Tips from Past Participants

• Spend some time studying basic French before your departure. Knowing some basic conversational French can be very helpful when navigating Paris.
• Research and understand the need for converters and transformers for your electronic devices to avoid damage if used incorrectly.
• People loved the cultural excursions; schedule your time in order to attend all of them!
• Be forewarned that third-year MPAs attending the courses may find it difficult to adjust and compete against fourth- and fifth-year students in the classes.
• French people would prefer to speak French to you, and may not want to speak English to you even if you prefer it. Please don’t be offended by this, and try your best to use a phrase book and attempt to speak French even when asking for the smallest things. People are friendlier if you at least attempt to speak French to them initially.
• There are differences in teaching styles in the local course – they only administered one exam at the end of the five weeks. Some material may be challenging and involve European IFRS rules and concepts that may be entirely new to you.
• Wi-Fi access was not provided in the dorms (Summer ‘11) but you can buy Internet from the Orange for a good deal and find Wi-Fi hotspots around town
• A lot of the IFRS material may seem inapplicable to you as a student from the U.S., however, knowing IFRS will be very useful in your future career. Try your best to look past the initial learning barrier and embrace the unknown.
• Teaching styles will vary, and culture can come across really strong through the local professors’ teaching styles.