Université de Picardie Jules Verne

I wish I had known how poor I really was going to be. Even though I had saved some money before going, it still wasn't enough.

The location is great for travelling. You can get to Paris within an hour and a half. It's also close to Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and (fairly close to) England. The administration is lacking, though. I felt like the international students were not treated fairly by the International Office when we asked for an increase in our stipend money. They specifically seemed to give the attitude of "well, you're from the States, you're rich!". I was actually told one time when I said I didn't have enough money that maybe I should borrow some off of one of my American friends (one of the other American exchange students). Also, I don't think the professors know how to deal with specifically ISEP-International Student Exchange Program-students (it's a fairly new program at this university). They can deal with ERASMUS students effectively because the program has been around long enough. Overall, I would still reccommend this university to students. No place is going to be perfect and it just is a different culture and mentality. So, the problems I've ran into aren't necessarily reserved to the university itself, but culture shock.