 Hello my people, welcome to the SCORE channel. It's been a while since I've done an interview. So, to make today's interview a little bit more special, I've got not one, not three, but two people together for this interview. Our previous interviews have only dealt with students who were actually in the process of getting their bachelor's degree. What about students who have decided to study abroad but haven't started yet? Today I'm going to introduce you to two students who are getting ready to study in France. Let's meet Isabella and Adrienne! Hi everybody, I'm Isabella and I'm going to be studying in Strasbourg, France starting in September of this year. I'm going to be studying applied foreign languages because it's a super useful bachelor's degree for getting into the international marketing and international commerce domain. My name is Adrienne, I'm 19, I live in Columbia and I'm going to go to study in the University of Strasbourg. Bachelors of applied foreign languages with Spanish and English are some main focus of the bachelors. Very excited! Okay, so applied foreign languages sounds interesting. Can you tell me a little bit more about the program? Here, you know, if you do an applied foreign languages course, which it's not even called applied foreign languages, it's just, you know, foreign language. You can basically be like a translator or a teacher and your options are a little more limited. Whereas in France, you can do a master's degree after this bachelor's degree in a variety of subjects. Like in my case, I would be doing international commerce because the bachelor's degree in applied foreign languages actually includes some business classes in it. I'm going to the same bachelor's, but I want to do more translation and language stuff. But that's the cool part as she was telling you when I came in. It's very broad, so you can decide what you want to do as you go along. Whereas here, you have to decide before you go into the career and that's kind of, you know, that is your little bit. It's like, I don't know if I want to do that. So have you run into any problems or any unexpected obstacles? Okay, I have a pretty big one that was right off the bat, like right when I was the first applying. So I'd been preparing to go to a specific university. I was, you know, in contact with this university over a year or so. And, you know, COVID hit, connection with them got a little wonky, of course. And, but, you know, they kept assuring me, oh yeah, we're going to be open. We're going to be open for sure. We're going to be open. So application time rolls around. I kept trying to get in touch with them because I was like, hey, you know, like I traveled 4,000 kilometers to do an Italian exam that you guys asked for. You know, I never got a response from them. That was a major obstacle. You know, I had given them months in advance to respond to me, but that's definitely a thing to look out for with French institutions. You have to have your stuff planned in advance. You have to have your questions a while beforehand. First of all, our campus friends in Columbia is like very, very useful. So I didn't necessarily have that kind of problem. But when communicating directly to the university, they did take very, very long to respond. Another thing that you have to consider is the time frames. Because they're very, very strict with that. And if you don't meet them, then you're going to pretty much be out of luck. So for example, usually the application times open in November and in mid January, but you're not done yet. So you have to gather all of these documents between that time frame because otherwise then you're not going to be able to apply. And they're not going to help you out or giving you a little more time. It's here and it's done. Time of Paris, 12 a.m., done. You have to do an interview and they tell you like time of France. And they even though we're both here in Columbia, me and the interviewer, they gave me time of Paris. And I was like, that is like 8 a.m. I did my video recently for how to study in France, but I don't remember hearing a whole lot about this interview. So can you fill me in? Campus France has to do something called a SCAC interview. In my case, my campus France was in Washington, DC. And that's I think a six hour difference from here in Hawaii. Gosh, so my first interview got postponed, but they didn't tell me when they were going to move it. So they emailed me at 4 a.m. Hawaii time to be like, okay, can we do this interview in a couple of hours? And I was like, what? By the time I woke up, it was already that time, like that time had passed. So they asked you about your motivations for studying in France, what your plans are after you finished your diploma. They write out like this whole report on you and then they attach it to your application, but you can't see it. We had to do it in French, and that was the thing that we had to prepare for for sure, because we're not used to doing that, obviously. Yeah, speaking of French, how hard was it to get your documents in order? Well, because of some kind of accord that they have with France and Colombia, we didn't have to translate anything. Only an apostee that's done by the government. That was kind of problematic because of the way that aposteas are done for high school diplomas here. You have to go to the place that you graduated in, and I don't leave there. I have to go all the way there, do it, get some seals, get some people to sign on it, and then send it online. So I needed to have everything translated into French, including my high school diploma and my transcripts. They recommended the American Translators Agency, I think that's what it's called, but nobody on that site responded to me. So I was sort of scrambling near the end trying to find a translator that would do it. What about your French speaking level? What did they expect from you guys? So there are universities, quite a few actually, that need a C1 French level, so you need to ask them if they don't post it on their sites. Their sites are kind of shitty, so you have to ask them and then wait for like a month for the response. In my case, I was actually going to apply to two universities there. I needed the C1 for one of them. The other one did take a B2, but you know, they didn't open up. So in my case, I applied to Strasbourg, Grenoble, and Angers, because all three of them were the ones that, first of all, take the B2. And they let you start off with Advanced Italian, which for me is super important because that's a requirement for some Master's degrees, is that you have to start the language at an advanced level already. Now I have to ask, have you actually been to France before? No. Yeah, you know, I was supposed to go to France during COVID. Like I had, you know, tickets to stuff and everything, but obviously that, you know, did not happen here in the US. It's like, you have to go to student debt basically if you don't have like a full ride scholarship. My reason to go to France was much more out of the blue. Like I was just looking at memes