Destination USA

Visiter les Etats-Unis par la route est une expérience très enrichissante. Voici quelques conseils pour éviter les surprises avec les loueurs.
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I don’t know about you, but growing up, the only thing I was told about getting into a good university was to get good grades. Well, the system in the USA is a bit more complex than that and even excellent grades might not be sufficient to get into their top schools. In fact, the competition is so harsh, most students prepare very well at least two years before their last year of high school to have some considerable chance. So let me tell you a bit more about it.

Part I: The application.

The application process for the top schools in the USA consists of exam taking and an application form (which is itself an entire process on its own with multiple forms):

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I don’t know about you, but growing up, the only thing I was told about getting into a good university was to get good grades. Well, the system in the USA is a bit more complex than that and even excellent grades might not be sufficient to get into their top schools. In fact, the competition is so harsh, most students prepare very well at least two years before their last year of high school to have some considerable chance. So let me tell you a bit more about it.

Part II: The Exams (to be taken well in advance before the application due date!!!).

Exams are a crucial part of your application. To get into a certain top school, you need at least a certain minimum. (Except maybe if you an extraordinary talent, recommendations from a Nobel Prize, or some other crazy thing.) Unfortunately, there are plenty of those exams…

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New-York n’est pas aux Etats-Unis. New York, c’est New-York. Le centre du monde. Il vous faudrait des mois pour tout visiter. Mais déjà, si vous avez de la chance d’y passer pour quelques jours, cette expérience peut être inoubliable.

En fait, si le budget vous le permet, il est tout à fait possible de faire l’aller-retour sur un long week-end à partir de Paris. Voici comment pourrait se dérouler votre voyage.

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The USA Nightlife can be extremely different from state to state. For instance, “Last call“, or the time just a bit before a bar closes can be as early as 12:45 a.m., or as late as 5 a.m.. (Use the link to check out the one for your state). Also, within the state itself, cities and towns often have the right to impose their own restrictions. The same is valid for the sale of alcohol: each has its own hours during which alcohol can be sold in bars, or out of the bars. (This Wiki article lists the regulations.) For those reasons, nightclubs might start filling up as early as 10 p.m., or as late as 12-1 a.m..

In brief: to inform yourself of the nightlife available around your future residence, you should do your own research as it’s impossible to summarize the entire information.

Nevertheless, there are a couple of things you should remember. The sale of alcohol to persons under 21 is illegal in all of the states. For this reason, many bars will limit the entrance of clubs to those whose age is below. Others will have a “18 to enter, 21 to drink” policy. Certain dining places which turn into bars at night will be accessible during day to those who are underage, and then will impose the restrictions after a certain evening hour.

In places where the available nightlife is not too “prosperous” (in other words places which have many restrictions, or, simply, not a great variety of possible places to go to), an alternative/supplement to nightlife might be house parties (people organizing an after-party after last call at their house), or fraternity parties for college students. The advantage of fraternity parties is that students who don’t even have 18 years might enter them. Nevertheless, they might also have hour restrictions, and they are often notorious as indecent.

Finally, a last thing to have in mind is the dress code required for nightlife. Large cities who often have crowded nightclubs might have very high requirements concerning the looks of the individuals who enter. For instance, to enter a good quality club in NYC or South Beach Miami, you must “polish” yourself. There’ll most likely be a queue, so you’ll have to wait to enter: a good idea is then to arrive early. In smaller towns, all of that might not be needed. Again, make your own little research depending on where you’ll be living to know exactly what to expect.