What’s it Really Like to Study at Sciences Po?

We asked two international students at France’s Institut d'études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) to share their experience of studying at the prestigious social sciences university.

Polina Piperkova, from Bulgaria, has just completed her undergraduate law degree at Sciences Po, and will be continuing at master’s level later this year. Parimal Satyal, from Nepal, joined Sciences Po’s School of Communication in 2012 after completing his undergraduate studies in the US.

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“I applied to SciencesPo because it offers an excellent multidisciplinary program in social sciences,” Polina says. “The program fitted perfectly – I’ve always wanted to study law, but did not want to specialize from the very beginning. At the time, it seemed premature to choose a rigid and committing professional field, such as law, without having tried various disciplines I considered appealing – economics and political science.”

She adds, “Notions and concepts from these disciplines proved to be essential in understanding law better. For example, this year I trained in competition law at an international law firm, and my background in economics helped me handle cases in complex economic markets.”

Meanwhile Parimal admits that he hadn’t initially considered Sciences Po for grad school, as he hadn’t realized how many different subjects it covers.

After spending time at the university as an exchange student, he says, “I loved Paris and could see myself returning… The School of Communication looked particularly attractive to me for its mélange of social sciences, technology, design, along with my own interests in media, design and culture.”

Now that he’s started the course, Parimal says “The most interesting thing about the program is its ability to attract tremendously influential, creative, unique, powerful personalities in the industry and in academia to teach classes and visit as guest speakers.

"This means two things: one, we get to learn from people who've had the experience and can speak from personal experience, which I find is valuable; and two, the program is very well connected, giving students the chance to meet people and discover opportunities in the network.”

Highlighting the international diversity at Sciences Po, Parimal adds, “In one particular class of 20-something students, about 16 nationalities were represented, many with very different ideas about what communication entails and how it affects corporate environments. The teacher for this class was able to really tap into this amazing diversity and show that students can learn as much from one another as from the course itself, something that seems obvious but is really hard to put into practice.”