Paris: challenging yet rewarding Past Review
By Hannah B (Plan II/English/French, The University of Texas at Austin) for
MICEFA: Paris - Study Abroad at New Sorbonne University Paris 3
Yes
Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 6 months+ |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
The French grading system is very different from the American one: they use a scale from one to twenty, but few students can achieve higher than a fifteen. Also it's of much less concern to students if they are making grades lower than an eight, even though this translates to a C or D. While the MICEFA will allow a safety net of a few points, it's still much more of a challenge to earn an A in France. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
While they were hands-off in a lot of ways, when I needed their assistance, the MICEFA gave me as much help as I needed. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
The first studio I had was in a seedy area, so halfway through the semester I moved to a more central part of the city. The prices are much higher in central Paris, and the nightlife is much more accessible, if not inescapable. |
| * Food: |
The quality of food is if anything better than in the US, but prices are very, very high. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I traveled to several other parts of France over the semester: Bretagne, Picardy, the Dordogne, and the Cote d'Azur. I would highly recommend doing so, France is a very different place outside of Paris. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
There are very few places in Paris proper that are dangerous, even in the middle of the night. Petty theft is a much bigger issue, but health risks seemed much lower. Health care was easily accessible to me the entire time I was in France, but I never needed to take advantage of it. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | The tuition for the orientation course seems to be a bit steep for a two-week class, and somewhat unnecessary. |
Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
| What was the highest level language course you had completed prior to departure? | FR320 |
| Language acquisition improvement? |
A lot of people in Paris can or try to speak English, and often when interacting with peers you will have to request they stay in French. With more regular transactions though, the language used was invariably French. |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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