APB: post-bac admission
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The APB software (post-bac admission) was created in 2009 across the whole of France, but software already existed—particularly for placements in the Paris region, such as RAVEL—that matched baccalauréat holders' preferences with the places available in institutions of higher education.
The principle: final-year high school students (nearly 800,000 of them) register very early—the deadline falls around 20 March—and have two months to complete the elements of their application, send it by post, and rank their preferences. By 31 May, each of them must have submitted up to 24 choices (it was 36 until last year) to gain a place in a classe préparatoire (post-secondary preparatory class), a BTS, an IUT, or a university, with a maximum of 12 per type of course. Another new feature for 2016: students must choose at least one "non-selective" course, to curb the tendency to select only highly sought-after programs and end up with no placement at all.
The applications are then reviewed by the receiving institutions, according to an algorithm that is not very transparent (see below), both in terms of the order in which applications are submitted to the institutions and the weighting of the various elements of each application, as well as the assessment made by the receiving institutions themselves. A first round of admissions takes place before 13 June. The process then continues until 9 September.
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