Economics serving society

PPD Applications

Application process

I would like to apply to be a student in the PPD Master’s Program. How do I proceed?
All applications must be submitted using the PSE Application regardless of your profile, nationality, etc. Please be warned that any application that is not fully completed before the deadline will result in an automatic deletion of your application and all associated files.

Students from Ecole des Ponts ParisTech can be admitted directly to the second year of the Master PPD according to their previous education, but they also have to submit their applications on PSE Application.

Complementary Information:
Ideally applications must be made in English, but we can also accept them in French. Official translations of all documents in languages other than French or English are required*. The translations must be made by official translators, you cannot do it on your own. On the other hand, there’s no need to add an “apostille” or to have them notary certified.

Please do not wait the final moments to submit your application. The website is overcharged during the last days, the administrative office is not open during the weekend and you risk seeing your application being denied due to technical bugs.

* We can exceptionally accept transcripts in Spanish, Italian or Portuguese for the applications process, but please note that if you are accepted to the program you will most likely be requested to eventually hand in these documents in French.

Note: you can apply both in APE and PPD programs, however within each program you can only submit one application in 1st year (M1) or 2nd year (M2); in other words, you must choose carefully between M1 and M2.

If you do not find all the answers to your questions on this page, please refer to our FAQ before contacting our secretariat.

JPEG - 29.9 kb

Deadline admissions

PSE Application will be open from February 11th to March 11th, 2024.
Admissions results will be released by email and directly on the platform. Prior to the release of the results by email and on the PSE Application platform, we will be unable to respond to any question regarding the admissions committee’s decision.

NOTA BENE:
It is not possible to release results earlier. No exception.

Minimum requirements for entering into the Masters Programme

JPEG - 51.9 kb

Pre-requisites for entering the M1:

  • A Bachelor’s degree in economics, with good knowledge of micro, macro and econometrics. We are very interested with Bachelors in other fields, but you must show that you have the skills to take technical lectures in economics.
  • In English. Non-native english speaker applicants must include with their application file a certificate of competence in English (TOEFL, IELTS, TOEIC, Cambridge ESOL). We demand level C1 (see the table of equivalences). Applicants who have finished international training in courses certified in English are exempted from this requirement. However, in this case we need a letter from the administrative office of your universities mentioning that the language of instructions of your courses was English. If you have studied in an Anglophone country, there is no need for any document of course.
  • A strong level in mathematics. The required level of mathematics corresponds to appendices B and C of the book: “Introductory Econometrics” of J. Wooldridge. These appendices include some exercises that you are strongly advised to try before applying.
  • The M1 is very demanding: you will have many assignments, tutorials and projects each week. Be ready to work every day after class including most of the week-end and the holidays. There will be at most one week revision break before the exams: you are expected to be able to organize yourself during the year and work for the exam while learning new materials and preparing your assignments.
  • Upon admission, you will be required to validate your knowledge in Statistics and Microeconomics using an online platform, Didask. This online platform provides tests and exercises meant to refresh your memory before school starts. This is not a course: you are assumed to know these notions already and work on a series of (sometimes tough) questions while referring to a textbook or a previous course. Please organize your summer break schedule accordingly.

Pre-requisites for entering the M2:
A few applicants can enter directly into the M2 year, if they have already taken and passed coursework that provides a level of preparation equivalent to that of Year 1 of the PPD Program (in microeconomics, macroeconomics, econometrics and public policy evaluation).

Candidates requesting an extra year to complete the masters

The PPD Master is a full-time program. It is not possible to do it in parallel with a second program during the same academic year or to do it as an “alternance”. There is no distance learning option or a night program.
In certain situations (other than those listed above), it is possible to arrange the student’s education by granting an additional year to complete their Master’s degree (i.e. a three-year Master). Candidates wishing to benefit from this arrangement must clearly state this in the application process.

