[sb]

In general many commenters have a misconception that the mentioned French "baccalaureate" is related to the US/UK undergraduate bachelor's degree. As the article points out, and the corresponding wikipedia page hints at, this somewhat roughly translates to a high school diploma in the US, the British A-levels, the German Abitur, etc.

There is an interesting comment that illustrates the distinction between US/Europe education systems by observing that in Europe high schools are general followed by focused specific subject studies, whereas in the US there is a lot of focusing already happening in the high schools. Interestingly, though, there seems to be a general education requirement for an undergraduate degree; since I am from Europe this seems to have the purpose of ensuring that all admitted students get to the same level before specializing.