Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2025

Rewarding Traditional or New Forms of Cultural Capital? The Introduction of Holistic Admissions at a French Elite Higher Education Institution

Résumé

This chapter examines the introduction of a new admissions procedure at Sciences Po based on a holistic approach. Examining the transposition of the US model of holistic admissions onto this French elite higher education institution reveals the ambivalent character of this mode of admission in general and more specifically when it merges with a different national perspective on merit that rewards the possession of legitimate cultural capital. The analysis of students’ applications to Sciences Po's bachelor's program (candidates’ profiles, grades, and textual content of the required written pieces) highlights the persistence of evaluation criteria centered on this dimension and its contribution to the perpetuation of social inequalities. At the same time, this chapter also shows that a new quest for authenticity leads selectors to make judgments that favor a “whole person” perspective. By giving more weight to expressive and market-oriented qualities, these judgments challenge traditional definitions of meritocracy in the French context.

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Dates et versions

hal-05441236 , version 1 (05-01-2026)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-05441236 , version 1

Citer

Marine Haddad, Agnès van Zanten. Rewarding Traditional or New Forms of Cultural Capital? The Introduction of Holistic Admissions at a French Elite Higher Education Institution. Michael N. Bastedo. Holistic Admissions as a Global Phenomenon. Improving Higher Education Practices and Policies, Routledge, pp.24, 2025. ⟨hal-05441236⟩
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