Study Abroad Programs in France

pamom59 · 06-18-2012, 03:56 PM

My sophomore daughter is considering a summer study abroad in France next year. Does anyone have any recommendations for best programs/cities for study abroad in France? Also can you advise on what she should be looking for in a program, what questions to ask?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

nyuhopeful11 · 06-19-2012, 12:59 AM

I've been researching the same thing for myself, and it seems like API has some great programs! (I have no experience with them, but they look good and it's a starting point!)

cupcake · 06-19-2012, 04:51 AM

What is the purpose of the trip? When you say "summer study" I assume not language immersion. A summer is not long enough to produce any kind of fluency. Is there something in particular your D is interested in? French art? Cooking? Sometimes there are specialist programs for things like that.

Credits and GPA - will anything transfer? If so, how is GPA calculated? This is very important. I get loads of PMs from people who say study abroad runined their GPA, and it will unless there is some kind of "translation" into a US grade. Check to see if this is fair.

Programs range from full immersion to total isolation. Full immersion might involve staying with a host family who speak no English in a small town with few tourists. Full isolation might be staying in a dorm with other American students only, under constant supervision of a teacher or other chaperone, and never having any contact with anyone who is French (possibly eating every meal in McDs....). What your D would prefer depends on how confident she is, if she can speak any French at all, if she has any previous travelling experience, what she wants out of the program etc etc.

I would tend towards choosing somewhere other than Paris, because Paris is pretty hot and crowded in the summer. but I'm saying this as someone who has been there zillions of times. That could be your Ds dream. There are lots of gorgeous places in France. Nice, Strasbourg, almost anywhere in Brittany etc. Beach? Alps? what do you want?

Also consider whether simply a vacation might be cheaper. If your D, like many students, just wants to travel round Europe, feel free to do that. Paying lots more to call it studying is not worth it in my opinion.

Thomas29 · 06-19-2012, 05:08 AM

I live in Paris and I disagree with the post above. It will be hot and crowded anywhere she goes in France. She might as well go to the best place in the country! Especially if it is her first time there, why go somewhere boring like Bretagne ?

At worst, she can always try Toulouse, it's very popular among students !

If you have any questions feel free to PM me

pamom59 · 06-19-2012, 08:03 AM

Hello and thanks for the responses!

My D loves French language, culture and France. We have travelled as a family on vacation to Paris and Normandy, and as a high school student she spent 2 weeks in Lyon with a high school exchange program.

She hopes to be able to be able to increase her fluency in French as well as earn credits that will apply to her minor in French. Her university offers a study abroad program taught by their own faculty for their own students with credits that are designed to transfer- this program is for 6 weeks and includes 4 days in Paris and the rest a homestay in Nantes. This would be the easiest, and probably least expensive route. This route would probably not "ruin" her GPA. Thanks for bringing up that consideration as that could be a consideration.

She also wants to look into other programs at other cities. She thinks that she would prefer something outside Paris. I started looking into the options on the website of CEA Global Education.

CEA offers a summer program in Aix-en-Provence through University Paul Cezanne Aix-Marseille III. This program is billed as complete immersion and includes international students. It is offered for 4 or 8 weeks.

CEA also offers a program in Grenoble through Stendhal University- Grenoble 3 Centre Universitaire D'Etudes Francaise and also a program on the French Riviera

CEA offers a program in the French Riviera through Centre Intrnational D-Antibes in Antibes Old Town.

Any thoughts on comparing Nantes, Aix, Grenoble and French Riviera as study abroad destinations?

NeedAVacation · 06-19-2012, 08:32 AM

My experience is dated by 23 years or so, so worth a grain of salt.... however, I did a summer abroad in Aix-en-Provence with a different school. I wanted a home-stay and had been advised to go to the South of France where people would be more friendly and it would be less expensive. My experience was that Aix is a university town and tourist area and people did not care much for students and were not friendly overall. Now, some of the other students had excellent home stays, but several of us were not fed very well and did not get the family interaction we were looking for. It was an expensive area. The location, however, is good for day trips throughout Provence, and at that time, they did have a fantastic summer music series with many free concerts, etc. After that, I spent a week in Paris, which was fantastic. I found people to be very friendly there and a variety of restaurants where I could actually afford to eat. (My d also found Parisians to be friendly during a a recent trip this past semester.)

My favorite college French professor was from Nantes, and he was a great professor and very nice man. I got the impression that Americans were more highly regarded in that area of France, but again, that was a long time ago and an impression from one person.

My advice would be to try to get some feedback from recent students in any of those programs.

cupcake · 06-20-2012, 10:49 AM

A home stay is probably the best option for someone looking to increase their language skills as it increases the chances of full language immersion (though note I did a home stay in Germany when in high school and the entire family practised their English on me. I'm not sure I used a word of German the entire time!) I don't think a summer is at all long enough for a beginner to see much of an improvement, but for a high level student exposure to the spoken language will help, and it will also help with confidence.

