In France, the final year of lower secondary education constitutes an important step in a student's educational career. The previous decade saw an increase in access to the general upper secondary education: in nine years, the share of students enrolled in a first year of a general upper secondary education (Seconde générale et technologique) has risen from 60% in 2011 to 68% in 2020. Educational outcomes are a determining factor in the choice of educational pathway, but there are still disparities between pupils of comparable achievement, depending on their social background. Although access to the first year of general upper secondary education has improved overall for students from all social backgrounds, particularly for the students of employees and non-qualified workers (+11 percentage points), social inequalities in terms of school career choice remain significant. Thus, nine out of ten children of managers or teachers access the first year of general upper secondary education, compared with one out of two children of workers. Beyond educational achievement, these social disparities partly reflect the lower aspirations of children from disadvantaged families to undertake lengthy studies.