Diving into Paris Past Review
By ELizabeth P (Communication Studies, University of California - Los Angeles) for
CEA CAPA Education Abroad: Paris, France
LOVED it. I have done a lot of traveling, alone and with friends, and had lived abroad before independently. It was so nice to have a program to take care everything for me!
Personal Information
| If you took classes at multiple universities, list those universities here: | CEA, Sorbonne |
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 6 months+ |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
Loved the two classes I took with CEA - a photography and an art history class. They were very easy but still interesting, and the teachers were wonderful. At the Sorbonne, the grammar class was horrible and the professor was one of the worst I've ever had, which was quite disappoint as I was expecting a very high level of teaching. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
WONDERFUL staff, always so helpful and friendly, would go out of their way for to help with anything! They really tried to get us out and see Paris through excursions and raffels where we could win things like theater tickets. |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
I lived at Cité Universitaire. It was wonderful to have my own room, but I would have liked to live with international students, not just Americans. It was really out of the way, on the edge of Paris. I wish I had signed up for an apartment - the ones my friends were assigned through CEA looked wonderful. |
| * Food: |
CEA didn't provide any food for us, but they gave good advice on where to eat, and were helping with providing us with cooking supplies |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
Mystery tour was awesome, all the raffel prizes were great. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
The healthcare CEA used was excellent and the staff helped schedule doctors appointments for me with English speaking doctors. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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Language
| * Did your program have a foreign language component? | Yes |
| If applicable, to what degree did your living situation aid your language acquisition? |
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| Language acquisition improvement? |
I only took French through the Sorbonne, and not through CEA. I ended up speaking very little French at all here, as I was living in an American residence hall. I made tons of friends here, but almost all were other foreigners from other parts of Europe who spoke French as well. It wasn't until I found an internship independently that I started getting more fluent. |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
Select all that apply |
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* Who did you live with?
Select all that apply |
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A Look Back
| * What did you like most about the program? |
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| * What could be improved? |
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| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Talk to EVERYONE, try to make friends outside your program - it will give you more diversity and more valuable connections. Go out every night, not to party, but to walk around and do something new. |
