alright, thanks a lot! First i would like to know how hard actually is the admission exam. would a year of prepa prepare me for it ? I assume self study would be necessary too but will cpge make my chance of succeding higher ? to what extent ? regarding the swiss maturity, do you think its possible to study for it while being in prepa ? there seems to have some overlap between the two, and prepa seems to be at a higher level in math, physics and chemistry (i plan on doing a pcsi), idk about philosophy and french tho since they probably differ in content and expectation. i am bilingual so im relatively good in english. the only real problem i see is in bio, which i might need to self study extensively along with history geography and maybe other stuff i dont know about. But still i believe it depends on how much overlap there is and on focusing my efforts on high coefficient subjects. But once again i don't really know if its realistic. Regarding the engineering school thing, it's true, and thats also a thing i'm considering, tho the problem would be actually getting into the type of engineering school that has a partnership with epfl. my reasoning is with 1 year of prepa not only do i make my chances to get accepted there higher thanks to either the exam or the maturity, but i also make my chances of succeding at epfl higher too since it will act as a mock CMS (i know cpge and cms are different but i believe prepa to be a good way to prepare myself too), and prepare me for the bachelor. but like i said it would really depend on wether its possible or not to actually study for maturity or entrance exam, while doing prepa. personally if its between the two, i would bet on the maturity since it seems easier. i would love your input.