French are taught to choose their career very early. I remember, there was so much pressure when I was 17 or 18 to choose a path and stick to it. Come to think of it, I think that’s why I left France. I wanted freedom and I don’t “fit in boxes” easily. I was terrified to make a mistake and to choose the wrong “orientation”. I had no clue what I wanted to do (still don’t!) and it amazes me that most of my friends didn’t hesitate twice and didn’t change program or anything.

Don’t worry about it. I totally can relate, and it’s perfectly normal.

My thesis is about the physical vulnerability of urban areas to volcanic mass flows. I studied a volcano in Peru as my case study and I was supposed to also go to Guadeloupe but I’ve run out of time. My thesis has been an absolute nightmare and I can’t wait to finish!!

Another thing I’ve found about French students is that they have so much direction. They know exactly how their lives will turn out, which course they’ll take, which firm they will work for and don’t have such a desire to travel. All my friends here will do post-docs and the director of the PhD students was shocked when I said I have no idea what I’ll do after my PhD! I just take things as they come but hopefully that has me moving back to the Sthn hemisphere although this will be determined by my British Boyf!
.-= Kim´s last blog ..Noël =-.

University is has about the same tuition fees than in NZ, and indeed, I miss France for that. I even got a scholarship in France, so I was paid to study — it would never happen in Canada. That said, my university’s services (or lack of) sucked big time and our building was full of asbestos… that’s what I keep on telling myself everytime I pay my Canadian uni. bill

I can’t believe they make you sit at a desk. That’s crazy! Plus, from what I know of writing a thesis, sitting in an office for 9 hours a day doesn’t exactly help writing it… just weird. I mean, most people don’t work from 8 am to 7 pm!

Teachers in France are anything but your “friends”. I only realized that in Canada, because here students are very casual with the profs and I could barely ask a question to mine in France. French teachers don’t treat their students as “equal”, they feel so much above you all it’s not even funny. I grew up in that system and I got used to it but… I like the Canadian system best for that.

Good luck on the thesis! What is it about?

I find your observations very interesting as I am a graduate student at a university in France but I did my undergraduate studies in New Zealand. I find university life here very different to NZ!

In NZ it costs around US$3000–4000 per year for a NZ student and more than $10,000 for international students — a lot more than the 500€ I pay here in France. In NZ most of us take out a student loan to pay for our course and living costs, and at the end of my 5 year education in NZ I owe around 25,000€ to the government! I had very full days at university and worked in the evenings and weekends to supplement my loan.

As a graduate student in NZ, I could show up to uni whenever I wanted to work on my thesis but now in France I am required to be sitting at my desk at uni from 8am to at least 7pm!! I work also, so I sneak off for a few hours a week to teach English at the Lycée.

In NZ I found the profs more approachable and relaxed than in France and if I had a question or statement my profs in NZ welcomed my input, and our relationships were more as friends than in France where I find it very difficult to approach the profs and speak openly as adults about the topic. There seems to be such a hierarchy where I’m a lowly student and not capable of intelligent discussions!

Don’t worry, at 26 I feel old when I go to the main uni campus! I once went along to a uni party and someone commented that I looked old!

Bon courage!
.-= Kim´s last blog ..Thanksgiving =-.

Even without working full time, I imagine that taking classes with kids who might still have a lot of maturing to do would be a bit of a weird experience. College was fun for me… and I can imagine taking some classes again in the near future, thinking of taking them at the local community college. Possibly some language classes or finance/small business classes.
.-= Seb´s last blog ..“Attack of the Rabbats!” Movie Poster =-.