I have had a good experience of homestays, but one of the things you should ask is what is the program policy should the homestay go wrong? Obviously we all hope this doesn't happen, but it might.

Regarding "family interaction" discussed by NeedAVacation, you may imagine the homestay will be a 2 parent family with children of the same age looking for cultural exchange. In reality people host students for the money. More than likely in a cheaper area, single parent or unemployed families or the retired trying to make ends meet. My sister had a wonderful homestay in France (in Nice) with a retired lady who hosted about 10 students in her big empty house, but it was not much of a family experience, if that is your expectation.

Dionysus58 · 06-20-2012, 09:25 PM

I don't understand why people waste their money on ridiculous summer programmes. The classes will be hardly worthy of the name, your D won't learn anything, she certainly won't learn much French.

By all means spend the summer in France, but organise it yourself. You will save tonnes of money and have a far more rewarding experience. Look for a summer job, there's lots of seasonal work around. If you want to improve your language then think about renting a room from a local family - all the benefits of a home stay but cheaper.

cupcake · 06-21-2012, 06:00 AM

It's illegal to work in France without a visa if you're an American, so not a good suggestion.

Dionysus58 · 06-21-2012, 10:18 AM

What's stopping the OP's D getting a work visa? It's really not a hard thing to do.

mrbc2011 · 06-21-2012, 12:26 PM

I had to respond, because I studied abroad in Nantes! The homestay there you're describing is through IES? IES is the only American study abroad program there, although I think there is a school that comes in for the summer and uses IES's resources?
At any rate, you can PM me for more information if you'd like, but I LOVED it.

I lived with a homestay - the families that IES uses are great and they've all been doing this for years. I was the 11th American who lived with my family, so they knew what to do! I personally lived with a couple who had grown children who no longer lived with them, but it was still great. I felt like their surrogate daughter and they took very good care of me.

Nantes itself is a beautiful city. It's NOT a typical tourist attraction city. There are some French tourists who come through to see the castle or the cathedral or Les Machines (Les Machines de l?île) but that's really it. It's far off the beaten path for most Americans. What that means is that practically nobody speaks English. My French is good but when I go into a store or a restaurant in Paris, they often switch to English when they hear my accent. In Nantes I spoke French EVERYWHERE.

It's also an easy enough city to get around - there are three main tram lines and a pretty extensive bus system, and a monthly student pass for all of this is inexpensive.

It's a fun city - there is plenty to do and explore, and it's almost-Brittany so you get to experience a lot of that culture. (Basically there are creperies EVERYWHERE.)

Anyway, I'd highly recommend it. If you have any more questions about IES or Nantes itself, please let me know!

pamom59 · 06-21-2012, 01:06 PM

@mrbc2011 thanks so much for your feedback! Yes the program from her university is through IES. I'll pass your comments along to my daughter. If she has any more questions, I will PM you.

@dionysus58- while I appreciate your viewpoint, I am asking about study abroad programs, and not about alternatives such as independent trips or employment in France. Thanks anyway!

travelcraze · 06-21-2012, 04:58 PM

mrbc2011 makes a valid point in that studying/working/visiting a city that is not over-run with english speaking tourists may be the best way to learn the French language. With that being said, the more remote places you go, the fewer chances there will be to interact with native French speakers.

With regards to spending a summer in France, although 2-3 months may not be enough time to learn the French language, it IS enough time to gain a firmer grip on the culture, slang, and/or different colloquial phrases. I know from firsthand experience. Those 2-3 months can put pamom59's D leagues ahead of other english students during the regular school year.

I would suggest a summer exchange as opposed to just sending your D to France. Also, try asking the D's French teacher if she or he has any contacts in France. Later on down the road if your D decides to return to France, I think a structured program like API and IES would be more appropriate.

mrbc2011 · 06-22-2012, 09:47 AM

travelcraze, I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this: "With that being said, the more remote places you go, the fewer chances there will be to interact with native French speakers."

Speaking for Nantes specifically, it's definitely a city filled with native French speakers. so I don't think that would be a problem. I'm not sure if IES's summer program is structured differently from their school-year programs, but they took great pains to make sure we were interacting with local French university students. Nantes is a university town so there are plenty of students to hang out with.

At any rate, it's hardly "remote."
Nantes - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

cloudman7777 · 07-22-2012, 05:27 PM

Check out the CIDEF program in Angers, France. I've heard it's a very good program for learning French and they will give you a certificate for the acheived level of French at the end of the program. Also, I've found the program to be quite affordable, especially compared to alot of other ones.