My French Exchange 2015 – Sciences Po, Paris
Stephanie Craig: CRGSTE003
UCT Economic Development Masters Student
Living in Paris
Ever since my school days, I have had an absolute love for France and the French culture and it was my dream to spend some time in the country. Hence, upon discovering the various exchange programmes on offer from IAPO and seeing that Paris was an option, it was not a hard decision at all to enrol for further studies at UCT and being the application processes.
It goes without saying then that once I was accepted to do a semester abroad at Sciences Po in Paris – I was truly ecstatic. And looking back now, I can honestly say that Paris was everything I had dreamed about and more! The city is an absolute marvel, so beautiful, so cultural, so lively and so magical! I loved every single second I was able to spend there and each day was a literal adventure!
I can now genuinely say that I know Paris like the back of my hand. I covered every major tourist attraction and every minor one too. I went to operas, ballets, comedy shows, museums, art galleries and musicals. I spent many a Sunday morning at the biggest food market in Europe at the Bastille square and explored every shop in the Marais Quartier. I attended poetry readings at one of my favourite spots in Paris – the Shakespeare and Co Bookstore - and I went to mass at the Notre Dame Cathedral. I watched the sunset from the steps of the Sacré Cœur basilica.
I spent many days just wondering the many winding and twisting streets of the city, finding that getting lost was the most effective way to learn about my surroundings. I tried as many little cafes as I could – my favourites being the Cat Cafe and the Anti-Cafe! I marvelled at the Gallerie Lafayette and the Printemps shopping centre – both of which had impressive Christmas displays on show. I shopped for Christmas gifts at the Champs Elysee Christmas Village market and watched France play rugby against Australia at the famous Stade Français.
Being so ideally situated in Europe meant that I was able to feed my love for travel and visited a wide variety of places, including Barcelona, Madrid, Dublin, Vienna, Munich, Prague, Budapest and Krakow to name but a few. I was able to meet a variety of students from all over the world and learn about cultures I didn’t even know existed. Some of my favourite memories were made on the many warm autumn evenings we spent picnicking under the Eiffel Tower - keeping track of the passing time as the tower lit up in sparkles on the hour, every hour – not to mention the intellectual debates and discussions I had with new friends late into the night, sitting along the banks of the river Seine.
I am eternally grateful for the opportunity to live out my dream and I highly encourage all future UCT students to go on an exchange programme as the benefits are endless and you will never be the same person again! As Hemmingway so beautifully proclaims - “If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young man, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.” For this, all my memories and more, I owe a massive thank you to Stephanie van Heerden and Penny van Zyl from IAPO at UCT and Dr Etienne Smith from Sciences Po who made my exchange possible.
Below I have included some practical information that I hope will be of use to future UCT students visiting Paris and attending Sciences Po.
Sciences Po
Despite the fact that very few people outside of France have heard of Sciences Po, it is a highly prestigious institute in Paris and I was extremely lucky to have had the chance to attend it. It opened my eyes to so many new ideas and ways of thinking, and I was able to meet a wide range of diverse and highly talented individuals who were also studying there.
Something to know about Sciences Po is that it is one of Paris’ grandes écoles– different from the universities which are mostly public institutions and offer free tuition to all who meet the entrance requirements. It is much harder to get into a grande école – the entrance requirements are quite stringent and there is a lot of competition, thus you will be surrounded by very talented and bright students!
There is an endless amount of different subjects on offer and you will get the chance to really expand your knowledge on topics you would not have had the chance to study at UCT. The key thing is that you must do your research as well as possible before leaving for Sciences Po and think carefully about what you want to get out of your exchange so you can choose courses accordingly – otherwise you might end up with subjects that are not appropriate. In addition, you need to sign a learning agreement as part of your admin for IAPO so you need to check that UCT will give you credits for the courses you want to take at Sciences Po. Thus you need to find courses that are fairly similar at both institutions.
Please take note: within Sciences Po, PSIA (Paris School of International Affairs) is a school/division that operates separately to the other departments, and it is the one that you ideally want to be registered in as it offers the biggest variety of subjects that are interesting but won’t keep you sitting in the library for your entire exchange. Unfortunately for me, this was not obvious on the website and as I was doing economics at UCT, I just chose courses from the economics stream at Sciences Po that I thought were most similar.
I ended up with very demanding, technical and difficult courses that required many hours in the library and as my objective for the exchange was less academically focused and more about personal growth, learning about the French culture and exploring Paris – this was not ideal. I was not allowed to take subjects from both the economics stream and PSIA and by the time I arrived, it was too late to change.
Thus I faced quite a bit of academic stress during my stay in Paris and had a pretty rough set of exams at the end of it. Save yourself this pain and research all the courses on offer at Sciences Po well before you go. I took four subjects – The Political Economy, International Macroeconomics, The Political Economy of Development and French Level 1. I had done French as a high school subject and I found level 1 ideal for me. If you have no French knowledge, then pick level 0.
