Columbia Dual BA Program Between Columbia and Sciences Po?

sulzbachbaby
Sun, 21 Dec 2014 02:11:57 +0000

Hi OP! I’m a current 2nd year at UChicago. I was accepted to the Sciences Po-Columbia program my senior year. I was also intrigued by this program so I decided to apply. This is just one person’s opinion so please do not put too much weight on it.

There were certainly positives and negatives about the program but eventually the negatives outweighed the positives.

Positives: You are SURROUNDED by international people. When I went to visit Le Havre, which was my accepted campus, I met people from so many different countries, who spoke probably about 3 languages on average. I also liked that each campus had about 200 people, which creates a close-knit community. And also, you’re in France! If you’ve been learning French at a high school level to live in France for 2 years is pretty great (this was my case.) And because of France’s central location you can basically travel anywhere in Europe, and for cheap!

Negatives: The Le Havre campus is pretty dull as it is, even though Paris is only about 2 hours away. Also I ended up choosing UChicago because of the rigor and because of its worldwide reputation. I visited a few classes at Sciences Po and the things I was doing in high school were much harder than the work at Sciences Po. I also imagined that the transition from Sciences Po after a full years, to a place like Columbia might be difficult. For me personally to really love and actually be at an institution not just physically but mentally, academically, and socially - it would take more than 2 years. For me, to have the full college experience I couldn’t be two years at one institution, then two years at another. Sciences Po is not a world-renowned school but if you plan to live in Europe at some point in your life the alumni network will really help.