pamelagip

I currently finished high school and I have in plan to study abroad in France. Lots of my friends recommended me to go in France because of its landscape and beautiful places but also for the good education they support. Can anyone of you share your experiences in France and tell me which are the best places there. Also some guides and tips for studying in France.

Hoping for good answers.
Pamela

Peabrain

Hello,

You don't provide much information as guidance for such a major, life-changing step. Were you in the Lycée français in Lisbon? What would you intend to specialise in? Where would you want to live? Can you speak French (a minimum requirement of course...)? If not you'd be wasting your time.

The French Admission Post-Bac enrolment system for those who wish to get a place in higher education has a deadline which this year was April 2nd, so you've missed the boat I fear. Surely all your friends have been asking themselves what they want to do and where, since entering their final year at high school? You'll have to find out whether EU nationals are treated any differently or whether the deadline applies to them as well. But the main thing is to decide what field of study you wish to enter, what level, where, and why. The "beautiful places and French landscape" don't really come into it, alas....

If you want to go to a French university to study, you should realize that there is no selection process to get a place in the first year, which means that, according to the subject you choose to do, you'll be surrounded by lots of people who are there only because they don't know what else to do, the fees are very low and they cover health care. I don't wish to use the word 'loser' but it won't go away. A student card gets you reductions on cinema seats too, which might have something to do with it. Lecture halls are crammed and the drop-out rate during the first two years of many degree courses is horrendous, thus lecturers can be demoralized and not that keen to expend much energy on students they know they won't be seeing very much of.

Look up the international league tables for higher education and you'll find about three French universities floating around. Polytechnique, l'École normale supérieure, HEC etc are out as someone your age, just out of high school can only get in through the competitive exam system and les classes préparatoires.

You've got a hell of lot more research to do over such a fundamental move. Asking people for advice is fine, as long as the people you ask know what you want, but more importantly, you've got to know what you want, which doesn't seem to be the case..

Good luck,
PB

cardi

Are you an Italian living in Portugal? As a university student you will get more support in Italy. France has beautiful countryside and villages but the universities are in the cities which are not particularly beautiful.

Aggie ann

I think France is a romantic country. and I wish to go to France one day. and I used to learning French by myself, but,I gave up finally. a romantic but a difficult language.

Tweedpipe

WHAT!!
You obviously don't know France, or you've not traveled to the right places.
Montpellier, Limoges, Versailles, La Rochelle, Lyon, *Touloluse*, Strasbourg, Nice - not beautiful?
Have visited all of the above which I'd say are beautiful and very pleasant cities indeed. And I'm sure there are many, many more.

*ok granted it's not clean, but it's a beautiful city nevertheless.

EuroTrash

... Tours, Reims, Angers, Paris...

Tweedpipe

Agreed.
At least some of us know, and appreciate certain cities of France.

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!
I think Chinese is a difficult language for Europeans to learn, too! Well done for trying to learn French!
Keep posting and learn more about France from us, so you'll be well prepared if you can come one day!

Novocastrian

To be fair, while Paris is largely beautiful, the universities aren't.

Peabrain

It depends; while Nanterre is ghastly, the Sorbonne proper looks good, even with the odd dreaming spire; the law school and medical school are classy, as is the English Institute, rue de l'École de Médecine, and Normale Sup. rue d'Ulm oozes character. The whole Latin Quarter is still worthwhile, even though such a lot of the shops are the same dreary Zaras and Mangoes one can see anywhere else in the world. There's still a lot of atmosphere and the Luxembourg Gardens haven't changed. But the Sorbonne is also Censier or Jussieu...

Out in the Paris suburbs there are universities in places I wouldn't want to be found dead in, like St-Denis, Villetaneuse, Créteil, Evry or Marne la Vallée, to name but a few. However, Paris-Sud is in a greenbelt suburban town called Orsay which is a great place to live, despite the awful architecture of the university itself. But until France dares to face down the students and drops the absurd absence of selection to enter university its facs are going nowhere.

Novocastrian

I distinctly remember a guest at my University in Toronto who was from Paris XII (I think) being astounded by the general level of upkeep in the interior of our buildings, which are frankly nothing special.

I understood why, because I'd earlier lectured at her University and found it to be rather similar to a bomb site further desecrated by very tawdry graffiti.

EuroTrash

It's odd but some years back when Tone decided that everybody in Britain should go to uni, I was against it because I felt that it devalued university education.

Yet here in France I would actually not want to see the policy changed.

I think the big difference is that university fees are so high in the UK, and for that amount of money you feel you ought to get something special. A whole generation getting into debt without gaining any advantage over their peers because everybody has a degree in something, to me it seemed a bit of a con.

Whereas in France pretty much everybody has the right to go to university if they want, nobody pretends that going to university proves anything much in itself, but the important difference is that it is affordable and nobody is being conned. Then natural selection takes place, so in fact not everybody achieves bac+3.

Two different scenarios and I think both are OK in their own way, but they have to be kept separate. Elitist universities with keen selection and high fees (and state aid for exceptional students), and a different and equally credible provision for students that, on those criteria, aren't university material. Or, one system that is universal and accessible to everyone, and it's up to the students to work hard and get the most out of it they can.

If French universities turn out competent students with the skills that French employers need, does it matter that they don't invest heavily in research and and attract a lot of international students and all the factors that put them top of the league?

I'm not sure what I think about it all any more, I've only just realised that my whole viewpoint on education seems to have shifted since I left the UK.

Novocastrian

Err, I think that was Maggie. In response to criticism by the EU (Common Market as was) that the UK's system of tertiary education was over-elitist (which admittedly was true), she simply redefined all the Colleges of Higher Education and the Technical Colleges as Universities. Problem solved at a stroke, not.

I'm a bit conflicted but I think I agree with most of the rest of your post.

EuroTrash

Yes I agree that Maggie did that (I was working in university admin when all the polys turned into unis and changed their names and suddenly there was a whole new set of acronyms to try and remember - including, allegedly, the Central University of Newcastle upon Tyne, before it realised ).

But I thought it was Tony Blair that set a target of an implausibly high percentage of British yoof going to uni.

Novocastrian

Did you choose that example randomly or because you know that I'm from Newcastle? The first "new" University there was Northumbria University, formerly known as Newcastle Poly.