front of the original entrance in the 1910s
The entrance to Sciences Po on Rue Saint-Guillaume
Sciences Po garden, between Rue Saint-Guillaume and Rue des Saints-Pères
A grande école is a specialized top-level educational institution in France and some other previous French colonies such as Morocco or Tunisia. Grandes écoles are part of an alternative educational system that operates alongside the mainstream French public university system, and take the shape of institutes dedicated to teaching, research and professional training in either pure natural and social sciences, or applied sciences such as engineering, architecture, business administration, or public policy and administration.
Gate of the Conservatoire national des arts et métiers, in the 3rd arrondissement of Paris
The Lycée Louis-le-Grand, in Paris, is one of the most famous lycées providing preparatory classes for grandes écoles. (It is on the right side of the rue Saint-Jacques; on the left is the Sorbonne.)
Image: Lycée Henri IV
Image: Lycée Henri IV rue Clovis
