@AllisonNelson Thank you so much for the prompt reply! 
@student42 No problem! Keep the questions coming for us, we’re happy to help where we can 
@AllisonNelson Hey it’s me again 
Here is another question. Thank you so much.
I’m thinking about applying to the Reims campus, but other than its focus on “the relations between Europe and North America” and location, I’m unsure of its differences from the other two campuses. Since you’re at Le Havre, maybe you could ask your mates at Reims for me why they chose Reims and what are the special/distinct/amazing things about studying at the Reims campus that I need to know? Essentially, a comparison between the three campuses would be immensely helpful
Thank you once again.
Hey! I have two quick questions concerning the admissions…
Do you think it could cause trouble if the number of words of one of my essays is 1100 instead of the requested 1000 words? :-S O:-)
And do we receive any kind of confirmation when/that all requested documents have arrived?
Thank you in advance!
@student42 Really the major difference among the three campuses is the region of focus. And the region of focus doesn’t actually come into play that much with your classes; rather it affects which languages are available for you and some electives. For example, at Le Havre, there are electives such as Confucianism, Asian Roots of Globalization, Bollywood Film, etc. However, it does also affect the student population in that you will have a lot of students around you that are from countries in the region of focus. Other than the languages, the classes across all three campuses are the same. We all learn exactly the same content for the same fundamental courses.
Another major and obvious difference is the location which does matter. While I hate admitting this, Reims is the best in terms of location, as it’s the nicest and biggest when compared to Le Havre and Menton, and it’s closest to Paris. Le Havre is an ugly city with bad weather, but it’s still easy to go to Paris for day trips. Menton is the worst in terms of location (even though the city itself is apparently nice looking and is located right on the Cote d’Azur), because it’s very far from Paris, and there are no direct trains connecting it to Paris. This makes it near impossible for Sciences Po professors to commute from Paris to Menton; as such, the Menton gets stuck with watching video lectures, which I’ve heard are very shitty. (All of the professors who give lectures as well as many of the seminar teachers commute from Paris.) Really all I can say about deciding among the three campuses is to pick the one with the region of focus that you are not interested in. I would not advise making location or other factors more important than that. But I will ask a couple of acquaintances at Reims what you would like to know and get back to you. (Some of them were on this thread last year - perhaps they will join this thread and answer you themselves!)
It wouldn’t cause trouble (obviously they’re not going to count every word to make sure you aren’t over the limit), but if I were you I would try to trim it down more. I know how hard it is to do that, since it feels as if every word of your heart and soul absolutely needs to be in that personal essay, but I assure you that it’s possible to trim it down without losing its impact. So try to trim it down as much as you can!
We don’t get confirmation emails, but if you check the application portal regularly, it will tell you when a document has been received (it has a red x next to it on the list of application materials; once it’s arrived and been processed, it becomes a green check mark - this is assuming the website for this year is the same as it was for us last year).
Hey everyone! I’m a first year in the Dual BA at Reims, so if you have any questions, either about Reims or in general, feel free to ask me
Hey! I’m a 1A in Reims, here to answer all your questions
Ahhh it won’t post my whole thing…
1A in Reims, here to answer all your questions
everything that @AllisonNelson said is true for basically all campuses. Perks of Reims:
We’re the biggest campus by far (somewhere betw 800 and 1000) and poised to double in size when the Paris undergrad program moves to Reims within a few years! Exciting stuff!
What else? We have champagne. It sounds superficial, but I love it - each event of some size has a champagne cave sponsoring it also, we’re 45 mins away from Paris by train. And the campus is gorgeous
It’s not a huge city but there’s definitely some exploring to do - we have a bunch of world war history, an amazing cathedral (look it up, and then think about the fact that I can see it from my window 
), art deco architecture… the center is a 15-20 mins walk from campus, which I think is perfect. I go 1-3 times a week.
We’re poised to win the Minicrit too!! (Sports & arts competition betw campuses) (our mascot is a beaver, super threatening, I know)
In terms of geographic specificity, it’s almost too specific, but there are reforms that will start with your year that aim to widen the range of stuff that is studied a bit. I would say that the geographic focus should determine what campus you pick.
I love this program and I really encourage you to apply!!! Also ask any questions you may have Good luck to all!
Hi, I’m currently applying to the Dual BA program between Sciences Po and Columbia, as well as the one between SP and UC Berkeley. I was wondering if you all had any advice about the essays?
Also, for those of you that have applied to multiple SP Dual BA programs, do you know if the admissions committee on the Sciences Po side overlaps across Dual BA programs? I ask this because my answer to why I want to attend Sciences Po through either program are the same, but I’m worried that reusing parts of an essay will reflect poorly on me.
First off, I can’t stop myself from saying that Le Havre will sweep the competition at Minicrit, especially since we kill it every year with arts. BUT you can chalk my saying that up to the campus rivalry that exists among the campuses, lol. (Paris is the most hated campus, though.)
The best I can say about writing the essays is the cliche “just be yourself!” I would suggest you really do your research on this program. My tour guide when I first visited Columbia from this program (he was part of the first graduating cohort of the program) suggested watching videos on Sciences Po’s vimeo (they’re also on YouTube and social media) page. Do whatever you can to get a good idea for what life is like to decide if you really can see yourself here. In the essays, be yourself, be genuine, and show why you think you’re the perfect fit for this program; do what you can to show that you’re a well-rounded person who has a lot to contribute to the program. I’m hesitant to tell you exactly how to present yourself, as you shouldn’t conform yourself to a certain image instead of being yourself. But I will say that I think curiosity about the world around you is a necessary quality to be a good fit for this program. And once you do write your essays, go over it with a couple different people (parents, friends, teachers, etc.) whose judgment you trust.
