Sciences Po Paris (IEP)

Ebay is great in France The Carte ImaginR (€276 for the year) is a great transport saver, and you can travel all over Ile de France on weekends

great experience. you have to adopt the sciences po method which isn't easy for an american. High level. Contact to all kinds of french leaders (political, economic...). a bit too much work (bthe french students are "sacre bosseurs", dont't be affraid.

Travel as much as you can without compromising your studies. Make friends outisde of uni.

Get a carte orange for your metro/bus transport it's cheaper if you move around quite a bit than buying individual tickets.

They organized a month long integration course before term actually started. Finding accomodation in Paris is a nightmare of psycopathic inducing anger. I used the month to find an appartment, but i was put up in a student accomodation campus for that period whilst searching. Science Po had organized this months provisional lodgings but also has a service which tries to help students find accomodation. The university can only give you advice and sometimes a few addresses. You will end up slogging it out with the rest of the student population of Paris if you want somewhere reasonable to stay, unless you have contacts or have started looking in the January before you come over.