I just got accepted into SYA France and I was looking for more details. How big is the homework load? How much spending money should you bring? Did you love SYA? Did you hate it? What is there to do on weekends or an overall summary of SYA. Also if you have been accepted into SYA for the 2015-2016 year, feel free to comment below!
Hey I was just accepted for SYA France too!
Mine was through the application portal. I got an email that said the decision letter would be there.
Hi! Congrats for getting accepted! I have been going insane trying to convince my parents to let me apply to go to SYA France and they were all for it…until they saw the price. I mean, $50,000 is a humongous amount of money. I would really really appreciate it if those of you who got accepted could tell me how you plan on paying for it. I hope this doesn’t sound to intrusive or personal but I honestly have no idea what to do because I’m live in a middle class family with two incomes, meaning I won’t qualify for financial aid but there is no way my family can pay for the program. Please answer me I would truly appreciate it, and once again congratulations!
@danialexa The school that I go to is an independent boarding school with a tuition of $50,000 and I receive financial aid. The financial aid that I get for my school is going to be carried over to SYA so I’m still paying the same amount for SYA as I did at school (I hope that makes sense). A lot of factors go in to choosing the right amount of financial aid. I am not sure how big SYA’s endowment is but there are tons of people at my school who are middle class and still receive financial aid. It really depends on how much money SYA has to give.
@macalico Are you definitely going? I don’t know that much SYA France!
@loco4cocoa thank you so much! It says on their website that they have over $3 million in financial aid grants. Is that similar to what your independent school has to offer in financial aid (if you dont mind me asking, of course)? Thank you! And once again, congrats on getting accepted that’s amazing! Are gou you definitely going to go?
@danialexa Yea Im definitely going!! My school has a $400-$500 million endowment but my school is also ten times the size of SYA. Hope this helps!
So I swore that I would never never never make a College Confidential account, but when I saw new SYA FR admitees I knew I wanted to impart my experience and here I am. I guess we surprise ourselves often. (I’m class of '14)
First off, for financial aid, please don’t worry until you get the package. I worried a lot (too much) about it and kind of just made myself ill, which wasn’t fun at all. Whatever happens, happens, and you can appeal if you don’t think that the award is enough. They do have a lot a lot of grant aid available, but I hope everyone who is concerned about finances applied for scholarships, because there is money to be had there and someone has to get it.
As far as the homework load goes, it’s a little less than most independent schools in the U.S., just because firstly the French culture is not nearly as homework-centric as American education is, and secondly SYA really likes to give you time to spend with your host family, explore Rennes, learn the language, etc. Yeah, there’s homework, but it will probably be less than what you have here.
I loved SYA. I hope I wouldn’t be making this post if I didn’t.
For spending money, I wound up spending about $3000 over the course of the year, but keep in mind that’s for all toiletries, train tickets, food outside the house, books (I buy a lot of books), school supplies, hotels when I travelled independently, meals when I travelled independently, birthday/christmas gifts for friends and family, etc. That’s a lot of money, but that’s also a lot of stuff you’re paying for.
As far as things to do on weekends, Rennes is extremely accessible by public transportation and on foot/bike. You can join an extracurricular (I did crew) or just kind of bum around town, go shopping, etc. There is absolutely nothing to do on Sundays anywhere in France (with the exception of maybe Paris), so don’t really think you’ll have a super-full weekend. You should just spend Sundays with your host family or friends anyway. It’s a good day to do some baking or watch a good movie (okay, the movie theatres are open).