Most of the application procedure for Sciences Po is completed online and is quite long – you need to keep an eye on it and make sure you are keeping track of what needs to be submitted when, because you won’t really receive notifications otherwise. Be aware that you will need to pay social security before your application and registration will be processed.
Another aspect that you should be aware about is that the course sign-ups at Sciences Po operate in a similar manner to tut sign-ups at UCT. It’s a mad panic and rush to sign up for your desired course online on registration day – once the course is fully subscribed you cannot get into it so you need to be waiting at your computer on the day that registration opens and select your courses as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.
In terms of the course work itself – I found the French system to be very much based on critical thinking skills and most of the work I did involved reading various papers and critiquing them, highlighting their weak points and showing how they can be improved. You will find that the French love to complain and critique just about anything and everything so this follows through into their academic studies. The system also works such that your assignments are marked out of 20 (with a 10 being a pass) and your work is assessed in relation to the work of your peers. You get a class ranking on your transcript and many students found it very hard to get high marks at Sciences Po which was sometimes a bit disheartening.
You will find that there is limited space on campus – the facilities are much smaller than those at UCT – you will often struggle to find a seat in the library, especially around exam times, and there is not much of a community atmosphere on campus as most people come for lectures and the leave again. However, there are plenty of opportunities to try sports or arts classes and develop new skills while meeting new people. This is a really great way to meet other students – particularly if you partake in team sport activities – and I enjoyed getting to try activities such as yoga, zumba and sewing classes.
There is a sports day during the welcome week and I highly recommend attending this as you get to meet many fellow students and get an idea of what sports will be on offer. The sports association, AS, and the cultural organisation, BDA, are highly active at Sciences Po – hosting various events and parties throughout the year so be sure to sign up for them. Everything at Sciences Po happens over Facebook via groups so it is vital that you join all of these to keep abreast of what’s going on at campus and read the newsletters that will be sent to your email to find out about interesting talks and lectures.
Finally, I would also recommend that future Science Po exchange students make the most of the buddy system of which they are automatically a part. You will be sent an email notifying you of this and providing you with the contact details of your ‘buddy’- these are French students who have signed up to be a mentor and friend to incoming exchange students. I immediately contacted mine and was richly rewarded for it. Having spent a semester at UCT herself, my buddy was crazy about South Africa and she invited me over to her house for a French dinner shortly after I arrived in Paris. Not only did we get on extremely well, but she as an endless source of valuable information, someone I could turn to when I knew nothing and no-one else and allowed me to gain insight into the lives of French students, which is not something everyone was privy too. Apparently many exchange students do not bother to get in contact with their buddy and I can really advise against this – it will be to your detriment! Make as much of this opportunity as you can!
Bank Account
Opening a bank account when you get to France will be one of the most important and thus first things you do. There are plenty to choose from and in my own experience –it was fairly easy to do. For students at Sciences Po, it’s even easier. During orientation/welcome week, each of the banks have stalls in the main hall where you can sign up for bank accounts and some of them even offer you money to do so. For example, I chose Societe Generale and they gave me 80 Euros for opening a current account, and would have given me up to 40 Euros extra for opening savings accounts. I simply filled in the forms at Sciences Po, went into the bank’s branch to sign some documents and thereafter received my bank card in the mail (yes that’s right – everything operates via the snail mail in France). I think you will need proof of residence to open an account though so ask your landlord for this before you go to the bank.
Most importantly though, at the branch you will receive your RIB. This is your key to all things payment in Paris. RIB stands for Relevé d'Identité Bancaire and are the bank details that you need to provide people to receive and pay money. You will need this for your cellphone package, CAF stipend etc so you will want to get it as soon as possible. Note that the stipend that comes with the exchange will be paid to you directly by Sciences Po but only once your bank account is open as they also need your RIB to transfer the funds to you.
Budget
Be warned – living in Paris is expensive! Things are very costly and you will want to do quite a few leisure activities to get the most out of your stay there – so take more money than you plan on spending just to be safe. On the bright side though – there are plenty of opportunities for odd jobs and earning some extra pocket money. There were many people looking for babysitters and language tutors so that is an option if you are looking for a way to make some money. This was the rough budget that I followed while in Paris:
Paris Costs / Rands Per Week / Euros Per Week / Rands Per Month* / Euros Per MonthRent / 2250 / 150 / 9000 / 600
Food / 750 / 50 / 3000 / 200
Transport (Metro Ticket) / 225 / 15 / 900 / 60
Entertainment / 450 / 30 / 1800 / 120
Internet/Calls / 93.75 / 6.25 / 375 / 25
TOTAL / 3768.75 / 251.25 / 15075 / 1005
Study Visa / R 1950
Assumed 4 weeks per month
The cheapest grocery stores I found were FranPrix, Idle and Dia – look for these when you arrive.