MPRI Reflections
After 1.5 years of being in Paris for the Master Parisien de Recheche en Informatique (MPRI), I want to record some of my thoughts (rambles) and experiences in case the future generation might be interested.
M1 Structure
Let us go through the structure of the masters from the highest level down. MPRI has 2 separate years, M1 and M2. My M1 was done in IP Paris, one of the 4 offering institutions, so the classes are done in École Polytechnique, taking classes with the L3 students there.
The M1 Foundations of Computer Science, the IP Paris course corresponding to M1 MPRI has 3 parts:
- 2 semesters/periods of 20 ECTS each,
- then an M1 internship worth 20 ECTS, resulting in a total of 60 ECTS. Each course was worth 5 ECTS usually, so 4 courses per period. The evaluation was most likely by one exam or exam + project.
The structure of a period (in 2023-24) was roughly 9 weeks of teaching with 1 week of break inserted in the middle (usually following the french school vacations), like the Toussaint break for example. A typical period could be (6 + 1 + 3 + exam week) for example. There could be study weeks before the exam, I might have forgotten.
Every course has only one class/session per week in a 4-hour block, divided freely by the lecturer into lectures + TD (travaux dirigés, tutorials), usually 2+2 or 3+1. This was tiring but there will be (coffee/smoke/ping pong) breaks.
You will also be strongly encouraged to do a research project alongside, which need not be huge, it can be as small as literature review in an area you are interested in. I strongly recommend you to take this chance to talk to different professors. This is a chain reaction: your project advisor knows you better, could give you more names for your M1 internship if you are interested, or you could rule out a topic if you did not like it. As a result, you will have better PhD advisor choices whom you have worked with before, which is crucial. I will decribe more in the M2 section.
M2 Structure
M2 MPRI in 2024/25 was done in the Sophie Germain building, also known as the IRIF building because the IRIF people work there (3rd floor and above). Now the internship is worth 30 ECTS and lasts at least 4.5 months, and is a mini-master’s thesis. The rest of the 30 ECTS is equivalent to 10 short courses, each 3 ECTS, taken in 2 periods. Every period is 10 consecutive weeks of lectures (you heard it right, there are no breaks) and 2 exam weeks, separated by the 2-week obligatory end-of-year vacation. Short courses worth 3 ECTS and lasts for 1 period, while long courses worth 6 ECTS and lasts for 2 periods. Long courses are usually graded by a midterm exam/partiel at the end of the first period, and a final exam at the end of the second. The short courses are usually graded by an exam at the end of the first period. Some courses have a project, it is very rare to be graded only on research/projects and not exam.
Each course has 3 hours of lecture per week, and you can have up to 3 courses per day (ending at 7.15pm, mind you!). You must choose at least 18 ECTS of M2 MPRI courses, the rest you can take outside courses of your choice that need to be approved. Every outside course (usually 4-8 ECTS) will be shrunk into 3 ECTS brutally, so be careful with your choice. The professor in-charge was extremely stict about it and gives the reason of “maintaining the rigour of the master”.
The master has some harmonisation mechanism that aims to make the grading fairer, since every professor might grade differently. Some algorithm will be run to make the average 14/20 for all classes. Therefore, you are put on a curve and you just need to do better than your peers, which is the same, stressful system in Singapore I absolutely detested. In anyway, I found that doing your best is good enough in all classes. See opinions in the below section for my advices.
There was an official MPRI discord channel (batch-specific) where most discussions, informations and updates are disseminated, please ask your classmates for it. If you are in M1 and have a senior in M2, ask them for the link: it might be possible to join and get more information.
You will be “strongly encouraged” to take 33+ ECTS (= 11+ short courses equivalent) instead of 30 ECTS to have a backup course in case you fail in one.
Internship/PhD Search
“How do I find an internship/PhD”? General advice:
- Start finding early. Admin work takes a lot of time, so between your advisor saying yes and getting the documents signed, you need at least a month. This means if you need to confirm an internship by January, you should have leads/ideas in November/December already (mind the holidays).
- Let the emails fly. You will contact a lot of people (with respect and interest), and you will schedule meetings with them, and that takes time. So send your emails first.
- For your M1 internship, it’s a time for you to learn a lot and enjoy. Samuel Mimram’s webpage listed a ton of names related to logic/PL/proofs: http://www.lix.polytechnique.fr/Labo/Samuel.Mimram/teaching/INF551/. My friends who went overseas (to Japan) for internship absolutely enjoyed them, so feel free to roam around.
- M2 internships are more serious and usually is related to your PhD. You should ask for an internship AND a PhD together. Sometimes people can have project-based funding, but in other cases you need to apply to graduate schools for more competitive fundings.
- https://wikimpri.dptinfo.ens-cachan.fr/doku.php?id=stages has a list of internship offers, which even M1 students can refer to. The readme of https://gitlab.inria.fr/fpottier/mpri-2.4-public also has some names/teams/offers.
- Sign up for TYPES and Agda mailing lists, PhD positions are posted there regularly among other things: conferences, discussions…
Opinions and suggestions
Opinions mine.
Academic Opinions
M1
- Having school holiday weeks is great for recharging, studying, and catching up.
- 4 hours is pushing the limit for both students and lecturers. The reason behind it is probably to not make the researchers/lecturers travel multiple times to Palaiseau to teach.
- Period 1 had many interesting courses, but not period 2, and it seems to be the case
for people of my master regardless of their focus area (track A/B).
For reference, I took in the first period
- Computational Logic (mandatory),
- Advanced Algorithms (Mandatory),
- Cryptography,
- Safe Intelligent Systems,
- Lambda Calculus and Categories (ENS Ulm), and
- a french course
and in the second period
- Compilation
- Quantum Computing
- Information Theory
- Randomised Algorithms.
