Ecole Normale Superieure

Founded 1794. Tiny elite school with unmatched Nobel and Fields medal density per graduate.

Overview

Created by the Revolution to train teachers, ENS Ulm admits a few hundred students yearly through fearsome entrance exams who then receive salary and lodging as civil servant trainees. Per capita, no school matches its output: around 14 Fields medalists, and Nobel laureates from Sartre and Foucault's philosophy line to physics' Serge Haroche. Alumni include president Georges Pompidou and generations of French leaders. The rue d'Ulm campus occupies a quiet Left Bank block. ENS pairs with PSL University in rankings where it regularly leads France.