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Location: Orléans
Duration: Sem/Year
Language: French
Cost: MSSU tuition (15 hours); pay room and board to Orleans
Contact: Michele Holt or Chad Stebbins
Website: https://www.univ-orleans.fr/
Located an hour south of Paris in the beautiful Loire Valley, the Université d’Orléans celebrated its 700th anniversary in 2006. Closed during the French Revolution, the university reopened in 1961 with a U.S.-style wooded campus on the outskirts of the city. Exchange students are given a placement test to determine their level of French fluency, and then placed in appropriate language and culture classes. Advanced students may take regular courses in the university’s three colleges: Law and Business, Liberal Arts, and Science. The Université d’Orléans (19,000 enrollment, including 2,900 international students) is an easy train ride from the city of Orléans (population 115,000), which Joan of Arc liberated from the English during the Hundred Years War.
The majority of MSSU students who have studied here have lived with host families (link is for the English version; click here for the French version). The cost is between 475€ and 520€ per month, depending on the size of the room. The price includes breakfast and dinner seven days per week, as well as lunches on weekends. Living with a host family also allows students to improve their French speaking abilities. Students pay the host families in cash the first of every month.
Otherwise, the cost of on-campus housing varies from 180€ to 450€ per month, depending on the type of accommodation (see pages 13 and 14 of the welcome guide for videos of the rooms; there is also a welcome guide in French). The Université d’Orléans Fact Sheet includes pricing estimates for almost everything related to a semester-long study abroad experience in France.
Please note that students are no longer able to request an accomodation change during the semester. Students should consider this rule before applying for a type of accomodation.
May 1 is the application deadline for the Fall semester, which generally starts around late August. Oct. 5 is the application deadline for the Spring semester, which generally starts around mid-January. The Fall semester is shorter, with students leaving in December. The Spring semester runs until June, but most of the exams finish around mid-May. Follow this link for the online application portal:
https://uorleans.moveon4.com/locallogin/5c779bc081ba9710758b4568/eng
Please complete the Learning Agreement and the French Language Certificate as well.
Students also must register with Campus France and apply for a visa well in advance of their departure date.
What is Campus France?
Campus France is an agency within the French government that is tasked with promoting higher education in France. Campus France USA is based at the French Embassy in Washington, D.C. and serves as the “clearinghouse” for all visa applicants. It is step one in the process of securing a visa for France.
Is this a mandatory part of the process?
Yes. No student can obtain a visa without a confirmation email from Campus France stating their file has been processed.
What is the Campus France processing fee?
$190 for individual applicants for regular service and $340 for expedited service. (Each student who will be part of an optional group mailing service done with his or her adviser will pay the same $190 fee).
How do individual students apply?
Students must create an Etudes en France (Campus France) account and submit an online application. Individual applicants will then pay the processing fee online and submit the required paperwork to Campus France using this website (https://www.docboxcfusa.org). This new tool (Docbox) should eliminate the need to communicate with Campus France via email.
The Consulate General of France outsourced the visa application process to VFS Global in 2018. Students no longer go to Consulates to submit their visa applications, but rather, to one of the nine Visa Application Centers across the U.S. that are operated by VFS.
The application process and procedure is more streamlined now that the VACs are open. Below is a list of the essential documents required for the visa appointment for US passport holders applying for a long-stay student visa:
How much does it cost
*The CAL Subcommittee has received numerous requests for clarification on what the Consulate requires as proof of accommodation. An actual address in France is mandatory. The local address of the person onsite (ex: Program Director) is acceptable if the exact housing is unknown at the time of application. We strongly advise against students using Airbnb as the Consulate significantly scrutinizes independent housing arrangements. In one instance, they mentioned that having too many occupants in a single dwelling was a red flag.
For answers to specific questions about the Université d’Orléans, please contact Julien Prud'homme, incoming students coordinator, at julien.prudhomme@univ-orleans.fr.