I believe the admissions committees are separate. The admissions office for the Columbia is JUST the Columbia people, which was the same case at UBC and perhaps at other programs. BUT you will have direct contact with Sciences Po for the interview, which is normally the most critical step of the application process for Sciences Po. For my Columbia interview, I was interviewed by Patrick Martinez, who is the head of the admissions department for this program, and Florent Bonaventure, whom I later learned was the campus dean for Le Havre (!!!). For UBC, I was interviewed by somebody from UBC and somebody from the Reims campus (I applied to Reims for that program, and the interview process was totally different from that of the Columbia program - don’t assume the interview process is similar across every dual-degree program). TL;DR I don’t think the admissions committee on Sciences Po overlaps, but it’s possible if you apply to the same campus for both programs. I think you will be fine if you reuse parts of an essay; I did that and had no problems.
@student1978 when I talked to Patrick Martinez last year, he explained how the admissions process works: basically, each side (Columbia, Sciences Po) looks at all the applications, makes a decision on them (yes/no/maybe) and then they call each other and confer.
You will probably be interviewed by one person from each uni regardless of which dual BA you are applying to (for me, it was Patrick Martinez and Olivier Ruchet, who until recently was the Head of the Euro-American program).
The other thing that I can tell you is that Sciences Po administration is rather small, which means that the pool of people they would trust to do interviews is even smaller - so yes, perhaps there may be some of the same people reading both of your applications (I know that Olivier Ruchet was doing admissions stuff for both the Columbia and UC Berkeley dual BAs). But it might not be a terrible thing either to reuse parts of your motivation essay; at least you’re sure you won’t be contradicting yourself!
@student1978 hey! So, could you tell me your prompts first. Just to check they’re the same as last year
The prompts are
Required Essay 1:
Describe how your experiences or ideas have shaped your decision to pursue the Dual BA Program.Why are an international academic experience and a two-year focus on the social sciences important to you as you consider the ways in which it may influence your future?
Successful essays should not only identify and describe specific elements of the Dual BA Program that meet your needs as a student, but should also explain why the region of focus that you have chosen for your time at Sciences Po is compatible with your aspirations, academic or otherwise.(500–1,000 words)
Required Essay 2:
As a mathematician in ancient Greece, Euclid made a famous statement to King Ptolemy, “there is no royal road to geometry”. Given your success, can you describe a failure, either personal or academic, that you have experienced (where you “lacked a royal road” to be followed), and what you have learned from this experience? (500–750 words)
So same as last year
Oh wait the 2nd prompts a little bit different
Well for the 1st prompt I think most people have story to tell. You’ll have a lot of international kids, e.g. me, with international backgrounds, and it’s all about how you portray it. The 2nd one is gonna need some searching, primarily soul searching. Don’t lie. Make it something powerful, sad, embarassing, strong, that shows how resilient you are in the face of failure. I made it about my experience with baskeball, basically how when I first moved to Madrid in 2011 and joined my school’s team I was total shit, coach didn’t play me for a year, but I stuck around, trained with both JV and Varsity to improve, did 1-1 trainings with my coach, got better, and better, long story short I started playing, became JV captain, and ultimately Varsity captain. Everyone has a story to tell, so look for it. I honestly spent 1 week thinking just to find the topic. I would only suggest you don’t write about that one time you failed a math test and nearly didn’t pass the class. Except if that was in 9th grade and then made you turn your life around because you were failing all your classes or something, I wouldn’t make the 2nd one very academic. But it’s up to you and your personal experiences. If anyone needs help with these just PM me!
Wow! I’ve been checking this site occasionally since August to see if there was a 2017 thread and didn’t find this until right after submitting the UC Berkeley Dual BA app (since that deadline is tomorrow, good luck everyone!).
I know most people answering questions on this thread are still just starting their time at Sciences Po, but I guess I’ll just ask anyway. I’m applying to both Columbia and Berkeley programs as an Econ major for the 2nd two years, but I’m not 100% sure if that is really want I’ll want to study for a diploma 2 years from now, and I know most U.S. school’s have a more general ed style before students get really focused on their major so would you say doing that makes more sense than this program in that kind of situation?
@ClaraOswald908 Okay, I THINK I understand your question. You asked about going to a US school for its gen ed style in order to know for sure what your interests/major will be as opposed to following this specialized program.
I will say that this program is restrictive in the sense that you don’t have a lot of options in terms of major. During your first two years at Sciences Po, you can only pick among history, economics, and law, and you really don’t take classes that stray far from the social sciences and languages. You do have more options during your final two years at Columbia (or Berkeley, whichever program), although I wouldn’t suggest this program to somebody unless she’s sure she wants to study the social sciences. I know of a couple people (they are a rare minority, however) who have found that they hate the social sciences and would prefer to study another subject and even of somebody who transferred out of the program. If you are interested in the social sciences and want to study it, then this would be a good program. If you find that you want to study something different, you will still have that option when you get to Columbia. But if you aren’t sure how interesting the social sciences are to you, then I would really consider whether Sciences Po is the right choice.
@AllisonNelson Thank you very much for your reply!