on my phone, January 2020. And I came across a meme in French and I was like, huh, I wonder what this thing says. And then I started learning French without any reason. And then like five months later, I saw that campus France exists. I was already enrolled in a university here that we have a lot of protests and protests are usually led by students with memes. School stops a lot. And I was like one month into the school and we already had stopped for like four months. And I was like, yeah, this is not going to work out, especially if this is so. Then I decided that I was going to try it, but I hadn't been learning French for like five months. So then I started learning French seriously. And the same year, 2020, I took the DELF and that was the main factor, the main decider, the main thing that was going to determine if I was going to make it or not. I took it and I passed it. And that's very much why I apply at the end of the day. So is your family cool with you studying abroad? Yeah, yeah, for sure. They would definitely prefer that I go to Europe, you know, financially supporting a student in the U.S. is like super hard on the wallet. And, you know, you're getting basically the same quality of education depending on the institution. It can be a lot better than what I have, you know, here in rural Hawaii. And, you know, it's also a super good experience culturally. It's always good to see the world and stuff. If you get your education in another country, that's great for you. In my case, it was much more difficult. My mom wasn't really into it at the beginning. She wasn't really on board. I really had to talk to her quite a few times until she finally saw that I was accepted. Then she kind of changed her mind and it's helping me out more now. It's a very long and difficult road to get to where we are on the topic now. Okay, so what comes next? Now that you've been admitted to university, what do you have to do now? I actually just got my visa last week. It was actually a day after I got back here, so it was super fast. Then what I needed to do was confirm my apartment because my apartment needed a bunch of documents from me basically saying that I have a guarantor, which is a super important thing if you're living in France is that most places require that you have a guarantor. So in my case, my guarantor was my mom. So I had to upload some documents about her financial situation, statement of guarantee from her, and I had to upload my own stuff. So I got my apartment confirmed and now what I need to do is enroll. Basically, you just get put in their system. They assign you a French student number. I still have to do that. That starts next week. The only things I really need to do are things after I get there. So, you know, like bank account or phone plan. In Colombia, we're still stuck in middle of COVID. So just over the COVID and vaccine situations, the embassy is closed. So we can't really do anything. I can't really do anything. I'm just waiting for it to open because I have essentially everything I need for the visa part, except for some photos, but that's not urgent. I'm still here waiting for the visa part to open and then I can actually continue. I imagine you guys are pretty excited. So what are your expectations? How do you see this playing out? I'm an over planner, so I've been researching this for a while now. And what I'm expecting when I get there is, you know, a little bit of bureaucracy, just a little bit, especially because I've been through this whole process. You know, it's not going to stop. Good expectations. I hear good things about the Strasbourg area and being welcoming, you know, to foreign students. And I know that there's a lot of services at the university that help with new students. Like, I know there's a buddy system of some sort where they like, you know, put you with a French student and they show you around. Something that I'm looking forward to as well is the fact that things in Europe are so close together, you know, because I like to travel a lot. If anybody's interested in checking out travel photos, because I know a lot of people watching this are probably into that, you know, I have an Instagram where I upload travel photos, Madame Mundial, and, you know, that's something that's kind of hard to do on an island in the middle of this Pacific Ocean. It's going to be a good experience. I know that for sure. Bureaucracy, validating things, and rolling to the university. Those are the main things. I'm also planning on getting a job because you can work 20 hours a week, getting to know my way around, meeting some people that already know that lived there from the internet. Very exciting times, waiting for that to come. Are you nervous about anything at all? Is there anything you're kind of worried about? A little bit, you know, like, I'm an 18-year-old woman who's never lived away from my parents, right? So, you know, naturally, that's like, that can be a little bit anxiety-inducing, but, you know, I'm doing my best to, you know, like, prepare myself. Like, I'm doing a lot of research, what to look out for, and I'm trying to sort of familiarize myself with the area a little bit before I even get there. You know, Strasbourg's a pretty safe place, but, you know, this is sort of general advice. And, you know, my parents aren't going to be there to, you know, help me with stuff. I don't want to involve my parents more than they really need to be involved. You know, I have to try to become more independent. It's probably not going to be that bad. Me, I'm looking forward to living by myself. That's kind of, that's going to be, it's going to be some new living by myself in a different country. That is even newer. Essentially, things like food and knowing when to clean, you're always cleaning stuff. Being able to keep myself on track, knowing that I have no guidance. Also, I'm afraid of not being able to follow the curses, the classes in French. Yeah, I think about that sometimes too. It's like, these are university classes for people who have been speaking French their entire life. Yeah, this is not Duolingo. So yeah, those are the main things. Living by myself and following French at a native speed. Those are the main, never-recognized things that I think about often. Well look, I'm sure you both are going to be totally fine. And thank you for talking to me. I hope to hear from you guys again. Well, yeah, thank you. Thank you for having us on here. It's been a pleasure talking about this. Hope we maybe helped somebody a little bit. Yeah, maybe give our insight into the process and things that you may look for. Thanks again, guys. Something you should look forward to is seeing the follow-up interview that we do with Isabella and Adrienne. After they've been in France for a few months. We all have expectations of what it's going to be like, but how do those hold up when you compare them with reality? So make sure you're subscribed to the channel so that you don't miss that interview and all the other content that we got coming out for you. I'll see you next week.