CUNY students think they’ve got it bad, especially with the recent implementation of CUNYfirst. But let me tell you, that’s nothing compared to the nightmare that is French university registration.

My roommate Cali registered at Paris 8 Saint Denis very easily. She basically looked at a bulletin board that had all the course listings, jotted down their times, then stood on a short line to sign her name on some sheets of paper under the courses that she wanted. Then, voilà. She was done.

I, on the other hand, had a very different experience. So, I go to Université Paris Ouest Nanterre La Défense, or better known as simply Nanterre or Paris 10. Registration was just last week for me, one week before la rentrée (the return to/the first week of school). ONE WEEK. That’s crazy. Back in America, we register several months before the semester begins. But, I accept that different system here. Just one more obstacle to make me more resilient and to improve my French.

FETE (Français pour les étudiants étrangèrs):

On Monday, September 23, I headed to Bâtiment L to register for the FETE courses (French for foreign students). I came at 9:40 (registration supposedly started at 9:30), but already, there was a sizable line. However, it seemed to be orderly and single-file, so, although the line was barely budging, I thought tops one hour. Nope. I didn’t get to register until 12:30. Wow. Three hours on line. I suspect that at the very front of the line, which I couldn’t see because it was around the corner of a wall, there was a huge crowd where people were cutting. I filled out a simple form for exchange students and listed the courses with the times that I wanted to take. The schedule was released online and on the bulletin board the Tuesday before. The listing of courses is the same every year and that information is already online. Therefore, I already knew when each course was being offered for the semester. Unfortunately, for MICEFA students, we are only allowed to take three courses, one in each section (Écrit – Grammar, Oral, and Civilisation/Vie Culturelle – Culture) in our level of French. MICEFA gave us an “Attestation de niveau” to let us know what level we were in. I am level B1 (or according to the Nanterre courses, level 2 out of 4 – 4 being reserved for the utmost proficient, according to MICEFA). So I planned the night before which courses I would like to take so as not to conflict with my babysitting schedule and the two courses that I signed up with MICEFA. Oh that’s another thing!

MICEFA:

A bit offtrack: MICEFA, the exchange program organization that helps me here in Paris, offers some interesting courses each semester. You are allowed to register for one course at first and after everyone who wants to has registered for a course, if there is still space, you can register for another course. Registration for these courses was very simple. You just had to go to the MICEFA office and write your name down on the sheet of paper for whichever course you wanted and you can put yourself on the waiting list to another course. I personally could not register for my class because I was registering at Nanterre, but no worries! You can send a friend to register for you. So Cali went to the office and wrote down my name, one on the Histoire de Paris (History of Paris) class and the other on the waiting list for the Écrivains et Paris (Writers and Paris) class, just as a second option if I couldn’t get into the History of Paris course. On Thursday that week, I received an email saying I was successfully registered for both courses. I decided to stay in the Écrivains course to test it out before deciding whether to drop it. But right now, I already know, I am taking way too many classes than my brain and body can handle. Anyways, back to FETE registration:

FETE (Français pour les étudiants étrangèrs):

When it was my turn to register, I walked into the office. A man took my sheet and briefly looked at it before he went to register another student. When he looked at my choices, he muttered something like, “I think this is the class.” Then, he looked at his schedule and said yup, the sections I chose for two out of three of my courses were already full. That’s crazy! He asked me why I chose these specific times and I said because I have babysitting. But he interpreted that as me being an assistant (he probably thought that I was a Teaching Assistant). I just went along with what he thought. He said hold on, ran over to register the other girl, then came back a few minutes later, jotted my name down with the courses and times that I wanted and told me his colleague would register me into those courses. He then gave me the room numbers for the courses, told me that class begins next week, and then handed me a sheet for my administrative registration (the course registration being “pedagogique”). Done. Not even two minutes.

ART HISTORY:

Afterwards, I went to the Art History department to see if I could register for courses there. MICEFA told us to look in the hallways on the bulletin boards and online and be absolutely sure that the information isn’t in either places before asking the secretary. Last Friday, I checked the bulletin boards and saw some schedules for Licence 2 (2/3 year of the equivalent of a Bachelor’s). But on this day, those schedules were gone again. And there was nothing up for Licence 1. (I was not going to take a Licence 3 course because although that is the equivalent of third year, the French curriculum is different. I am not familiar with the system or the language so Licence 3 would be too difficult for me.) I waited outside the office because it was lunchtime, but even 30-45 minutes of waiting past the break, the secretary still hadn’t shown up. So, I called it a day and went back home.

On Wednesday, I went back to school for International Students Welcome Day. However, when I first got on campus, I went to the Art History department and waited for other students before me to finish meeting with the secretary. Then, I told him that I wanted to register for courses. It was quite simple. He asked me what level and when I told him Licence 2, he showed me the exact same schedules that had been taken down from the bulletin board… I knew which courses I wanted to take already because I looked at the course descriptions/listings on a PDF from the website. It was just a matter of finding the course in the schedule. I found the two that I wanted to take, one “Modern Art” course, European art from the 17th century, and one “Contemporary Art” course focusing on European art from 1848-1914. Finding them on the schedule was a bit complicated because they were solely listed by the codes and general category (Contemporary/Modern), which I didn’t realize were the same as the PDF of course listings until the morning of…

In France, courses are sometimes divided into CM (cours magistraux, aka lecture) and TD (travaux dirigés aka discussion). Back at Brooklyn College, this is not the case for art history classes. But here it is. I noticed the the CM of both courses were on Friday morning. Good because it didn’t conflict with the other courses I had registered for. But when I was told that there were corresponding TDs, and that the one for the Contemporary art course is only offered on Wednesdays, I panicked. My History of Paris course at MICEFA is on Wednesday. The secretary showed me four different sections of the TD, but they all conflicted with the MICEFA class. He told me that there was still one option left and that he would print out that schedule for me, but at that point, I was already starting to give up. I was thinking of which course to sacrifice: the cool, guaranteed three-credit history course, or the two-credit art history course on one of my favorite time periods that I have to take here in Paris because it won’t be offered at Brooklyn College next year, my last year. But, in the end, the last option fit perfectly, albeit a bit too perfectly. I would have exactly one hour to run from my MICEFA class in Paris to my art history course at Nanterre. This was cutting it very close. The secretary was very nice and patient the whole time, especially with my terrible French and my constantly repeating, “Je ne comprend pas.” Haha

ADMINSTRATIVE REGISTRATION:

After successfully registering, I met up with Jacqui and we went to an office to do our administrative registration. It was very simple. We handed in the sheet that we received on Monday to the office and they stamped our student cards with some diploma thing. We went to the International Office to try and get a form, but then realized that they were closed today because they were at the Welcome Day event. Duh! Well, here are some photos that we took there as souvenirs.

Jacqui modeling seductively in front of the International Office door.

A rare candid Jacqui photo!

Afterwards, we went to the Psychology department to try and get Jacqui registered for a course. Very difficult and confusing. Even more so than the Art History department. And finally, we went to check out the Welcome Day event, only to realize that it was not a come-and-go fair-type-of-event, but actually a sit-in-a-lecture-hall-and-listen-to-presenters-speak kind of event. And when we arrived, everything had already finished. Oops. But, before we went to the event, we noticed sheep grazing on one of the lawns on campus. Weird. I know there’s a circus behind the campus. Is this related?

Jacqui posing and blocking all of the sheep, with the shepherd staring at us from behind.

And that’s it for my registration experience so far. Soon, I’ll update you on how my first week actually went. It’s only been three days and I’m already swamped with work!