I mean I guess as a “summary” of SYA: you spend nine months with a host family in the town of Rennes, which is about 200,000 people in the city proper and 600,000 in the metropolitan area. You attend school in the center of town, and take 7 classes: English and Math (both in English), and AP French Language, French Literature, French Society and Culture, French History, and Art History. All classes are amazing, especially French Society and Culture and Art History, which are taught by two of the most sardonic people on that side of the Atlantic. The school will have about 60-ish people in it, and each class is divided into four groups, generally called 1A, 2A, 1B, and 2B, but sometimes given other names (Bleu, Jaune, Vert, et Rouge, par exemple), based on French language ability. The class you are in and the rankings are never disclosed to colleges or anyone, really. You take several trips with the class and a couple of teachers coming along over the course of the year which consist of, in order:
- "Orientation Trip" in Brittany (3 days)
- Crossing the Bay of Mont St Michel (day trip, with host siblings)
- Loire Valley (4 days)
- Visit of Mont St Michel (day trip)
- Paris (5 days)
- Provence (1 week)
- Normandy (2 days)
The whole experience is fantastic, and you will learn both a lot of material as well as a lot of French at school, but the trips are the best part because you get to see and experience so much. Every time one finishes you’ll find yourself unable to wait until the next one.
But actually, there is no way to summarize SYA without literally attaching a novel. Every year is so different and every individual experience is so different, but I will tell you that if you’re deciding whether or not to go based only on the homework load or how much it will help you get into college, you’re deciding for the wrong reasons. That’s not to shame you, or to say that it’s a bad idea to ask those questions (it’s a good idea to ask those questions; I asked them before and I now answer them on a regular basis) that’s just the truth of it. If you decide to go it will probably be the most pivotal experience of your life, ever, unless you run for office or move to a kibbutz.
It is so much more than the numbers or the metrics or the little things that don’t even matter. If you go, it will be an adventure that will change your life and when you come back to the U.S. you won’t recognize yourself or your surroundings anymore because everything about you will have changed. I make it sound scary, and it is scary, but if it weren’t scary it wouldn’t be worth it. If you can manage it financially, my only advice is: go. The path of your life and how you think about the world will be so altered in such a positive way that you will probably sit in your room during your senior year and wonder what the heck would have happened to you if you hadn’t gone, and what kind of college-induced panic you would have spent the last year in.
Even if doing SYA would have made me a pariah to colleges, I still would have done it, because it was that worth it. You can’t measure “worth it” based on which colleges it will help you get into or some monetary value you would place on the experience. You have to measure “worth it” based on the friends you make, the crazy stories you come back with, the feeling of walking in the rain alone in a foreign country and feeling totally at home, the magic of bumming around aimlessly in Paris because this country is your home now and you’re not a tourist, and the way you speak French and think about France. And based on that, yeah, it was so worth it. It was SO worth it.
So if all that sounds good to you, and you can do the financial bit, go. Get on that plane and don’t look back. It will be the most worthwhile, special, amazing, life-changing experience of your life.
(P.S.: if you go, leave this site behind.)
(P.P.S.: okay, I guess I did attach a novel)
@loco4cocoa Pretty much! I still have to officially confirm.
I’m going to SYA France too!!
It never ceases to shock me how expensive those programs are for the services provided.
Here’s an interesting study abroad program in Paris - academics and internship:
http://www.eliabroad.org/france-internships-study-abroad
guys, be sure to join the SYA France class of 2016 facebook page!
@theraininrennes thank you so much for attaching your comment, or as you phrase it, your “novel”! It is my dream to attend SYA France for my senior year, and now as I am beginning the application process, I am continually worried about the financial aspect of things because that alone is what is holding me back (assuming I get accepted, of course). I just hope that I can get enough aid to go through with the program. Do you have any advice regarding the application process? I would appreciate anything you have to say–feel free to message me on my profile as well. Thanks, and to those who are in France maintenant, je souhaite que vous avez une bonne annee! (I hope that was right!)
I applied for the 2017-2017 school year and the results are supposed to come out next week. I’m so nervous. Even if get accepted, it all depends whether I get the scholarships and/or a financial aid. My parents at most will be able to pay the flight, my spending money, and maybe $1000 or $2000.
Congrats! I hope you have a great time! Lol, I saw someone post something about cost. So, just for future reference have a peek at Study Abroad in Paris, France – Spring Semester French Language & Culture at the Sorbonne – 1,820 Euros - that’s $2000 in tuition for an entire semester … hardly $50,000!
But have a great time and learn as much as you can!
