A Candid Review of Year One in French Graduate School
If you’ve been following our blog for a while, you know Jalen and I have shared nearly everything about our experience as American master’s degree students in France. We crafted a step-by-step guide to the application process, detailed how we found housing, outlined our student budget, showed our weekly schedules, divulged our best insider tips, shared our struggles as international students, gave personal monthly updates, and much more!
Now that Jalen and I have completed the Master 1 level at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne (URCA), we want to share a straightforward and concise review of our first year in French graduate school. We’ve broken up our experience into nine categories and will use the following rating system:
★★★★★: Great experience
★★★★☆: Good experience
★★★☆☆: Mediocre experience
★★☆☆☆: Subpar experience
★☆☆☆☆: Poor experience
Application Procedure
We applied for our master’s degrees in France using the Études en France platform. We found the website to be relatively easy to navigate and the process to be uncomplicated. For us, the most demanding parts of applying were gathering the required documents and crafting our French cover letters. Though the phone interview was nerve-racking, it was but a brief part of the seven-months-long ordeal. Overall, we were pleased with the application procedure.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Visa Process
Immediately after we finished our year as English assistants with the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF), we returned to the United States to apply for our student visas. The process was impeded by COVID-19 which lead to uncertainty and lengthy visa processing times. Additionally, though Jalen and I submitted the exact same documents at our VFS Global appointments, the French Embassy requested a “missing letter of enrollment” from me. Because it was impossible for me to have such a letter before arriving in France, I had to craft a file comprised of documents demonstrating that I had already submitted all the necessary paperwork. Thankfully, we were both eventually granted our visas, but the lead-up was naturally stressful for us.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Inscription
As international students, we had to carry out our Inscription Administrative, or enrollment, after arriving in France. URCA facilitates this process for degree-seeking international students with their one-stop-shop where we were able to pay for both our Contribution de vie étudiante et de campus (CVEC) and our Responsabilité Civile. Armed with the proper proof-of-payment documents, we were then able to finalize our enrollment by paying tuition and submitting the necessary paperwork online. Except for some delays processing Jalen’s submission, the process went pretty smoothly.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Housing
Our housing search in Reims, France was surprisingly simple and painless. In just one week, we found an inexpensive, move-in ready apartment on leboncoin that was in proximity to both the city center and our university’s campus. Our short timeline and tight budget were certainly challenging to work with, and we ended up having to call around 50 landlords to express our interest in their apartments, but we are happy with our little, eccentric French apartment.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Program Choice
This year, Jalen completed a Master 1 in Logistics while I did mine in Public Law. When we consider the reasons we chose these fields in the first place, we are both satisfied with how our programs lined up with our expectations. We both gained specialized knowledge about our respective domains, improved our technical French vocabulary, and learned skills that will benefit us when we enter the workforce. My program in particular was extremely challenging, and I was faced with a steep learning curve, but am nonetheless pleased with my choice of program.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Instruction Quality
In our experience, the professors and instructors at URCA were a mix of experienced educators, practicing professionals, and helpful doctorate students. Though the instruction was admittedly of much higher caliber when classes were held in person versus online, the standard of education remained important to our teachers. Furthermore, many of our educators were understanding and supportive of us as international, anglophone students. With only a few exceptions, we were content with the quality of instruction.
Rating: ★★★☆☆
Campus
Both of our programs were housed at the Croix-Rouge campus of URCA. The grounds boast unique architecture, numerous classrooms and amphitheaters, and a spacious library among other amenities. While it pales in comparison to the conveniences of an American university campus, we found that it provided us with everything that we needed and more.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Internship
The first year of Jalen’s master’s degree included a mandatory internship. Securing said internship was understandably taxing considering the economic pressures that came with COVID-19 and the added difficulty of tackling a job search in France as a foreigner for the first time. However, once he obtained the internship, submitted the proper paperwork to his program, and got into the swing of working, the experience blossomed into an outstanding opportunity. He has gained crucial work experience, forged connections with colleagues, and even made around 550 € per month for his contributions to the company.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Cost
We can still hardly believe that tuition for the first year of our master’s degrees came to just 243 €. We are thrilled to have had the opportunity to attend a French university for such a low price. Though other public French universities have adopted a price scheme that charges non-EU students 3,770 € per year at the master level, we attend a school that maintains identical pricing for European and non-European students. Not only did the modest cost give us access to an excellent education, but it also allowed us to finance a fulfilling student lifestyle independently. We are thankful for the chance to continue our education in France so inexpensively.
Rating: ★★★★★
Overall Experience
It wasn’t always easy, but all in all, our experience was a positive one. The magnitude of the challenges we faced was rivaled only by that of our triumphs. The first year of French graduate school pushed us to grow both academically and personally, and we are ready and excited to take on year number two!
Rating: ★★★★☆
If you’d like to know more about our experience, leave us a comment. Stay tuned as we tackle the second the year of our master’s degrees as Americans in France!
2 Comments
Maurice
This is so moving.
Congrats, Jalen, for landing an internship in a foreign country, while speaking a foreign language. And so happy you made crucial contacts while there. Cherish them, both the good and the bad.
I know it’s not always easy, but what you are both accomplishing cummulatively is amazing.
I also appreciate the time line you have shared with us. That will help those of us who follow in your footsteps. You both are trailblazers. I know others have done this before, but they have not detailed the experience in such an open and transparent way.
You always help us make such informed and nuanced decisions.
Jalen & Maria for President!
Maurice
Jalen & Maria
We are so glad that our content is fulfilling its intended purpose and helping others! Thank you for this kind comment.