Université Toulouse 1 Sciences Sociales Reviews

Type of housing: Apartment/House

Arranged by: Host university

If returning, I would choose: Apartment/House

Why? I shared an apartment with friends - it was an inexpensive and fun experience that I'd recommend to anyone! Toulouse is not overly difficult as house hunting goes, so you shouldn't have any major problems.

Personal comments:
French housing agencies require you to have someone guarantee for your apartment ("la caution"), and this should preferably be someone living in France, which can create problems for foreigners. We solved the problem by having our parents guarantee "la caution" to the Norwegian consulate, which then guaranteed for us at the housing agency. Very bureaucratic! When I first came to Toulouse though, I didn't have this problem as the housing was arranged through the university, meaning that they made an exception for us and accepted a statement from our parents in Norway.

Describe host city: Students equally interact with the local and student community

Travel: Takes place mostly outside the university/student environment

Activities, Nightlife: Takes place both within and outside of the university/student environment

Personal comments:
Walk around in the centre (Place du Capitole, Place St Georges), find a nice café and enjoy a pastis in the sun! Or try one of the bars located near the river, La Garonne.

Course recommendations:
Be aware that in France, at least in public universities like this one, the teaching methods are based on students taking notes in class and then learning them by heart, only to regurgitate as much as they remember for exams... Over the course of my 3-year bachelor, I only bought a handful of books, and these weren't even required reading but only books that I bought on my own initiative. This means that it's exceedingly cheap to study here, but also that you (a) can't skip any classes (or you won't have anything to study for exams!) and (b) if you didn't understand things during class, you have no books to consult... On a more positive note, UT1 has a university library that was completely refurbished in 2002 or so, so it's pretty up to date and has a decently sized collection. Therefore, you can usually get by simply by borrowing books, saving you a lot of money. And if you do end up buying books, then you'll be happy to note that books in France are exceedingly cheap compared to just about any other Western society I can think of. This only goes for French books, though!

Personal comments:
Every class has a final exam that counts for 95 to 100% of your final grade, so make sure you're not having a bad day during exams, or your grades will suffer regardless of your efforts throughout the semester! Personally I also got fed up with having to learn everything by heart and not having any books to deepen my knowledge in (you're basically at the complete mercy of your teachers as regards what you learn etc. Hence the personal opinion of the teacher can have a big impact on what you end up knowing about a particular topic!) Also, since France can be pretty elitist, there is a huge "power distance" between professors and students. Hence, the only chance you have to ask individual questions to your teacher is directly after a lecture, and even then you shouldn't expect much help... Because of this, working in groups with friends becomes more important than ever.

Language of instruction: French

Main source of funding:
Family

Other sources of funding:
Personal savings
Scholarship from my University

Work opportunities:
It was not legal for me to work

Personal spending habits:
At home I couldn't spend money on "nightlife" because I wasn't 21, and international dialing is clearly more expensive than local. I rarely traveled in the US like I did in Europe

Travel, Nightlife, Overall, Telephone: was more expensive than at home.

Food, Housing: was the same price as at home.

I wish I had known...
The school system is based entirely on learning by heart, e.g. if you're like me and you like to make your own critical analysis, this might not be the university (or country!) for you.

In my opinion:
I loved it but I'm not sure everybody would.