Academics at Reid Hall

Depending on your French proficiency at the start of the program, you will be required to take either one or two language courses in addition to three to four electives. Those electives include:

  • Specially-developed courses, taught exclusively for the program, that draw on the rich urban fabric of the city.
  • The opportunity to conduct a Directed Research project based on your personal specialization and interests, under the guidance of leading thinkers and scholars in your discipline.
  • Columbia Global Core courses.
  • Students can take courses at Reid Hall as well as local universities.

The University reserves the right to withdraw or modify the courses of instruction or to change the instructors as may become necessary.

Reid Hall Curriculum

French is the main language of interaction at Reid Hall and engagement with the language is a foundation of the program. You will receive robust support as you develop your linguistic abilities through specialized instruction, individual tutoring, and connections to outside resources.

Based on the results of a language assessment during the orientation, you will take part in either one or two language courses. Both courses are designed to help you succeed in your academic work in French.

Academic Writing. (3 points)

This intensive course is mandatory for every student as it introduces them to some of the major differences between French and American ways of approaching academic analysis and production. Course content varies with the level.

Language Practicum. (3 points)

This course, taken by students who place into Level I or II, is a language course at the intermediate and upper intermediate level. It aims to sharpen students’ linguistic skills to prepare them for their life in France as a student. It meets twice a week for five hours over 12 weeks and finishes before final work for other classes becomes due. Course content varies in each level.

Test de Connaissance du Francais (TCF)

At the end of their language curriculum, students take a standardized French Language exam called Test de Connaissance du Français (TCF). This test, similar to TOEFL, and recognized in 39 countries, enables students interested in returning to France for post-graduate work (professional or academic) to demonstrate their French language ability.

Please see below for a list of courses previously offered as part of the French Immersion Program. Please note that course offerings for your selected semester may be different from the courses listed here.

  • AHIS OC3682. Issues in 19th Century Art
  • CLFR OC3821. City Diplomacy (Global Core)
  • FREN OC3036. The Age of Enlightenment
  • FRST OC3991. Joint Seminar with NCEP: Globalization and Inequality
  • FRST OC3994. Paris and France in American and French Cinema. A Cross-Cultural Perspective
  • FRST OC3994. Urban History
  • WMST OC3550. Women & Society – The Sex-Trade economy

Academic Regulations

As a participant in a study abroad program administered by Columbia University, you are considered a member of the Columbia community and are expected to uphold the highest standards of integrity, civility, and respect. Students are therefore expected to conduct themselves in an honest, civil, and respectful manner in all aspects of their lives. Students who violate these standards of behavior interfere with their ability and the ability of others, to take advantage of the full complement of university life and are subject to disciplinary measures. For more details of what is expected of you during your stay, please review the program participation agreement you signed before leaving.

  • Attendance and participation are mandatory.
  • Medical absences must be justified by a dated medical certificate from a French doctor.
  • Students are only authorized one unjustified absence per course for the duration of the program. However, these always have to be communicated in advance to the faculty member and the academic coordinator. Please be mindful of the ways in which you communicate both with the faculty and program staff.
  • Each subsequent unjustified absence will lower the final grade by 1 point (i.e.: with one unjustified absence a 16 becomes a 15, etc.).
  • In addition to attendance students should plan on being punctual. Please note that 3 tardies (10 minutes late or more) are equivalent to 1 full absence.
  • Assignments handed in late without the authorization of the instructor will be penalized.
  • In addition to punctuality and motivation, students should do their best to be engaged critics and scholars, by participating actively in class, producing original work, and taking pleasure in reading, writing and thinking.
  • No eating or talking in class.
  • No cell phones in class. No surfing the internet (e.g.: Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, Social Media, Instagram)
  • Leaving the classroom once class has begun is considered very impolite in France.

The intellectual venture in which we are all engaged requires of faculty and students alike the highest level of personal and academic integrity. As members of an academic community, each one of us bears the responsibility to participate in scholarly discourse and research in a manner characterized by intellectual honesty and scholarly integrity. Scholarship, by its very nature, is an iterative process, with ideas and insights building one upon the other. Collaborative scholarship requires the study of other scholars’ work, the free discussion of such work, and the explicit acknowledgement of those ideas in any work that inform our own. This exchange of ideas relies upon a mutual trust that sources, opinions, facts, and insights will be properly noted and carefully credited. In practical terms, this means that, as students,

  • you must be responsible for the full citations of others’ ideas in your research papers/ projects
  • you must be scrupulously honest when taking your examinations
  • you must always submit your own work and not that of another student, scholar, or internet agent

Students needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a documented disability should contact the program Director before the start of classes.

Tutoring

The Columbia in Paris program is able to provide methodological tutoring for students enrolled in courses in approved departments at Paris 1, Paris 4, and Sciences Po (see list of departments below).

Students in approved departments will be matched with a tutor in a discipline specific to the courses in which they are enrolled at French University. Students meet with these tutors based on need over the course of the semester. Tutoring focuses exclusively on methodology and academic expectations specific to the French university system.

If your French University class has only one graded assignment, you may be able to complete a supplementary assignment with your tutor that accounts for a maximum of 30% of your final course grade. You will discuss this option with your Program Coordinator.

If you are enrolled in a course in a department with no tutoring, please note that your final grade will only be determined by your course-specific evaluation at local university. 

Departments approved for methodological tutoring

The Columbia in Paris Program is generally able to provide methodological tutoring for students enrolled in courses in the following departments:

History

Political Science

Art History

Literature

International Relations

Sociology

Philosophy

Cinema

Economics

Departments where tutoring may be possible but cannot be guaranteed

The Columbia in Paris Program cannot guarantee methodological tutoring for students enrolled in courses in the following departments. These subject areas tend to be wide-ranging, and the ability to find a tutor will depend upon the specific class.

Law

Musicology

Linguistique

Geography / Environmental Science

Humanities (specific to Sciences Po)

Archeology

Departments with no academic support or additional grades

The Columbia in Paris Program cannot provide methodological tutoring for students enrolled in courses in the following departments (please note that this list is not exhaustive):

Math

Business / Management

Visual Arts

Each student is assigned a language tutor at the beginning of the semester. Language tutoring can only be used for content courses at French university and Reid Hall. Linguistic tutoring is NOT available for Academic Writing and French Language Practicum.

The language tutors’ role is to help students become more independent writers by providing the critical feedback necessary for students to improve their language skills. Tutors track each student’s progress from session to session through individual mentoring, identifying frequent errors, and helping students understand and correct their mistakes. The students are expected to actively participate in these meetings, ask questions, take notes, write down new vocabulary, etc.