Background

My name is Imane Moumen and I’m 18. I come from Oujda, Morocco and I graduated from Lycee Andre Gide in Oujda after I spent some of my primary and middle school and then went back there for lbac- senior year of high school. My high school was private but it was still following the Moroccan curriculum. I was considered a good student since I was a kid so even though I was really not hard-working I ended up doing science math A and getting mentioned très bien. I will not get through my BAC in detail but let’s just say it was one of the most humbling experiences of my life, as you will need to work hard to get good grades.

Why France

I always wanted to travel as far as possible and I kind of knew that if I didn’t leave after high school I would struggle to leave because it would mean I would have to leave my adult life whereas I felt that leaving now meant leaving the teenage me and becoming more indépendant and knowing myself more. I also come from Oujda where we don’t have that many opportunities so the decision was easy to make.

France was really not my first choice and I mainly went there because of financial reasons, I also applied to US colleges and ended up getting 2 scholarships but it wasn’t enough, so France seemed like a great place to start up my higher education.

Application process

To apply to France I used Campus France and had to take DALF C1 which is a French fluency test and got a score of 87, I also took the IELTS but that was purely my choice and I ended up getting 7.5.

For France, your school grades are really important so I submitted my transcripts where I got 18 in my regional exam, and 16.63 in my BAC ( the Leaving Exam in Morocco).

Once you submit your documents and tests you'll be called for an interview where they ask you about your motives, and why you applied to each university and major.

Through campus in France, you apply to 7 Universities that offer 5 years programs.

However, if you want to apply to preparatory classes you will need to do that through Parcoursup, where you can apply to 20 preparatory classes across the country.

For this application, you won't need to take any interviews as your grades are the most important thing for them.

I applied to both universities and preparatory classes. Also, you should know that contrary to Campus France you don't have to pay for applications for preparatory classes, so if you're already applying to France I would advise you to also apply to preparatory classes and decide later once you have your acceptance.

Generally, for all French universities, you won't need any extracurricular activities, you can still do them, but they won't really give you an advantage in the application process.

Scholarships and living expenses

To be eligible for a scholarship in France you need to be living here for at least two years, which I wasn't, so currently I don't have any scholarships but my university is public so I don't have to pay anything except 42€ each year for my school and a 142 for the university double subscription.

However, I do have to cover my own rent and all living expenses, yet France is not a really expensive country especially if you are not living in a big city.