- Every ingénieur polytechnicien went through the prepa so courses tend to start on very mathematically abstract ground. This can be elegant as a theory but difficult on the intuition if this is your first introductory course. To combat this, always try to have examples in mind, either come up with them or just ask in class. Trust that people are just as lost as you are!
- Start your coding projects early so you can fall early and pick back up. If you think you just need 2 hours to do your cryptography implementation or just 2 days to write a compiler, you are probably wrong. It is also nice to finish early and add extra features for the fun or it, and earn extra marks on the way!
M2
- By pigeonhole principle, taking 11+ courses in two periods means that there is at least one period (usually the first) where you have at least 6 courses, very probably one of them having 7 or more. Unfortunately in this period (usually the first), you will almost have to choose a tradeoff in the sleep, life/social, study trinity.
- Just come to classes. No, you won’t study at home; at least I never succeeded, and ended up watching youtube instead. Even if you do, having friends and an expert to question will help with learning. Even if the lecture is bad, go there and ask questions and slow the lecturer down. Everyone is lost in the end, so might as well stop them early.
- Many exams are not designed to be finished; they usually contain morel points than necessary. This is usually not explicitly written and could be a surprise. Professors usually throw in research-level questions, results in research papers etc. into their exams, and you should just try your best and not worry about it!
- The main theme in the M2 year is “not enough time”. You have too little time to study, to apply to PhD, to do your projects… Not just you: lecturers have too little time to cover materials, and the admin people have too little time to grant you a card to access the IRIF library (don’t even try, no one has succeeded to get it before they graduate). I think the solution is to manage your time wisely.
Studying Opinions
- The best times I have had in M1 is playing ping pong till late night at the Salle Titus in the KES building with friends - sometimes bumping into crêpe nights where you get free food, playing arcade games at BoBar. The feel-good chemicals from playing sports is real; and the great memories you created with friends - I keep it dear in my heart.
- Personally, studying in the Polytechnique computer labs in school worked really well for me, you can bring your own HDMI cable to connect to the huge screens. The lab computers can also be SSH’ed into from the public web, and the computers are sanely named. Look at the computer names. At first, you might need your course coordinators to activate your student cards for you.
- I always believe in giving feedback for the lecturers, whenever there is a possibility for anonymous feedback. We are all humans with flaws and blindspots, and it is just kind to not just tell them how they could do better in teaching, the recognition you give them is priceless too.
CROUS Opinions
- This may not be relevant anymore because it is going to apply to every French student: if you are on a scholarship, apply for 1 euro meals in CROUS restos. In this economy where the piece of meat in your plate could already cost more than 1 euro in supermarkets, you get a full meal with potentially a cake, an entree, and a dessert - unbeatable deal in France, hands down.
- To maximize the CROUS deal - travel in France and dine in CROUS restaurants if you are on a budget. Seriously, it is super worth it on days you feel less fancy. Your IZLY account works nationwide (tried and tested in Marseille, for example).
- As a rule of thumb, all CROUS restos serve lunch but not necessarily dinner. If they serve dinner, they most likely serve lunch as well. Check on the regional CROUS website for the opening hours.
- If you are at Polytechnique, nearest CROUS is RU Escoffier for lunch (between X and Telecom), RU L’Experimental for dinner (also serves lunch but is 10mins walk away, next to AgroParisTech). If you are passing by Université Paris-Saclay (e.g. by bus 9), RU Henri Moissan serves nice lunches (the fanciest so far), RU Eiffel serves dinner that are okay. If you are in Orsay, RU Les Cedres serves okay dinner.
- What about Magnan, you say? They charge an expensive cover fee for MPRI M1 students. We went there once on our first meeting day, and I never went back. The meal ends up being 5 euros, iirc.
- At Sophie Germain, the CROUS that everyone goes to is the one at Halle aux Farines, has good food, a pizza option, and a fries option. I recommend the RU La Barge (CROUS Bateau) once when the weather is good and you can sit on the deck, but the food choice is rather limited. It is just 5 minutes from the Halle aux Farines CROUS.
- The only CROUS RU in Paris that serves dinner is the one at Cité Universitaire, which has decent food, usually a grillade station, but small portion. If you are at the 5th arrondisement (e.g. ENS Ulm), RU Châtelet serves nice food and has a CROUS guichet.
Personal Opinions
- Polytechnique has pianos that are in little huts, look behind/near the gymnasiums T5 and T6 (iirc). They are not excellent, but usable; the huts are usually too small, meaning the sound is too loud.
- You have an IP Paris (@ip-paris.fr) email, alongside your Polytechnique (@polytechnique.edu) email. The former is only for IP Paris informations (sometimes include nice BBQs by the lake), the latter you will use for academic purposes (mostly).
- Most relevant admin tasks are CAF application and Assurance Maladie (Carte Vitale). For CAF, you can do everything online: start a démarche, send documents, and respond as quickly as you can. For reference, I gave a birth certificate in English and there was no need for French translation. For Carte Vitale, an activation code will be sent to your mailbox, and will expire very soon, so check regularly.
- I found SFR blocking my SMS OTPs, giving me a lot of trouble with admin procedures, so I changed to Prixtel and never looked back. They have an amazing 5 euros for 50 GB deal now (+15 GB EU quota counted separately).
- Ping Pang Paris has great tables and great people to play in, and is a good but slightly expensive substitute if you missed the local club registration period in July, which are usually cheap.
- CIUP is a great living option and has lots of facilities, is right opposite a RER and some tram stations. Application is difficult, so good luck on that!
Final Opinion
No one cares, I heard you say, and you are right! Just enjoy life and have fun! All the very best :)