French

The French program welcomes students at all levels, from beginners to students with several years of French. Our courses in Bronxville are closely associated with Sarah Lawrence’s excellent French program in Paris, and our priority is to give our students the opportunity to study in Paris during their junior or senior year—including students who start at the beginning level in their first year at the College. Every year, several seniors also choose to go back to France after they graduate from Sarah Lawrence in order to work in local schools for the French Department of Education through the selective English Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF). Some students are still in Paris several years later, attending French graduate programs.

Our program in Paris is one of the best available in the nation, with almost all courses taught in French and with the unique opportunity for students to take courses (with conference work) at French universities and other Parisian institutions of higher education (including the arts). Even for students who do not intend to go abroad, the French program in Bronxville provides the opportunity to learn the language in close relation to French culture and literature, starting at the beginning level. At all levels except for beginning, students conduct individual conference projects in French on an array of topics—from medieval literature to Gainsbourg and the culture of the 1960s to Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and avant-garde French female filmmakers. 

On campus, the French program fosters a francophile atmosphere with the help of two French assistants who come to the College every year from Paris. We encourage sophomores and above to consider taking a French course for three credits per semester instead of five credits, allowing them to add or continue the study of French on top of a regular 15-credit/semester load; however, this is not possible for the beginning level, as Beginning French (FREN 3001) must be taken for five credits.

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French 2024-2025 Courses