Orientation is an opportunity to get acquainted with Parsons Paris, fellow students, and Paris. For students who have not found lodgings yet, Orientation week is the time when to secure permanent housing. There will are social activities, museum visits, and walking tours so students can get to know other new and returning students.
Parsons Paris students live in dormitories or apartments throughout the city or may choose to live with a French family.
Apartments and Homestays
The experience of life in the French community helps avoid isolating students within a closed English�speaking environment. As part of an ongoing process, the Student Life Office is involved in locating apartments suitable for students as well as developing and maintaining contacts with various rental agencies and Homestay
providers. Students receive assistance and documentation on effectively dealing with the legal aspects of renting in France.
Dormitory
During the fall semester students may choose to live in La Maison Mere Dormitory located in the 6th Arrondissement, three stops away from Parsons Paris. The rooms are equipped with AC, WiFi and Ethernet, electronic keys and digital phones. The building has 24/7 security and receptionist, a Residence Director and Residence Adviser on-site, a library, lounge, computer lab and printers. Meal plans are available. The rooms are double occupancy so you would share with another Parsons Paris student. La Maison Mere is only available for students 18 years of age and older.
Meals
Most Parsons Paris students prepare meals at home, eat in local restaurants or from take-away shops in the neighborhood of school. Additionally, through the CROUS, a public establishment of the French Minister of Education, students have access to four restaurants and twenty university cafeterias at which they can have
a three-course meal at lunch or dinner for fewer than 3 Euros.
Students from outside of the European Community must apply for and receive a student visa before entering France. This process can take time so we encourage students to complete their visa application as early as possible. To become familiar with the visa process visit www.campusfrance.org
The Student Life Office assist students with medical referrals and assists students make claims for reimbursement from French Social Security and their Complementary Health Care provider.
All Parsons Paris students are required to be enrolled with French Social Security for health care coverage. Whether studying at Parsons Paris for a semester or a year, students pay the fixed annual subscription fee for 2010. The fee for 2010-2011 is 200 euros. French Social Security health care coverage provides you with total or partial reimbursement of medical expenses while in France.
In addition, the companies SMEREP and LMDE provide complementary health care coverage (la mutuelle). In order to limit healthcare expenditure, students supplement their social security reimbursements with those of a complementary health insurance policy, which will cover all or part of the difference between medical expenses and the partial social security reimbursement.
