<p>I don't know where else to get information about this university other than the website, which is just trying to sell itself to students. I like the idea of going to college in a foreign country or studying abroad 2 or 3 times or so during college.</p>
<p>Does anyone you know go here? How do they like it? Is it going to be hard to fit in with the students who go here? I'm okay with the urban campus but I want to have a student life too. How are the facilities, etc.?</p>
<p>Hey there, I’m an undergrad right now there. You’re right, the site is trying to sell the university, just like all the other colleges. Just makes it harder to sort things out. Anyway, I recommend looking on the Facebook site for future students because there’s pics of the school that are more candid and there’s even a discussion board where you can ask advice from current students. It’s still a little corporate but it’s better than the website.</p>
<p>As for what I think of AUP: personally, I absolutely love it. It’s not really hard to fit in, because there’s so much variety. It’s something like 100 nationalities for 1000 students. Probably half are trilingual, have mulitiple passports, and have grown up in different countries. Only 40% of the students are American. I don’t know, it’s such a cultural mess that eventually you find your group somehow. There’s a lot of clubs you can get involved in, too, and it’s pretty easy to start one up, I hear. Personally I do a variety of things: there’s flag football on Sundays that I go to sometimes at Invalides, Roots & Shoots (community service… we feed the homeless and stuff like that at a train station with a group of French students), AUPPA (politics association), and I just started editing for the school paper when I have some spare time. The school IS small, though, so a lot of times it takes your own personal initiative to get things going. As for the facilities, it’s a group of probably like 6 buildings all spread out in the 7th arrondissement. I’d say the facilities are decent. We have brand new computers (Macs and PCs) in every building, I’m pretty sure.</p>
<p>Does that help you out a bit? Feel free to ask any questions. I actually started a forum thing for it here on collegeconfidential because a lot of people message me with questions about AUP.</p>
<p>I forgot to write… in terms of facilities (kind of?.. it’s more a rant about the location)
I said up there that the university is in the 7th, which is also basically the most expensive real estate in all of France, I hear. YOu can still find affordable rent here, but I still wish the university were in an arrondissement that was hipper. The 7th, IMHO, is very white French, bourgeois old people with a sprinkling of tourists because it’s close to the Eiffel Tower and Champ de Mars. It’s absolutely dead at night, too. That’s just me, though. I have a few friends who like it. I just would prefer to be in an artsier neighborhood where there’s more of a racial and socioeconomic mix, like near Buttes Chaumont. Then we could go to that beautiful park where all the tormented 19th century poets promenaded whenever we wanted… <em>sigh</em></p>
<p>how is the housing? is there any?</p>
<p>yes, there’s no dorms (except for something called the “french house” which some girls did when i first came) but the school helps you find your own housing. If it’s your first year, basically you HAVE to go through them unless you specifically request not to, I’m pretty sure. these are basically the options:</p>
<p>1.) live with a French family (good idea if you want to pick up the language) 2.) live in a chambre de bonne (cheapest way to live independently. it’s what I do now. I lived with a French family my first year, though) 3.) team up with friends and get an apartment to share rent 4.) if you’re lucky and have a lot of dough, get your own apartment</p>
<p>so then how did you meet people? also, did you visit the campus before applying/accepting?</p>
<p>i met people by going to school… haha. the classes are small and so is the school so you bump into people, you find out about clubs, events, activities… i mean, there’s posters everywhere. so yeah, i guess that’s how i made friends.</p>
<p>and no, i didn’t visit before coming. i’m from the states so it would have been a far campus visit. if you’re gonna be in paris though i’d recommend doing it bc they do campus tours.</p>