First day of classes at Sciences-Po.
So today I finally started class for my semester abroad. Yes, I realize that most colleges have been in school for at least a month by now, but just remember that the French make their own rules and do as they well please.
First, a little bit about my school. I’m going to l’Institut d’Études Politiques, which is more commonly known as Sciences-Po. The student body is about seven or eight thousand. Last year, 42% of the student population was comprised of international students. It’s known as a Grande École, meaning that students compete through spots by take rigorous oral and written exams prior to entering. The school is immensely rigorous, and often finds itself internationally among the ranks of Yale and Oxford. Sometimes, people will ask me what I’m doing here and where I study, and when I tell them Sciences-Po, they take pause for a moment and then say something along the lines of, “Wow.” My friends here and I find amusement in this, because most of us had only an inkling of the prestige that the school carries, and also because our application processes were fairly simple. Alumi of Sciences-Po include former French Prime Ministers Jacques Chirac and François Mitterrand (among at least ten others), a former Secretary-General of the United Nations, many other international heads of state, Jean-Claude Trichet (the current president of the European Central Bank), Derek Bok (former president of Harvard), and Christian Dior.
I had three courses: Developmental Economics, Labor and Politics, and a French language course. The first course started at 8h00 and lasted until 10h00, which gave me ample time to come home and take a much needed nap. I went back for class at 14h45 and had my last class at 19h15.
The classes are… kind of different. First off, they’re two hours long. This is a lot different than the fifty/1h15 minute courses that I have in the United States. Also, we only have each class once a week, as opposed to two/three times. As a result, it’s really hard to meet people. The classes so far have had very little interaction, or at least, to the point where you can get to know people. Fortunately, I was here for the Welcome Program and based on today, it seems that we’ll continue to hang out with each other.
I’ve signed up to take three courses in English and four in French. Today, I two of them were in English, which is interesting. The professors speak English well enough, but they sort of lack the same sort of confidence that I’ve found that teachers have in the United States. They certainly don’t stumble through their thoughts, but it’s just a different sort of delivery, I suppose. One professor openly admitted that we shouldn’t hesitate to ask him to clarify because English is not his native language. The other asked the class at one point how to pronounce a word (the word was ‘irreconsilable’).
Also, one of my professors is absolutely hilarious. Somethign about him reminds me of Fred Willard’s character from “Best in Show,” which is my favorite movie ever. If he were only aware of how funny he is, and had the intentions, then I would certainly laugh throughout the whole class. He also pronounces the word “idea” as “idear,” which also makes me chuckle.
The grading for classes is also a little bit different. We typically don’t seem to have actual tests, or quizzes. Instead, we have papers to turn in and presentations to do that take up all of the grade. For most of my classes, we have just three assignments to do throughout the semester, all do at various times. The grading scale is completely different, too. Rather than having a system of A’s, B’s, C’s, D’s, and F’s, we have a grading system that goes from 0-20. This is a little misleading, though, because it’s nearly impossible to get a 20. Even getting an 17 or 18 makes you at the top of your class. Most students have to average about a 10 for all of their classes, which is probably equivalent to a C+ or B- or so.
Lastly, there seems to be no rules regarding confidentiality in grading. The United States has very strict policies that forbid any student from gaining the knowledge of the grades of other students. Even parents can’t know, unless it’s through their own children. Here, however, that idea seems to be thrown out the window. In our French class, we did an auditory test to gauge listening comprehension. At the end, we graded our own tests and then the teacher called out our names to ask our scores, and we responded aloud, in front of everyone class. How brutal, huh?
Anyway, after six hours of class today, I’m exhausted an am about ready to go to bed - and it’s before midnight, which is no small feat for me.
