The ENSAE was established in 1942 by the National Statistics Service (ancestor of the INSEE, National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) under the name School of Applied Statistics. In 1946, with the creation of INSEE, the school took the name of INSEE Specialization School. At this time, the school led to two types of administrative careers: "administrateur" (the highest managing level of the INSEE administration) and "attaché" (a lower level) civil servant executive. Early promotions included five or six "administrateurs" students and five or six "attachés" students.
The decree of 2 November 1960 changed the school's name to the National School of Statistics and Economic Administration. As a result, the number of students grew, and the school opened to graduate students from law schools and universities of economics. Finally, the decree of 15 April 1971 clarified the administrative status and the objective of the school in the academic field, designating the ENSAE a Grande Ecole.
In the 1980s, a scholarship system was established to support doctoral studies. In addition, a research laboratory, the CREST (Center for Research in Economics and Statistics), a joint laboratory with Ecole Polytechnique, 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 increasing numbers of students chose to specialize in financial modeling and other new areas of applied statistics such as biostatistics or quantitative marketing.
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:
Alumni of classes préparatoires (from scientific preparatory classes MP / PC / PSI / MPI, but also business school preparatory classes ( "ECG") and Humanities and Social Sciences preparatory classes (Khâgne BL)).
The institution is actually the only French Grande école to admit scientific, business and humanities students, as long as a strong quantitative background is provided.
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 curriculum is one of the best, such as Harvard, Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, NYU, Chicago, Cornell, Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College, LSE, Humboldt University of Berlin, Mannheim, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, etc.
The ENSAE also has a partnership with Sciences Po Paris, HEC Paris, ESSEC Business School, ESCP Business School allowing its students to pursue both curriculum at the same time and get an additional master's degree from said universities. The agreement waives the students from passing the entry written examination.
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 in a variety of fields, including data science and machine learning, as well as finance, management, consulting, economic analysis, and research (in economics and statistics).
About 14% of the recent alumni work in the public sector, the remaining works in insurance (25%), consulting (21%) or other industry sectors.
Around 17% 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 graduate positions are as follows:
53% work in Machine learning/Data Science (including research)
33% work in finance insurance:
21% work in financial engineering
7% are traders
11% are actuaries
3% are portfolio managers
24% are work in market survey and consulting:
10% economic analysis
4% consulting
1% audit
Since the ENSAE was founded, more than 6,500 statisticians economists, machine learning engineers, and data scientists have graduated.[2]
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.
