The Secret Meeting...

The secret meeting I mentioned a couple of posts ago turned out to be a panel - led by us - on the differences between French and American colleges, as part of an English class in the sports college of the University of Rouen. We had NO idea this was going to happen but everyone was really friendly and we've ended up spending time with the STAPS kids outside of class too!
(the guy on the right is Alex, from the STAPS class - we met some of his friends last week as well)

TBH it was kind of an unfair comparison between American and French universities. Public colleges here are almost fully funded by the state, so a year of college tuition (not including room and board) is about 150 euro (Private schools, like the business school adjacent to URouen run about 800 euro). Most people just go to the college nearest to their homes and stay
with their parents for free or rent inexpensive apartments
with friends. Student debt is basically unheard of in France.

The system doesn't leave a lot of room for the liberal arts
structure of trying everything before deciding what to do
though. The communities American schools tend to
foster are not as common here either. I think a
mix of the two structures would be ideal - right now
everyone just wants what they don't have - a lot of our
French friends want the American colleges they see in
movies while the idea of a $180 year of college seemed
perfect to us. The grass is always greener etc. C'est la vie!