Embarking in Neuroscience

The main reason why I came to AUP was the American system. I very much liked the idea of a liberal arts system in which a student is allowed to ‘try out’ different majors before making up his or her mind. This multidisciplinary approach contrasts greatly with the French system where you not only study one single specialty (what happens if, like me, you were not sure what it should be), but are oriented to the Sciences, Economics, Literature, or Philosophy when you are 16! This rigid educational system differs notably with the flexible approach of the American system.

What I found at AUP was a very unique international and multicultural student body. Being in a small classroom of about 16 students, all from different cultural and educational backgrounds, and where discussion is very much encouraged, makes for a fantastic and unique learning experience. AUP is not an American university but for its liberal arts approach to education. It is a global university that provides an exceptional and unmatched learning environment, in and outside the classroom. AUP’s diversity and multicultural environment emphasize the idea that the values and beliefs we hold and are exposed to are most often relative to one’s culture. It taught me to think flexibly and to avoid the rigidity of taxonomic systems.

While a student at AUP I founded the Psychology Club and was the Psychology departmental representative. I did this both to strengthen my CV and because I wanted to be involved in activities related to my studies. I was also a Student Advisor twice, which I chose for the great social experience it involves – the great friends you make in the ‘student advisor’ circle and the new students you get to meet. AUP doesn’t have a ‘closed campus’ as such but is spread out in a typically Parisian neighborhood. The walking path from Combes to Bosquet to Grenelle is forever engraved in my memory!

After graduating from AUP, I moved to London to work as a full-time research assistant at the Clinical Psychopharmacology Unit at UCL. I worked there until September 2008 when I moved to Oxford, where I've been a student in the MSc in Neuroscience program. This has been a great experience so far: I’ve met wonderful friends and the training I receive here is fantastic.

The liberal arts system and AUP’s international student body taught me to think and learn flexibly. I have learned that knowledge brings people from different backgrounds closer: education enables discussion. AUP's multicultural student body makes it a global university that provides a very unique learning environment, both in and outside the classroom. What you’ll find under every AUP graduate’s cap is a flexible mind.