ENSAE ParisTech

ENSAE Paris (officially École nationale de la statistique et de l'administration économique Paris) is one of the most respected and selective elite universities in France, known as grandes écoles and a member of IP Paris (Institut Polytechnique de Paris). ENSAE Paris is known as the branch school of École Polytechnique for statistics, data science and machine learning. It is one of France's top schools of economics and statistics and is directly attached to France's Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE) and the French Ministry of Economy and Finance.
Students are given a proficient training both in economics and statistics and they can specialize in macroeconomics, microeconomics or finance. The ENSAE has the ability to train its students for the French actuary graduation (Institut des Actuaires).
History.
The ENSAE was established in 1942 under the National Statistics Service (ancestor of the INSEE, National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) under the name of the School of Applied Statistics. In 1946, the creation of INSEE, the school took the name of INSEE Specialization School. At this time, the school led to two types of administrative career: "administrateur" (the highest managing level of the INSEE administration) and "attaché" (a lower level) civil servant executives. Early promotions included five or six "administrateurs" students five or six "attachés" students.
The decree of 2 November 1960 changed the name of the school into the National School of Statistics and Economic Administration. The number of students grew, and the curriculum opened to graduate students from Law Schools and Universities of Economics. The decree of 15 April 1971 clarified the administrative status and the objective of the school in the academic field, definitely making the ENSAE a Grande Ecole.
In the 1980s, a system of scholarship was established to support doctoral studies. A research laboratory, the CREST (Center for Research in Economics and Statistics), was formed in 1988.
In 1994, the Department of training for "attachés", became a full-fledged school, the National School for Statistics and Analysis Areas information (ENSAI, relocated to Rennes). The "administrateurs" training stayed at the ENSAE where more and more students now choose to specialize in financial modeling and other new area of applied statistics such as biostatistics or marketing.
In 2006, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin announced officially the moving of the school to the new ParisTech Campus in Palaiseau, near the École Polytechnique in 2010.
In 2017, the school moved to its current campus in Palaiseau.
Mission.
Included in the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) under the tutelage of Ministry of the Economy, Industry and Employment, ENSAE provides training for statisticians-economists, some of which are civil servants belonging to the Corps des Administrateurs de l'INSEE, a category of top level public managers in the French administration.
Economists and statisticians trained are intended to contribute to the economic research; former students hold positions within international organizations (UN, IMF, World Bank, European Commission...) and French administration or other public institutions (Ministry of Economy, INSEE, CREST...).
The school admits students from diverse backgrounds:
The institution is actually the only French Grande école to admit scientific, business and humanities students.
Since 2006 the school is accredited to deliver the title of "ingénieur" by the French Commission of Engineering Titles.
Curriculum.
The specialization available during the last year.
Academic affiliations.
The school has several partnerships and agreements with other academic institutions where students can complete their curriculum during their specialization year. A large and growing number of students chose to do such dual degree program in order to get an additional Master of Science, MBA or PhD degree from renowned institutions in the area of economics, finance, statistics and applied Mathematics where its cursus is one of the best: Harvard, Columbia, Humboldt University of Berlin, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, etc.
The ENSAE also has a partnership with Sciences Po Paris, allowing its students to pursue both curriculum at the same time and get an additional master's degree from Sciences Po. The agreement waives the students from passing the entry written examination.
ENSAE was a member of ParisTech, the excellence engineering cluster gathering the best parisian Grandes Ecoles in each area of engineering: X, AgroParisTech, ENGREF, Ponts, ESPCI, Mines, ENSTA, ENSAM, Télécom Paris, Chimie ParisTech.
In 2019, a portion of these schools (including ENSAE, X, Télécom Paris) left ParisTech to create the "Institut Polytechnique"
Jobs prospects.
Former ENSAE graduates work mainly in Data Science and Machine learning, but also in finance, management, consulting, economic analysis and research (in economics and statistics).
About 10% of the recent alumni work in the public sector, the remaining works in capital markets (25%), insurance (25%), consulting (15%) or other industry sectors.
Around 30% of them get a first job outside France, in particular in London and New York. They are hired by tech firms, financial firms such as banks, insurers or hedge funds for their technical expertise in Data Science, Machine learning, finance, mathematics, economics and statistics.
2006 graduates positions are as follows:
Since the ENSAE was founded, more than 5,000 statisticians economists, machine learning engineers, and data scientist have graduated.
Remark.
Note that the abbreviation ENSAE also refers to SUPAERO, a grande école for aerospace engineering in Toulouse, France (now ISAE). In order to mark the difference between the two schools, ENSAE is called "ENSAE Paris", in reference to the city where it is located.
Alumni.
As a Grande Ecole, the ENSAE has a strong and organized alumni network. The "Association des Anciens de l'ENSAE" (ENSAE Alumni Association) manages the links between the different generations of graduates and help them at each stage of their career. The ENSAE Alumni Association is a member of ParisTech Alumni, manageurs.com and AAGEF. The current president of the association is Julien Guitard.
Here is a list of some of the most accomplished alumni. This illustrates perfectly the great diversity of positions held by its alumni both in the public and private sector.