Since 1968 the Foreign Languages Department at UMB has partnered with the Department of French and Italian Studies at UMass Amherst to give qualifying arts and sciences students the opportunity to study and work in Paris for up to a full year as part of an exchange program.

For an enrollment fee of just under $13,000 [$15,500 for out-of-state students] those eligible are able to engage in study of any subject in one of Europe’s historic and cultural centers.

The UMass Paris Exchange program offers the unique arrangement of studying within one’s own major while living in a foreign environment. The enrollment criteria are fairly steep. Applicants must have a minimum 3.0 cumulative GPA, have passed at least two years of college-level French language courses, with a ‘B’ average, and are also subject to an interview.

Qualifying students will be rewarded with the ability to bypass entry exams to one of three different Parisian Universities and take courses taught in French in all manner of subjects-from linguistics, to social sciences, to management, to natural sciences.

All courses taken in the context of this exchange program are counted towards a UMass degree, and as residency credits. Students are also given the opportunity to participate in organized excursions to many of France’s cultural hot spots, including the Loire River Valley, the beaches of Normandy, Mont-Saint-Michel, and the Gothic cathedrals of Chartres and Amiens.

In regard to lodging, participants have three basic options of where to spend their off-campus hours in Paris: Most are provided with a single room at the Fondation des ?tats-Unis of the Cite Universitaire, which is a publicly subsidized dorm for Americans in Paris. Others can choose to reside in a room in the city’s Latin Quarter. Some students even have their room and board provided by a French family, in exchange for house-sitting and helping with chores. In all cases, the price of lodging is included in the program fee, which can be mitigated with financial aid, and for participants who find work in Paris, the program virtually pays for itself.

As with all exchange programs, for every UMass student sent to Paris, a

Parisian student comes to UMass.

Those interested in the Study In Paris Program, and believe they have what it takes to qualify, are encouraged to contact Modern Languages Department head Brian Thompson at [email protected].

Applications for the Spring 2005 session are due March 1, however Professor Thompson says that this deadline is not absolute, and encourages interested students who meet the program’s qualifications to contact him as soon as possible.

“If they have the required French it’s a fantastic opportunity,” says Thompson. “Particularly because we have the ability to get students into prestigious institutes that even the French have trouble getting into.”