At the very top, the mechanism is not really selection but cooptation. If you get in the Corps, the alumni take great care of you, steering you between positions, helping you build your social network, making the phone calls, etc. If you are 25 years old and you get this type of proposition, you just don't say no [cue in soundtrack from The GodFather :)].

I guess it depends on the kind of Grande Ecole, but generally speaking, how old are you when you gradate from these schools?

That's the danger of talking generically of "elites". The ones who gets to decide are not the broad 3% that went through the GEs. Think of it like wealth and inequality in America. Not so shocking if you talk of the top 5% vs the bottom 95%. The real divide is the 1%/99% split or even better, the 0.1%/99.9% split.

Can it be said that the large majority of Grandes Ecoles graduates are against the CPE?  (It's pretty clear that GE graduates on ET -- most notably Alex in Toulouse and Jerome -- are strongly against the CPE, but can this be said of GE graduates in general?)

If so, is it generally for reasons of principle and solidarity with their fellow youth?  (This is obviously the case with Jerome and Alex as well as others on ET, but I am talking about GE graduates at large.)

Or is it because there is a serious concern that a significant percentage of the CDI jobs that normally they would have no problem getting after graduation might now be offered as CPE positions instead?  If most GE graduates get their diplomas at the age of 25, I guess it would not matter as much, but if many are under 25, then the possibility of having their CDI opportunities turn into CPEs could be quite troubling.   On the other hand, do GE graduates feel confident that any potential précarité of being handed a CPE instead of a CDI will be outweighed by assured help from and "cooptation" into the Grandes Ecoles alumni network?

(I am assuming that because they are the top 3% of French job candidates right out of school, very few GE graduates who want a CDI actually have trouble getting one soon after graduating.  Is this a mistaken assumption?  Also, my question does not apply, I think, to GE graduates who are looking to become fonctionnaires.)

Point n'est besoin d'espérer pour entreprendre, ni de réussir pour persévérer. - Charles le Téméraire