Observations on UM III

After a few weeks in the French university system, I think I've sorted it out mostly by now.  It's odd how one month into classes things are still very confused, and I still haven't officially registered for classes yet!  You ask how that's possible?  Well I have the answer for you… The French university system is organized anarchy, eventually the professors state when and where they'll teach, and they assume students will find out where and when to be.  Amazingly enough it works.  But I digress,  what I want to talk about are quick little observations on the French university system.

First:

It's ugly here.  Now I don't mean Europe as a whole, nor individual cities like Paris and Montpellier.  I mean of course Paris is filthy , smelly, and the repository for the world's dog poop, but there is an innate charm to the city.  It's hard to describe the "City of Lights" with Notre Dame, and the Eiffel tower as ugly. 

No I mean the Universite de Montpellier Paul Valery III.  This place is ugly.  I keep wanting to take pictures, but then students will look at me funny and ask "Why the hell are you taking pictures of this ugly university?"  But of course there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this.  The French university system, like most things in the developed world (France in particular), is divided into the "haves" and "have-nots". 

There are the French "Grandes Ecoles" basically the Ivy League + 20 other top universities in the US.  They are incredibly selective, get heavy government finances, la crème de la crème of French society go there.  Anyone who is important in French society, went to one of les Grandes Ecoles.  You would think that UNC may send us to a Grande Ecole, actually we have a program with Sciences Po, the political science, history, and journalism school in France.  However it was expensive and closed off for UNC students at the moment, so I went to Montpellier.

Second:

French note-taking skills.  Holy crap, These kids are brilliant at taking notes.  It is truly an elaborate art-form.  Sit in on some random French university class and this is what you will see...

The students arrive and pull out their paper.  This paper is a mix between our notebook paper and graph paper, there are 4 lines per line, but this has to do with their strict handwriting code, where certain letters are certain heights etc.  After pulling out their paper, they pull out a little pencil pouch.  It's like a miniature toiletrie bag, inside it there are multiple colored pens, a small 15 cm ruler (6 inches), and highlighters.  The professer begins to speak, french students immediately huddle over their paper writing down almost word for word what the professer says, all while creating titles and subheadings.  They are also underlining key phrases and titles (with the ruler no less), and colorcoding as they see fit.  Finally they somehow get every little bit of information the professer says.

It. Blows. My. Mind.  You have to see it to really appreciate it.  I look at my notes and I feel incredibly self-conscious, because not only are their notes organized (unlike mine), the handwriting of french students is generally perfect (unlike mine).  My notes say "FOREIGNER HERE" to Frenchies.

Finally:

The organization.  Now of course I have a United Statesian perspective on this.  We pay (or our parents) thousands of dollars a year for the priveledge to attend an institute of higher learning.  At the French university system, as long as you pass high school, you can attend a university.  The students pay some annual fee that hovers around 500 euros, and they are in.  As a result the campus will not have the same level of organization and infrastructure as American universities...

But it shouldn't be this damn complicated!  For example: classes started september 8th.  The history department hadn't decided what classes they will offer until the 9th or 10th, and didn't inform the students until Saturday afternoon on the 13th.  We then had classes on the 15th.  

It's all one big mess, but amazingly enough it all falls into place.