The Foreign Service Journal, December 2003

84 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / D E C E M B E R 2 0 0 3 S CHOOLS S UPPLEMENT Getting into U.S. colleges is also harder because lycees rarely give mul- tiple-choice exams and never offer SAT coaching, which tends to lower students’ SAT scores. Even worse, those 15/20 grades that look great to the Sorbonne translate into 75 on a 100-point scale, so less sophisticated U.S. admissions officers think: “Ah ha, a C student!” Finally, lycees don’t offer the clubs, organized team sports or other extracurriculars which serve so well to pad college applications. Despite these disadvantages, some top universities love French grads, and many have no particular feelings about them. A few schools are known to be less welcoming. Parents should also be aware that scholarship committees – AFSA’s seems among them — find it hard to translate French accomplishments into familiar criteria. The irony is that graduates of the French system usually do extremely well at college, as they should, since the lycee’s two final years, with 12 courses a week and the Bac exam looming, provide valuable experience in dealing with intensive, unrelieved academic pressure. Speaking of which: We are happy to report that Marc and Catherine both completed Sciences Baccalaureates, with the International Option, at the French International School of Sophia- Antipolis (located in France’s “Silicon Valley” near Nice and Cannes). Marc is a Stanford junior, doing a B.S. in Earth Systems and B.A. in International Relations and two more languages while lifeguarding on the side. Catherine, an avid scuba diver, has just entered Duke to study Marine Sciences and earn Divemaster certification during her summers. ■ Continued from page 82 Wherever they are located, French schools are stringent and seek to impart a well-defined body of knowledge, in contrast to the more flexible U.S. approach.