Reviewing the New Triplette System

By Santiago Robledo

The stressful time of midterms mark that we are halfway through the first semester. The new ‘triplette’ system introduced this year also celebrates this milestone.

The triplette system is an administrative tool that makes students choose a ‘three-pack’ of seminars that are attached to the lectures of the three main disciplines of that semester. In other words, each student will have to share six hours a week in the same 20-something other students in the seminars of the core disciplines. This method has already been implemented on the Paris campus for some time, and it is thought of as being an efficient way to organise students are their classes. Especially considering that our Reims campus is expanding, it is understandable that the administration needed to find a way to make the IPs (inscription pédagogique or course registration process) more efficient.

However, the process has been anything but simple. Maybe it was due to the lack of guidelines or simply because the IPs were during the summer break, but people found it difficult to navigate through triplette system and match their courses. The system of registering for classes is already so alien to students right out of high school that the experience easily becomes overwhelming. To reduce this stress, the registrations should potentially be done at the start of the semester, as it was last year, so that students could be guided through the process by second years.

After overcoming the usual first days of awkwardness, my triplette has become an active community. We are able to share our work and worries, and have formed a good classroom atmosphere. Without this system, it could well be that we would have a wider variety of people to share out classes with; however, the bonds that we are able to form could not have been achieved if not for the system that has allowed us to spend so many seminar hours together.

While I had the luck of ending up with a good group of people, and with a decent schedule, there are others that do not share such a case. Not managing to create a helpful and supportive community within the triplette can mean being stuck that way for the rest of the semester. But perhaps this can also be a welcome challenge for students, to come out of their comfort zones and interact, in order to create such a community with the strangers they spend so much time with. After all this is what Sciences Po should be about: pushing ourselves to form new connections with people from across the globe.

The triplette offers a good transition from high school and is an great opportunity that brings together people one did not have the chance to interact with beforehand. Despite the few who were naturally frustrated with the outcome, overall, the system managed to satisfy most. For it does indeed offer some stability; by combining relatively small classes with a consistent group of people, the work environment can cultivate a more stable source of academic and social support. This should be considered an asset to any classroom. Now that the seminar organization has a clear system in place, the next goal of the administration should be to reconsider how these seminars are taught, especially in terms of content adaptation and continuity.

Santiago Robledo, born in Colombia (the country – not the dual degree) and raised in sunny southern France, is now in rainy northern France as a first year student. He enjoys writing and all sorts of outdoor activities, despite social media and French pastries also taking a lot of his time. Thinking Out Loud runs the fourth Thursday of the month.