<p>So I'm currently in my last year of high school in the US. I'm a straight A student with a high GPA and fairly good SAT scores.
I discovered my love for the francophone culture back in sophomore year when I realized it was easy for me to learn French (my advantage being that I know Portuguese, a fellow romantic language which made things easier). Since then I've developed a fascination for everything that has to do with the language.
I am fairly proficient in the language; I can speak it with fluency and have had some achievements in national French exams and things of the like. I'm very involved in the French community at school and have received many praises from my French teachers.</p>
<p>Realizing all this, I was wondering what it would be like to study in Quebec, particularly the UQAM. I know they speak French, but I was wondering if it is common for students in the US to go study there? I am aware that you must prove to them that you're proficient in French; could the DELF exam be appropriate for this? what about tuition? I read about it on their website and it's pretty expensive for international students but I was wondering if there are any good scholarships. </p>
<p>Basically, if anyone has any useful information regarding this particular college, I'd greatly appreciate it!</p>
<p>Both French schools in Montreal accept TFI scores (I tried, unsucessfully, to convince my undergraduate school, U Montreal, to let them accept AP French scores or SAT2 French scores without changing their TFI thresholds, and I made sure this plan was pedagogically viable beforehand) so the TFI is your surest bet for a French school.</p>
<p>As for academic strengths, UQAM is best for art, education (i.e. teacher training), as well as communications. And pretty well regarded for social science and literature.</p>
<p>As with the English schools, French schools are numbers-driven and majors-driven. In fact, the only French school that takes SAT into account is Polytechnique; do you want to study engineering? Plus applying “undecided” only means that you have one year to choose the major. Furthermore, most students at French schools declare a major on their application; many majors are offered either in a 60-credit version or a 90-credit version (read: semester hours); if you take the 90-credit version you will study one field for three years. For this reason I do not recommend declaring a 90-credit major if you intend to return home to study a health profession at the graduate level. But, unlike the English schools, I don’t think writing an essay where you invoke ECs relevant to the major, in the event you’re somehow waitlisted (waitlists are only used in impacted programs and are ranked at French schools), is a good idea.</p>
<p>Pay attention to your major: at UQAM, since your schooling is considered as one that lasted 12 years, you can enroll in the preparatory program, and enroll either in a science program or the B-school afterward, and then change your major. An American straight-A student will have no trouble getting into programs that are either unimpacted or impacted programs that requires fairly low grades (R-scores, which is a reflection of both CEGEP grades and sectional rank, are everything at French schools for something other than art, architecture or med school, not that you could attend med school at a French school anyway. And an average CEGEP student will have 25) but watch out if you want to attend a program where the safety line requires a R-score of 30 and higher… Therefore I ask what major do you intend to pursue.</p>
<p>I always thought that the difference between the best and worst undergraduate programs in Quebec Us was much smaller than what existed between the best and worst undergraduate programs in the US. So, while UQAM could feel like a school that is more like an undergraduate factory than the other three schools in the city, there’s still a minimum of quality to expect at the exit.</p>
<p>If you’re OK with getting an one-dimensional education (compared to a typical American college education; the closest equivalent in the US would be a Brown student using all 30 Brown credits on concentration courses), by all means, declare the 90-credit (or 120-credit for some professional programs; enroll in one such program only if you wish to practice that profession in Quebec) major of your choice, in which case you need not declare a minor. However, if you still feel that you need to cover at least two fields to get an education, then you can opt for a major/minor arrangement as you normally would at, say, UGA.</p>
<p>If you want to double-major, pay attention as to whether it is actually possible to do so in the two fields you desire…</p>
<p>A few more things about French-language Us: since the Montreal ones are primarily commuter schools, most of the (much-vaunted?) nightlife happens off-campus. </p>
<p>And there are no food plans whatsoever at those schools; therefore you must find groceries near campus or your apartment (highly likely that you will live off-campus) and get roommates if you go off-campus. Of course, there are some student-run caf</p>