EPFL is obliged to grant admission to every Swiss resident who took the maturité high-school certificate recognized by the Swiss Confederation. However, international students are required to have a final grade average of 80% or above of the maximum grade of the upper secondary school national system. As such, for Swiss students, EPFL is not selective in its undergraduate admission procedures.The real selection process happens during the first year of study. This period is called the propaedeutic cycle and the students must pass a block examination of all the courses taken during the first year at the end of the cycle. If the weighted average is insufficient, a student is required to retake the entire first year of coursework if they wish to continue their studies at the school. Roughly 50% of students fail the first year of study, and many choose to drop out rather than repeat the first year. The failure rate for the cycle differs between fields, it is highest for Life Science, Physics and Electrical Engineering where only 30–40% of students pass the first year. For foreign students, the selection procedure towards the undergraduate program is rather strict, and since most undergraduate courses are taught in French, foreign students must provide documentation of having acquired a level B2 proficiency as measured on the CEF scale, though C1 proficiency is recommended. As at all universities in Switzerland, the academic year is divided into two semesters. The usual time till graduation is six semesters for the Bachelor of Science degree and four additional semesters for the Master of Science degree. Though only 58% of the students who manage to graduate are able to graduate within this time-period. The possibility to study abroad for one or two semesters is offered during the 3rd year of study as EPFL maintains several long-standing student exchange programs, such as the junior year engineering and science program with Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, as well as a graduate Aeronautics and Aerospace program with the ISAE in France. The final semester is dedicated to writing a thesis. Entrepreneurship is actively encouraged, as evident by the EPFL Innovation Park being an integral part of campus. Since 1997, 12 start-ups have been created per year on average by EPFL students and faculty. In the year 2013, a total of 105 million CHF was raised by EPFL start-ups. Rankings The QS World University Rankings ranks