Regarding the admission process

JPEG - 67.3 kb

All candidates are individually evaluated by the admissions committee.
Each file is individually reviewed by faculty members and debated upon during the admission committee meeting.

Each year we offer about 30 slots in the first year of the PPD masters program and between 5 and 10 for candidates applying for a direct admission into the second year.
Among all the applications we receive each year, including candidates from partner institutions, on average, about 10% is successful for the M1; the same percentage applies for the M2. The committee can also extend an offer of admission into M1 for candidates applying into M2 if their academic curriculum does not meet the requirements of a direct admission into the second year.

Formal Registration

All admission is conditional upon obtaining the degree required for admission into the masters year requested. Proof of having obtained the necessary diploma will be asked for during registration (inscription administrative) in September.
From a formal viewpoint, PPD Master students are registered at the Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales. Students who belong to Ecole normale supérieure or received a L3 from a PSL institution (such as Paris-Dauphine or CPES) register at PSL; students who belong to Ecole nationale des Ponts et Chaussées register in that school.

Registration fees

The university fees are annual and set by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research in France.
In 2019 the French government has voted a law that stipulates an increase in the registration fees up to € 3,770 for the Master’s degree for international students coming from outside the European Union and who were not registered previously in France at the master level.. However, our partner institutions have been able to exempt international students from paying the full fees this academic year: they gave a waiver and allowed all students to pay the same amount as the EU students: 243 euros per year (plus a 90 euros contribution to the CVEC).

Our partner institutions are willing to do the same again in 2024-25. We will update the website as soon as we get a confirmation (usually around March-April 2024).

Funding opportunities

:
The PPD master offer a few scholarships to M1 students who are (exclusively) citizens of a middle or low-income country (see the list of eligible countries), conditional on their financial resources.

The amount of the scholarship is 15,000 euros, 9,000 euros received in M1 for the whole year and 5.000 euros received in M2, the latter under the condition of full completion of the M1 within a year and provided that the financial situation has not improved.

Eligible candidates can apply to this scholarship while applying to the PPD program. To do so, in the “about your application”, tick “yes” to the “do you wish to apply to the PSE scholarship” and upload the required documents:

  1. a personal statement mentioning very carefully your family and own resources
  2. official documents justifying those resources (pay sheets, tax statements, former scholarship entitlement, etc.) More information in the document “Funding opportunities for Foreign Students”

External Students

The courses offered by the PPD graduate program are open to the students registered into the Masters program. However, if space availability allows it, some M2 courses can also be open to:

  • students registered in programs of the partner institutions,
  • PhD students who wish to validate courses of the Masters for their PhD

If you are interested in attending some of the courses offered by the PPD program, please contact the secretariat. (master-ppd at psemail.eu)

Studying at PSE while joining the École Normale Supérieure-PSL with a scholarship

Every year, the École normale supérieure of Paris (ENS-PSL) selects foreign students under its International Selection program. At the time of application, those students should be engaged in the final year of their licence/bachelor in Economics outside of France. Admitted students receive a monthly scholarship of about 1,000 euros for three years, have a personal tutor, and benefit from all of the ENS resources, including access to the ENS PhD scholarship program.

The Economics Department of ENS is closely linked with the Paris School of Economics (and is located in the same building). The Department seeks to recruit economists under the International Selection program. During their first year at ENS, they will have the opportunity to strengthen their knowledge in economics, follow courses in other departments, and complete « opening experiences » (internships, research experience, etc.), as part of the ENS diploma. During their second and third years, they study in the PSE master programs (APE or PPD), and take complementary courses at ENS.

Although admission criteria are very similar, the International Selection program is independent from the admission procedure at PSE. Yet, students admitted to both programs may postpone (for one year) their admission in the master, to follow the first year at ENS. Please find more information on the International Selection webpage. Be careful that applications to the International Selection must be completed during the Fall of the previous academic year, that is earlier than applications to PSE’s master programs. For students enrolled in a French degree, another admission procedure to the ENS is the Concours Normalien Étudiant.