École Polytechnique has been closed since Monday March 16th and will remain closed until further notice. The School's priority remains to protect the health and safety of its students and staff and to ensure the continuity of its missions in the best possible way.
Moreover, one of the main missions of l’X is to maintain the link between the faculty and the students, whether they are still on the campus or at home with their families throughout the world, so as to best avoid the feelings of isolation and to continue nurturing the community spirit.
Accomodations
Accommodations for the students currently housed or returning from internships will continue to be provided on campus. Many students still indeed live on the campus of the School, whether because it was safer for them or because they were not allowed to go back home due to the closure of borders.
With regard to the various academic programs, they have adapted to the current circumstances and continue to recruit new students. They are also actively preparing for the new academic school year to come in Fall 2020.
Bachelor of Science
Online courses have been made fully available to the class of 2021 and 2022 students since the end of March, with necessary adaptations regarding the class of 2020’s Bachelor Thesis. The team is particularly focused on providing support and advice to 2nd year students and soon-to-be graduating 3rd year students applying for Master’s.
The Bachelor application process for September 2020 intake is going ahead as planned, with personalised follow-ups with candidates when required. The third and last round of applications is currently open until April 28, 2020. As for admitted students starting in September 2020, Ecole Polytechnique will ensure they can safely join the Bachelor Program and access their courses, either on campus, if it is safe to reopen, or via distance learning if confinement regulations are still in place.
When asked about distance learning, Alexandra, 1st year Bachelor student, explains that “most teachers organise online lectures or at least Q&A’s through Zoom. We also have access to written information and even some awesome videos that our teachers make for us! Of course, it is a bit hard to get used to the new rhythm at the beginning, but it is just a question of organisation”.
“Independently learning completely new concepts is one of the greatest challenges we have been presented with, hopefully we’ll be able to turn this one of our successes!” analyses Maxime, 1st year Bachelor student.
Some students also faced some change of plans and had to react quickly. Skander, a 3rd year Bachelor student, was in Geneva, Switzerland, when the lockdown was first announced in France: “I was doing my Bachelor Thesis and had three more weeks to go. I suspected the Swiss government would take similar measures, so I quickly decided to come back on campus. I then preferred staying here, on campus, rather than going back to Tunisia”.
Masters of Science and Technology
Many MSc&T students were about to start their internships shortly before the announcement of the confinement period. Therefore, companies and students had to find solutions and to adapt themselves to the situation. Some students were authorized to work from home, like Moira, a student in the STEEM Master’s program: “My internship officially started on the 6th of April. Due to the current situation, I had an introductory videoconference. I was lucky because I was able to start working from home.”
This is also the case of Anandita, a student in the ECOSEM Master’s program: “As of right now, my internship is still on schedule, starting from May 4th. We might initially start by video conferencing and then we will adapt to how the situation is evolving.”
Others have seen their internships postponed, like Benyamin, a student in the STEEM Master’s program: “The company that I will work in has agreed to postpone my internship so that I can start it later in June. Meanwhile, I’m trying to make the most of my free time to do things by reaching out and doing things I have always wanted to do, such as learning new languages and music instruments. Hopefully the confinement will be over by June and I’ll be able to start working on-site instead of tele-working.”
We will keep you regularly informed about the situation.
You might also like...
