By bevvy2212
This upcoming week is going to be rough, seeing as how most of my finals and papers are due this week so here are a few tips for you future youngsters to avoid being snowed under seven feet of work, like me.
1. Time management. Ok, I exaggerated in the previous sentence. I do have a lot of work due this week but since I'm a little bit of a control freak so I had everything sort of planned out ahead of time. That's the key: keep a planner/calender. I don't think I need to stress the importance of having a planner as you are all probably used to doing that back at GW. The thing is, the last week here at Sciences Po generally contain some make-up class periods. Some time during the semester, if your professor had decided to cancel class, they will generally be made up during this week and the schedule does get a bit hectic because depending on the time and availability of the rooms, your make-up class might not be at the same time/room as your normal class period. So keeping a planner will definitely help you keep track of what's due on what day.
2. Some classes will have their finals during the last week of classes. Actually I think most electives and seminars do. (Hence the importance of having a planner and knowing when your classes are during this week) But the lectures usually have exams during a designated week after classes are done, kind of similar to GW. So bear that in mind when making travel plans.
3. The second half of November, starting December is generally hell-ish for a lot of the students here at Sciences Po. Exchange students generally take a lot less classes than those who are actually enrolled in the school. I have quite a number of friends who are doing their Masters at ScPo and their schedule is just, overwhelming. Whereas I am only taking six classes, they usually take up to 10 or 12. So when they say they really don't have time, it really is, because they are dying from all the work, not because they don't like you. Which brings me to my fourth point:
4. If you can, stay a little bit after your semester is done in Paris, catch up with friends who are too busy to meet up with you during finals weeks or do the things that you haven't done yet in Paris. I regret not doing as much as I could back in September/ October when I still had a lot of free time on my hands. I always thought, oh I'll have time for that later when the tourist season thins out but now I only have a week left and I have all these things on my bucket list that I have yet to cross off.
Final rant: for as much as I've complained about Paris through my #dailyrant statuses on Facebook, it is very depressing to be leaving Paris in like, a week. Especially with all the Christmas lights up and going. Paris truly is magical.