“The icing on the cake”: negotiating diversity and intersectional ascription to gain access to Sciences Po

Abstract Since the mid-2000s, several higher education institutions in France have used merit and diversity as complementary principles in implementing equal opportunity programs. Through an ethnographic approach and an intersectional framework, this article examines how Sciences Po’s Conventions éducation prioritaire (CEP) program is received by candidates participating in preparatory workshops at high schools in Seine-Saint-Denis. The CEP candidate profile is shaped by a delicate balance of distinction from and resemblance to the imagined profile of an elite student. As a result, candidates experience both advantages and challenges depending on their intersecting identities and identifications throughout the admissions process. Their strategies for navigating the admissions process reveal the paradoxical expectations placed on students, who are required to negotiate diversity in a seemingly color-blind context where difference is simultaneously reified and denied. More broadly, this paper argues that while Sciences Po’s territorially based policy allows students to showcase diverse aspects of their backgrounds, it simultaneously places an uneven burden on the candidates and forces them to negotiate intersectional ascription, stereotypes, and expectations throughout the admissions process.