Studying in France as Americans: First Month of our Master’s Degrees

It’s already been one month since Jalen and I arrived in France to pursue graduate degrees. We attend the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne and are first-year master’s students studying Logistics and Public Law respectively. Read on to find out what the first month, from arriving in France to taking our first classes, looked like!

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Our plane landed in France on August 28th, 2020 and we settled into the Airbnb that we had reserved for a week. Our first order of business was completing our Inscription Administrative, or enrollment, in our university. We completed the in-person steps at our university’s enrollment help desk in the city center, which included an identity check, paying for our Contribution de vie étudiante et de campus (CVEC) and our Responsabilité Civile, and receiving the necessary paperwork to complete the online procedure. Next, we payed our tuition fees and submitted our enrollment paperwork to our university electronically. After our payments and forms were processed, we gained access to our university’s online interface and received university email addresses.

Once we were enrolled in school, we began our apartment search. After a week filled with lots of phone calls and several visits, we moved into our new apartment. Though it wasn’t as simple as our last apartment search with the Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF), we were glad to have secured housing before our classes started!

Thereafter, we made our first official trip to campus so that I could complete my Inscription Pédagogique, or course registration. My course registration was an in-person, obligatory event where all of the first-year master’s students studying law signed up for classes on paper. Luckily, I had taken the time to read through all of the course offerings beforehand, and was able to make informed choices on my classes for the year.

Jalen‘s program didn’t have an Inscription Pédagogique because he didn’t have a choice in the classes he’s taking this year. Instead, he was automatically enrolled in the correct courses without having to complete any additional paperwork.

My first day of classes was September 14th, and for the first two weeks, I only had to attend my Cours Magistraux, or lecture classes that last from three to four hours each. I started attending both my lectures and my Travaux Dirigés, or seminar classes that last from two to four hours each, the week of September 28th.

Jalen’s first day of classes was September 17th, and he began attending both his Cours Magistraux and his Travaux Dirigés right away. Since he didn’t have an Inscription Pédagogique, his first day of school included a meeting with all the first-year master’s students studying logistics and the head of the program.

This month has been a whirlwind of emotions for Jalen and I. As happy as we are to be spending more time in France, arriving during a pandemic, finding housing, and beginning our graduate studies has been taxing. We are getting used to being in class for thirty hours per week, adjusting to studying completely in our second language, and learning new things about our respective fields every day! We are leaning on each other for support and staying positive while we transition into our new student lifestyle.

If you have any questions or want to know more, leave us a comment down below!

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Check out this month’s update video!

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Check out our video about our daily life as students in France!

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