Community and Social Life

Community and social life

Social Life

While the University culture and environment encourage connection between students from all backgrounds, ages and stages of life, for graduate students, community building often takes place through the academic cohort, a tight-knit group of students with similar academic interests and goals who have the opportunity to learn and grow together in different settings. Cohorts of students will get to know each other during classes and academic events, while working on research projects, attending cultural program trips, and socializing during informal gatherings. But social life doesn’t stop on campus. This tight-knit environment mirrors the way Parisians socialize. The city of Paris, and Parisians, are known for their love of intimate discussions in cafés and gathering in small groups to share a meal and some wine, be it along the river Seine in the spring or in some of the 44,000 restaurants across the city.

In the Classroom

We pride ourselves on providing an academic environment with small classrooms allowing for faculty-student and student-student dialogue on a daily basis which gives you a sense of community. In such settings, students have the opportunity to speak their point of view, engage in debate and take the initiative in their own learning, which helps them develop  the soft-skills needed to succeed not only at AUP, but also in their careers and lives.

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  • Average grad class size

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  • Student to faculty ratio

Community & Clubs

Involvement in Student Government, Graduate Student Council, or other co-curricular activities such as the Peacock, AUP’s journalism program, are other ways that graduate students often build community. You of course also have the possibility of creating your own community around your own hobby, interest or passion. Clubs and on-campus organizations also offer graduate students great opportunities to meet people, gain practical experience, hone transferable skills and mentor other students. They often become pillars of these organizations and go on to become dependable, experienced leaders once they graduate thanks to their involvement in AUP clubs. 

Our staff and professors will do their best to help you find like-minded people and will be there to guide you should you want to start your own club or group. 

Events & Parties

Though the student government association organizes a few school-wide parties each year, more regular events that bring our community together include visiting guest lecturers on cutting edge topics, art gallery vernissages and special events like the annual World's Fair during which students from typically more than 50 countries share cuisine and culture from their countries of origin. A big school-wide Thanksgiving dinner is also one of our long standing traditions that often draws alums back to the campus once a year.

Graduate students enjoying a mixer with staff.

Grad students at a mixer

At the annual World's Fair, students host tables that celebrate the culture and food of their home countries.

Students prepare a table for the World's Fair

The AUP community regularly comes together for the opening, or vernissage, of new art exhibits on campus.

Students and alumni at a vernissage

Performances on campus are a great chance to have fun and celebrate the breadth of arts at AUP.

Watching Vivre Arts Festival

Open mic night is always popular.

Open mic night in the AMEX

The AMEX Cafe is the heart of campus community.

Socialising in the AMEX Cafe

Students come together to celebrate Fall Fest.

Students at Thanksgiving

TEDxAUP organizers 2024

Could you be part of providing a platforms for exchanging groundbreaking ideas, diverse perspectives, and transformative experiences? 

TEDxAUP

TEDx is a grassroots initiative encourages local communities across the globe to host their own speaker events that engage with TED’s mission to discover ideas worth spreading. Since 2020, the student-led initiative has brought the conference to campus, featuring speakers from across and beyond the AUP community in a mission to "unite brilliant minds, foster innovation, and inspire positive change by organizing extraordinary TEDx events."

AUP alum Clark Marchese '22 coordinated the 2022 event and acted as its producer, “my favorite part of organizing the conference was being able to provide a microphone to uplift the voices of the AUP community and the ideas of students, professors and alumni alike,” he said. “I learned that being a producer requires keeping track of many moving pieces as well as the importance of assembling a reliable team to help me along the way.”