Can we understand student selection in business school with the ideal-type of New Spirit of Capitalism [NSC]? Is it a way to question the evolution of this major text, 20 years after its release date? To answer to these question, we decided to run an in-depth analysis of a single session of student selection in a public school of management and compare the profile of expected candidate with the NSC ideal-type. By doing this, we bring to light a contrasted incarnation of the ideal type from Boltanski & Chiapello (1999), especially of the “mobility” trait we do not find in our case study results. Despite this difference, the NSC test of high status seems to be pertinent to understand the formation of expected student profile during admission process. Results show that the admitted student are mainly those who already benefited from a previous education in management – despite application is open to everyone – and, consequently, it questions the vocation of the public school of management, its formation offer and its selection process.