Overseas Briefing - 04/28/10

PARIS — Americans often talk about French exceptionalism, a term that, in its most general definition, means the French way of doing things.

In the political and economical sense, it embodies the state being involved in many aspects of life, which leads to positive results such as universal healthcare — something the United States only achieved recently — that often works great. There are, of course, negative externalities too, such as strikes. They are so common that in three months I have witnessed at least five.

Although lots can be said about that, I don’t want to focus on political and economical exceptionalism, but rather talk about the French higher education system — which is indeed ‘exceptional’ in its own sense.

I was presented with two academic choices before I came to Paris: one was the Université Paris system, which is a pretty standard public European university with huge classes, some smaller sections and not a lot of work; the other one was Sciences Po, which was described to me as “the Harvard of France,” a great school from which most of the French public servants graduate. I chose to do the second, but little did I know that I would be severely disappointed.

Almost two weeks in, I remember telling one of my friends here from Middlebury that I was quite confused, because if this was the Harvard of France, then how could France be such a developed country with a great reputation for renowned diplomats? Middlebury made me a fervent supporter of the liberal arts system, and as an Economics major I took my share of my non-major classes, from Russian History to Film/Media Culture.

Here, by contrast, it’s mostly, if not only, political science courses. Furthermore, the classes aren’t interactive at all, the professors aren’t accessible and the format is extremely rigid. Although that is acceptable since the school teaches people to be diplomats, it is far from the well-roundedness I was used to.

As a result, I have, unfortunately, never been as unmotivated to do work in my entire academic life. There are many elements to that. In Middlebury there are almost no distractions, whereas in Paris the whole world around you is a distraction. You can write a presentation or go out to a nice park and have a picnic.

You can wake up early to go to your (worthless) class or you can go out at night. It’s not like Middlebury students can just have fun Erasmus style — for most exchange students, it’s pass-fail, whereas for us our grades count. It doesn’t help that the French grade harshly: grades are given out of 20, and apparently, no one can get a 20, God can get a 19, professors can get a 17 or 18, and only the top students can hope for a 16. While the professors think that by giving you a grade barely over ten – the passing grade – it often translates as a lower B in the Middlebury scale, which indicates you have to work hard.

Now that I’m almost done with the semester, I appreciate the fact that I didn’t study back home in Turkey, which has a system quite similar to France, and realize how great of a school Middlebury is. I have always appreciated the liberal arts system, but now I realize that I was spoiled by it and I desperately miss it.

Studying abroad is certainly a rewarding experience, language-wise and culture-wise, but I only hope it would be as rewarding academically too. As a result, BannerWeb registration, often a pain, became a sort of pleasure for me last week. It meant, soon enough, I’d back to amazing classes.