3rd Year Abroad: Katharina and the United Kingdom, Getting Out of Her Bubble

My name is Katharina, I come from Austria and I spent my first two years on the Nancy campus, European Union, Franco-German partnership minor.

Above all, I chose Sciences Po for the international dimension of its courses, with the possibility of spending an entire year at a partner university abroad, the large offer of foreign language courses and the international focus of the subjects taught.

I also greatly appreciated the opportunity to pursue specific interests through the PRESAGE (Sciences Po's Gender Studies Programme) Gender and Equality Certification and the CIVICA Engage Track (a European civic engagement programme), which allowed me to specialise in Gender Studies as well as in the issues of European civic responsibility and to obtain additional certifications in these areas which are particularly close to my heart.

My first selection of possible destinations included at least 30 universities, for various reasons - the linguistic aspect, the academic offer, the geographical location, the cultural aspect, etc. Making a choice was hard. Bearing in mind that I could always travel or do internships in other countries later, but that this opportunity to spend an entire year discovering another academic culture was unique to the framework of 3A, I finally decided to focus on the academic aspect.

The academic culture of major British universities has always intrigued me and that's why I decided to explore it. I put the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) first on my wish list.

I would say that this year in London has, above all, gave me an independence that I had not known, with its pros and cons. On the one hand, I may have felt lost in a big anonymous city and its lightly supervised university system. At the same time, I learned to manage my time and my budget more efficiently, I got out of my “bubble” to meet very different people, enjoy the cultural life of London, and even discover academic research through my student job!

This year brought me, both academically and personally, much more than a 3rd year within the walls of Sciences Po would have done.

I always thought that most people were following the "classic" pattern of a bachelor's followed by a master's and graduating before the age of 25. In London, I was able to talk with various students who had taken several years off between their bachelor's and master's degrees to get to know different sectors and refine their professional project before specialising in their studies.

Over the course of these exchanges, I realised that I, too, preferred to leave myself a little time before embarking on a master's degree, and so I requested a gap year during which I intend to do internships.

I think we must once and for all stop believing that there is one and only “perfect” destination for each of us. I was very stressed about my choice of 3A, telling myself that I had to find THE right university for me and that I risked "missing out" on this magical experience that 3A seemed to be for everyone if I made the wrong choice.

Now I can say that LSE was ONE very good choice for me, but certainly not THE one and only good choice - I would surely have had an equally rewarding year, although perhaps in another way, in an other university. So don't stress out too much and make the most of it!

Independence.