French Baccalaur

sovereigndebt
Wed, 21 Dec 2011 10:42:49 +0000

US universities could care less about the French bac exam. They require the SAT or ACT exam scores, at least once.

You need to determine how you would pay for this as you are not eligible for US Government student loans, but perhaps a Fulbright Scholarship if you are in the elite score range.

Undergraduate studies in the United States are very different than in France. French universities are mostly large, public, urban and very bureaucratic with zero athletics and social life. In fact, few have a “campus” like US colleges and most resemble the NYU model. (NYU is private and very expensive, however.) US colleges are often bucolic, on large green campuses, with many buildings, dorms, athletic facilities, a huge social life. Further, most colleges have a core curriculum and emphasize a broad based liberal arts for the first year, if not two. French schools tend to be stovepipes and not broad based. Its a night and day experience. I studied for one full year (12 months) in France during my undergraduate years many decades ago.

Also, don’t be confused by the word “college”. We use the Oxford term, whereas in Continental Europe (France, Germany etc.) the world “college” is something less than a university. The word “college” in the United States is a reference to the size of the school and often whether it has graduate (Master’s and Phd) programs in sufficient number to warrant a title of “university”, but has NO BEARING on the quality of education whatsoever. Many very prestigious schools have the moniker college, i.e. Dartmouth College.

Bonne Chance!