After admission

You've been admitted ?

First, congratulations ! Now, here's what to do: (summary)

1. Money. Make sure your financial plan holds ! If you don't have a scholarship, you need quite some money to live here. There are no more scholarships we can find for you. (in June, deadlines have passed). The cost of living in France is quite high. To survive in France (nearby Paris), you need approximately 1300-1600€/month  (+some intial money for travel, house deposit, buying some kitchen appratus etc)
   See the details here (it's quite well done !) :
   https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/vie-de-campus/accueil-des-publics-internationaux/venir-luniversite-paris-saclay/cost-living

NEW: See also: https://www.campusfrance.org/en/preparing-budget-student-France

-> If you don't have enough money to make it, please, don't come. It's unfortunate but the number of scholarships is limited and coming without money is a really bad idea.

2. "Confirm" your decision on inception. If you end up deciding to go somewhere else, please resign ("démissionner") on the platform (or at least send an email to francois.landes@lisn.fr), so that your slot can be given to another student. You can still resign after you confirmed you come.
   If you already accepted officially, we count on you and it's supposed to be a strict commitment from you. However, if for some reason (financial or other), you think you may end up to not register/not show up in September, please let me know about this likelihood. We won't exclude you (we cannot!), if you just tell us the truth. But it will allow us to estimate a rate of summer-dropout, and thus to "overbook"  the Master's slots in a reasonable way. If it's the opposite, and you're 100% sure you'll be here in September, you can let me know as well :)

3. We recommend to join the discord channel (link to be sent later)  Join our Google Group

4. get registered (inscription académique + inscriptions pédagogique)

   • inscription académique:
     Some information here: https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/admission/etudiants-internationaux/international-students-applying-masters-degree
     In case of problems you can contact scolarite-licencesmasters.sciences@universite-paris-saclay.fr but they are usually very busy at the start of the year when you need them most. A good way to solve the problems right away is to go to building 336 and to talk to them directly.
     Once you have paid these (unexpensive) fees, there is no refund if you change your mind and don't show up in september.

   • inscription pédagogique:
     This happens during september, after your arrival. It just means choosing which optionnal courses you take (contrat pédagogique), send an ID picture to the secrétariat pédagogique (Alexandre Verrecchia <alexandre.verrecchia@universite-paris-saclay.fr>) and signing the exams code of conduct chart.

5. For your brains to be ready: "get-ready" 

6. Before asking us stuff by email, try to make sure the information is not around here. If you write to us, try to make a concise, clear and polite request. And be patient.

NEW SECTION: see below, information about arrival days and how to book an appointment with university services to get help on the admin side.

Other information/tips:

• Stuff for foreigners: https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/vie-de-campus/accueil-des-publics-internationaux

• Housing related links: 

  • https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/vie-de-campus/logement 

  • Or directly: https://www.crous-versailles.fr/logement/residence-les-jardins-de-fleming/ 

  • You can also try directly the cité Universitaire, inside Paris (more far away from Saclay): https://www.ciup.fr/en/apply-for-accommodation/ 

  • Logements en résidence Crous : la phase principale d'attribution des logements Crous pour 2024-2025 est ouverte jusqu'au 1er juillet pour les étudiants boursiers. La phase complémentaire sera quant à elle ouverte le 9 juillet pour tous les étudiants.

  • CASA UPSaclay : l'espace dédié de logements vérifiés pour les étudiants de l'université

• KLARO (ex Toutes mes aides) : le simulateur pour accéder aux aides et avantages à destination des étudiants de l'université

• Be careful that some websites are not fully translated, i.e. the french webpage may exist or be more informative than the English one. Use DeepL or other services to translate the French pages.

• about scholarships: Unfortunately, Scholarship season finishes around late May. The two of them where I can help, namely IDEX and SaclAI-School (mixtAI) are over now (not to mention EIFFEL, for which the deadline is in november). (IDEX provides results around late June)
  We try to spot the best students to short-list them for those (and then a jury (not me) selects a few files from the short-list), but given the tight schedules and lack of time, we sometimes have to make our short-list before reading all files: we do our best effort.
  Each year we get a few scholarships out of all the students we short-list, but of course not all students of the Master can be financed by these Saclay scholarships, other Saclay Master programs also need to have their share.
  The possibilities I see for funding are:

  • contact your embassy, to see if there is a French-(your country) program. Probably it's too late.

  • consider taking a loan. I cannot recommend it, then AI is a rather demanded field, so it could be an option.
    
    

I am sorry but I see no other options, so otherwise you may have to abandon the program. In the case where you realize that you do not have the means to join us in September, please let me know as soon as possible (and resign from the platform). Some students work part time to pay for their studies, but I cannot advise to do that, it can strongly impede on your academic achievement. Student jobs are poorly paid and are quite energy-consuming.

• Differentiated tuition fees’ for non-EU students: at Saclay, foreigner pay the same as nationals/EU students: cheap.
  https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/admissions/tuition-fees 

Other links: (copy pasted from an email about exchange students - but most of this stuff is for everyone I think)

WELCOME & INTEGRATION

• Buddy Programme (international mentoring programme): https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/international-mentoring-programme-buddy-programme

• To make an appointment with the International Welcome Desk : https://doodle.com/bp/internationalwelcomedesk-upsaclay/appointment

ACCOMMODATION :

For any specific questions related to Housing please check https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/campus-life/accommodation and contact logement.etudiant@universite-paris-saclay.fr

Students willing to apply for a programme outside an exchange programme are invited to go to our website :

APPLICATIONS: https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/admissions/international-students/you-want-study-individual-degree-seeking-student

GRANTS: https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/admission/scholarships-and-financial-support

http://campusbourses.campusfrance.org/fria/bourse/#/catalog

TUITION FEES: https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/admissions/tuition-fees

FRENCH DIPLOMA : https://www.sciences.universite-paris-saclay.fr/diploma-french-foreign-language-one-year-intensive-french-course

INTERNSHIP : https://www.universite-paris-saclay.fr/en/admissions/international-students/internship-universite-paris-saclay

NEW SECTION:

Université Paris-Saclay is preparing for your arrival and will provide you with a variety of services to welcome you under the very best conditions.

1° Click here to get all the information for a successful trip to France and save the page, it will be useful all along your stay.

2° Make an individual appointment online with our administrative support manager, who will explain the administrative steps to take once you arrive in France and the different services that the university puts in place to help you with these procedures.

3° After reading the information on the website, come ask your questions during our Q&A webinars on Teams: Wednesday June 5th, Thursday June 27th and Wednesday July 17th (5 p.m. - 6 p.m., Paris time GMT+2)

4° Join the WhatsApp group for newly admitted international students, to receive useful information and reminders before your arrival in France.

5° Register for the Arrival Days, to receive information and support as soon as you arrive in France. Check the dates and locations on the website , then book your trip to France to be able to participate.

Will there be entry-level M1 classes, to help me fill some of my "missing prerequisites"?

There are refresher classes (the "PRE" modules, and TC0), but not sufficient for students who have not taken such classes at all as undergraduates. Your grades in Maths in particular will be an important selection criterion.

- PRE1: Applied statistics (estimators, maximum likelihood, etc)

- PRE2: Mathematics for data science (continuous optimization, linear algebra)

- PRE3: Datacomp (Basics of DataBases)

- PRE4: Scientific programming (python)

Also, see the rest of this website, in particular, see https://sites.google.com/chalearn.org/ai-master/get-ready 

outdated (sept 2022) presentation: Slides of the welcome meeting