Why You Should NOT Come to France to Study: An Honest Take

I run a YouTube channel and a blog about studying in Europe, and most of what I post is positive about France. I genuinely love living here. But that means I owe people the other side too, the part where I tell you not to come. If any of the five reasons below match you, France is the wrong call.

This is the most honest version of advice I can give. If you want the rosier picture, see pros and cons of studying a Master’s in France, but read this one first.

1. You do not have the money to support yourself

In the US, international students often fund living expenses through part-time jobs. Lab assistants, teaching assistants, research assistants, on-campus services. The infrastructure for student employment exists.

In France, especially at business schools and especially at HEC, this is not the case. On-campus jobs barely exist. Off-campus jobs are usually waiting tables or working retail, which both require strong French. At HEC Paris specifically, off-campus work is functionally impossible because the campus is far from anything. In my admissions interview three years ago, the school told me directly: do not plan to fund yourself through part-time work.

The one workaround is the apprenticeship contract, where a company pays your tuition and a monthly salary for 24 months while you study and work in parallel. ESSEC offers this. HEC does not. Several other schools do, but you have to land the contract, and that is competitive in its own right.

If you cannot self-fund or take a loan, France is not the easiest country to make this work. The US has more part-time options for students. Germany has tuition-free public universities. Both are worth comparing seriously.

2. You expect to get a job in the US, Canada, Australia, or even the UK

This one trips up a lot of applicants. People assume a top French Master’s opens doors to any English-speaking country. It does not.

After studying in France, most international graduates who do not stay in France end up in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, or Dubai. Some end up in Singapore or Hong Kong. The US is genuinely hard to reach from a French program because of visa friction and US recruiting cycles. Canada is rare. Australia is rare.

The rule of thumb is simple. If you want a job in the US, study in the US. If you want a job in Canada, study in Canada. If you want a job in the UK, the picture is mixed, with some graduates making it through but most ending up elsewhere in Europe.

I unpacked the broader France-vs-US calculation in why I chose France over the US, but the takeaway is: pick the country where you want to end up working.

3. You do not want to deal with the language at all

Even if you have no plan to work in France, life here without French is harder than people expect. Administrative tasks become longer. Student events pass you by. People at restaurants, museums, public transport, and stores can be dismissive when you switch to English.

There have been many times when someone refused to help me because I started in English. Not rare, regular. The right response is to learn French. If you are not willing to do that, you will feel alienated.

The country rewards effort with the language. Without the attempt, you spend two years in a parallel English bubble. Some people are okay with that. Most are not.

4. You are not prepared to learn French to find a job here

This is the most important one. English-only jobs in France exist but are a minority. Even when the role is in English, the office environment around it usually is not. You can reach the offer stage with weak French, but you will be navigating a French-speaking workplace once you join.

To find a job in France and actually be happy in it, you need French at B2 minimum. Most people I know who landed great roles spent their first six months at HEC actively improving their French, and it paid off.

You do not need to speak French before you arrive. I did not. But you have to be ready to put in serious effort once you do. The classroom alone will not get you there. I wrote about my own approach in how I learnt French, and the broader cultural adjustment in struggles at HEC Paris and living in Paris dislikes.

5. You are not willing to research the job market

It is 2026. You can find exactly which roles are open in France by spending two hours on LinkedIn. There is no excuse for assuming the right job is out there.

Almost every relevant job is in Paris. Search the companies that hire actively at scale for international graduates: L’Oreal, LVMH, Kering, Capgemini, BCG, McKinsey, Bain, Stripe, Datadog, Doctolib. Search the role titles you want. See how many roles list English as a working language and how many require French. Read the qualifications and the seniority level.

You will find quickly whether the kind of work you want exists in France at the scale you want. If you find ten roles a week in your target area, you are in good shape. If you find one a month, that is your signal to pick a different country. Either way, you make the call with data, not vibes.

So who should still come

If you can fund the program, you are ready to learn French, and the kind of work you want is meaningfully available in France or in Europe more broadly, France is one of the best places on the planet to do a Master’s. The cost is fair, the lifestyle is good, the stay-back path is clean, and the network you build is genuinely useful.

If any of the five points above describe you, go somewhere else. There is no shame in that. Picking the wrong country costs you two years and tens of thousands of euros.

If France still feels right after reading this, MiM at HEC vs ESSEC and HEC Paris admission requirements are the natural next reads.