We had another NYU Paris meeting this week. That fact that I'm studying abroad is finally starting to feel 'real', ya know? An advisor from NYU Paris (I apologize for forgetting his name) was in NY for the week and it was nice to actually get information straight from the source!
The first thing that struck me about his presentation was the size of the staff in Paris. He explained that there are only about 11-12 people in the NYU Paris building who serve as our professors, advisors, bursar contacts and the like. He equated the experience with "actually going to a small liberal arts college". After a hectic semester, that sounded completely enticing. I was excited to learn that our professors are various college professors and high school teachers from around Paris who choose to lead a few classes for NYU. You can read the professors bios online if you go to NYU Study Abroad Paris and search under the academics tab.
Just some quick stats... there will be approximately 125 students at NYU Paris next semester. 75% will be NYU students and the rest will be our new friends from universities around the country. In case you were curious.
In terms of classes, when we arrive we will be taking a placement exam to determine whether or not our preliminary schedules are adequate. We were told that depending on your score, a Program I student may wish to take a few Program II classes to spice things up a bit.
Speaking of programs, since we are a relatively small group, apparently there are about 12-15 students in every class. I'm sure far too many NYU students out there have experienced the horrors of the large lecture class, so the intimacy of the courses abroad will be a nice change. (Unless you hate participating, being called on or not napping in class... then small class sizes might be an issue)
Let's see... other than that we briefly discussed setting up a bank account, getting a French cellphone, cultural activities, the NYU facilities and transportation.
I think it's fantastic that I've been getting quite a few e-mails from people asking me about Paris and NYU Study Abroad. Please, if you have any questions feel free to post them as comments on the blog so that other people might see them and find them useful as well. I promise I will respond swiftly as usual!
Anyway... soak in this lovely Saturday afternoon. If you're working on finals, stay caffeinated...If you're not working on finals, keep it to yourself or I'm enormously jealous of you.
Enjoy!