If you’re like me…before going on study abroad or international co-op, you meticulously comb the internet for every last detail you can find about housing, your work placement, or potential classes. Thankfully, Northeastern now has these student blogs that make that research a whole lot easier. When I first applied to study abroad for this semester, I did so with the Sciences Po classes and curriculum in mind. I had taken a brief look at the old syllabi available on Sciences Po’s exchange program website, and immediately saw that the material covered would be much more in depth than any course I would take at Northeastern. Because this was such an awesome opportunity, picking this program was an easy choice, and I waited anxiously all semester until registration day in late July.
Before you register for classes, make sure that you know the differences between a full Sciences Po courseload in comparison to a full one at Northeastern. While Northeastern only allows you to take a maximum of four 4-credit classes, a full courseload at Sciences Po is actually considered five classes. Keep in mind that because Sciences Po requires one extra class than allowed at Northeastern, you will have to pay a course overload fee for the credit to transfer. The other option is to just not transfer your fifth Sciences Po course, which is what I’m doing with my French class. The Registrar here recommends to take one lecture course (which will be your largest class size), three electives, and one foreign language course. Most classes only meet once a week, and like the “tutorials” we take at Northeastern, you must take a complementary “seminar” to whichever lecture you are taking.
The following are my five classes that I picked for this semester, with all of them (except for French) transferring for either my Environmental Studies or International Affairs component of my degree audit. If you’re thinking about studying abroad at Sciences Po in the future, hopefully these course snippets will help convince you that the class selection here is unparalleled to anything you’ll find at home!
French B1+:
The languages at Sciences Po are ranked using the Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFRL), which is used to place students studying French, German, Spanish, and Italian. The B1+ course is equivalent to somewhere in between Intermediate 1 and 2 at Northeastern, and is a relatively new level created because there were so many students stuck at this proficiency. I actually completed Intermediate 2 French while on my Dialogue, but messed up my registration and am now essentially taking a review class. During your registration, when they ask for your foreign language level, they are asking for what level you want to be placed in. Many of my friends (and myself) were confused by this, and thought that they wanted to know what level we had just completed. Levels from A1 to B1+ meet twice a week for 4 hours total, while levels from B2 to C2 only meet once a week for 2 hours.
Comparative Public Policy Analysis (Western Europe vs. North America):
This class counts as one of my Regional Analysis classes for the International Affairs (IAF) part of my degree. It is extremely theoretical, and you will be spending a lot of time reading pithy papers on political philosophy and applying theory to case studies. We spend the majority of class analyzing effective components of policymaking, whether that be for welfare programs, climate change, or for the future Paris 2024 Olympics. While I personally find the subject matter very interesting, many people complained that the content was too heavy and dropped the class after the first week.
Environmental Politics:
This counts as my Environmental Politics class for my Environmental Studies part of my degree. I was planning on taking this class my final semester at Northeastern, but my advisor told me that the NEU Environmental Politics class was actually meant for underclassmen. Luckily, I saw that Sciences Po offered a similar class that NEU would accept as an equivalent course. This is probably my favorite class out of all five. We just finished reading the book “This Changes Everything” by Naomi Klein, which covers the relation between capitalism and the environmental degradation resulting in climate change. I was actually looking forward to writing the paper on this book, which is how much I enjoy learning about these topics.
Global Disorder in the European Union:
This class is another one of my Regional Analysis courses for the IAF part of my degree. In this class we are learning about all the interactions between the current and upcoming world powers, and how trade, security, and climate change affects all of these relationships. Our professor was the old strategic advisor of the French Prime Minister between 2014 to 2016, in addition to a special advisor for the commissioner of trade between 2000 to 2004. His specialty is populism and protectionism, which has proven extremely relevant due to Trump’s recent interactions and relationships with important players of the European Union. It has been increasingly fascinating to be studying political science in Paris during these exciting times, when Macron is taking giants strides to return France to its place as a world superpower.
Public International Law:
This is my larger lecture class with the complementary seminar, which counts as one of my Global Dynamics courses for my IAF degree. While this is still considered an “introductory” law class, I still feel as if I have to study twice as hard as my pre-law classmates, since I don’t know any basic law terminology or the landmark legal cases. But the coursework has proven extremely interesting, as we cover topics such as human rights law and territorial disputes. A very interesting aspect to this class is that our main lecturer chose to have practicing lawyers as our professors for the seminars. Sciences Po really emphasizes the importance of having working professionals as our teachers, and after taking this course I can see the importance behind this. The relevance the teachers’ current work brings to the class is more valuable than anything we could learn in a dated textbook. The only downside to this is that we have to meet outside of their working hours…either at 8:00am or 7:00pm.
