<p>Our experience is with Germany, not France, but there might be similarities. S did "Junior Year in Munich" (That is the name of the program. -- And he planned to do this before we knew we'd be living there at the time. He was the only student in the program whose parents dropped him off!) Students in the program were from all over the US. JYIM has it's own fees, but I think most schools charged their usual tuition / R&B and paid the JYIM fees out of that. </p>
<p>Supposedly this program involves a "trade" of professors as well, although we aren't aware of any US professor being there (may have been!) and that professor certainly didn't teach JYIM students if he/she was there. While there, S took one course via JYIM, with other JYIM students -- a culture / language class, I think -- taught by JYIM staff. Otherwise, all his classes were in the German school (Ludwig Maximilliam University) with German students and German professors. He was graded like any other student, and had the same expectations on him. In one class there happened to be another JYIM student. Otherwise, he was the only American. JYIM did a few social activities together, but they strongly urged the students to not hang with other JYIM students, but get out of their US comfort zone. One thing S did was to meet weekly with a German student who wanted to improve her English, and they would converse half the time in each language. </p>
<p>The experience remains one of his most meaningful in college. He managed to get rid of his American accent, and experiencing the culture is "somewhat" :) different from reading about it.</p>
<p>Side point: One of his friends is doing a "study abroad" program this summer via their school (not sure which one) which involves visiting 3 or 4 different countries (or more?) in a 6 week period. Sound fun, but obviously a completely different kind of experience. So "study abroad" apparently means different things in different schools.</p>