Sciences, Letters and Arts at Grasset
Created | Updated Nov 10, 2008
A good way to become doctor, psychologist or secretary would be to graduate from your primary and secondary school and then to study in the field that you really would want to be. In Quebec, a province of Canada, it does not really happen like this. As usual, they do have primary and secondary school (6 years of primary, 5 of secondary) then, they happen to have 2, or perhaps three CEGEP's1 year. In those years, they learn the general field of their future divided in multiple categories. Then they go to the university.
| Quebec system | Canadian system | French system |
| First year primary | 1 | CP |
| Second year primary | 2 | CE1 |
| Third year primary | 3 | CE2 |
| Fourth year primary | 4 | CM1 |
| Fifth year primary | 5 | CM2 |
| Sixth year primary | 6 | 6th |
| First year secondary | 7 | 5th |
| Second year secondary | 8 | 4th |
| Third year secondary | 9 | 3th |
| Fourth year secondary | 10 | Second |
| Fifth year secondary | 11 | First |
| CEGEP | 12 | Terminal |
| CEGEP | University | University |
| University | University | University |
The general fields are: Science, Human Science and both together Arts and Letters, however those can be sub-divided into other general fields (ex: Nature science or Pure science), other programs can combine two of them, we used to call them double DEC, DEC meaning Diplôme d'Étude Collégial (Diploma of College Study). We study the general field in two years, double DEC could take up to three years depending on which CEGEP you go to and what amount of work you want during your CEGEP's years.
If you happen to have three years of study in CEGEP, it might indicates that you choose to specialize into a category and by that, not going to the university after (ex: tourism management, perfumer, documentation technique,...). It is called a technique.
Amongst all those categories, a non-technique field distinguishes itself from the others, by its content and where it allows you study afterwards:
Sciences, Letters and Arts
Sciences, Letters and Arts, to make short SLA2, is a program that permit to study science (both health and pure science), human science (like history, psychology, sociology) and have art courses (art history). You usually study them three in two years and then, you can go almost everywhere you want in university (except for danse and song, but I will come back to it). The CEGEPs that offers this program are (the most known in alphabetical order): Bois-de-Boulogne, Grasset, Jean-de-Brébeuf, Lionel-Groulx, Maisonneuve, Outaouais, Rimouski, Saint-Félicien and Sherbrooke. The program is inspired by the American one called Liberal Arts. Because it is unique in Quebec to have CEGEP and that Liberal Arts exist, no english-speaking CEGEP offer an equivalent program (in Quebec) nor other school around the world, yet!
In order to provide all the three fields to be “fully” covered, the program cut some parts here and there, for example, the chemical course “solution chemistry” is not covered because it is assume that it would be easy for the students to know the content eventually in university without too much trouble. In exchange, the R rate is improved by 0,53.
The program at Grasset
In Grasset, SLA have some properties nonexistent in other CEGEPs: to have obligatory outside SLA activity (anything: working on the student newspaper, theatre, playing football) covering a certain amount of time ; rarely obligated, but recommended and optional various activities after school (like opera, theatre, curling, dance, cooking, conference) making the word Art of the title name a little bit more just (except for the new course: Creativity, and art history, there is little to justify the title), a two days and a half conference during which every study and work stop in order to fully enjoyed the different lecturer and the afternoon Wednesday free, generally to go to activities.
The outside program obligatory activities are not a big deal, some people used to already have activities, sports of which they use, others register to the student newspaper, informatics club, green comity, student theatre, dance or comity,... in order to get the hours. Those activities are obligatory only during the first two session4 and optional the two last. No pressure is made on the student to have activities after the hours are completed.
The inside SLA activities are suggestions made for the student by the program responsible5 to discover new things and place which they might have not think to go. This include (not necessarily available, these are examples amongst many) opera, classical music, restaurant, cooking activity, discovering curling, Go (board game), painting activity, lecture,...
The two and a half days conference happen once in every session, so we end up to have four conferences in the entire time we spend on the program. The conference is articulate around a precise place and time (ex: London of 1942), after a film, about the period and place, several lecturers of various fields are invited to present aspects of the city, the time, or both, in order to present the student an interesting portrait of the subject. This period is very much appreciated by the student, they have the two days and a half free (to go to the conference) and no work is supposed to be given those days, they even don't have an exam on the lecture they've been given. So what's the trick? There is no trick, but you are strongly recommended to go because, after all, you go in SLA because you like learning.
At the end, an integration project is require to pass SLA (no one have failed it for the moment) which consist of two major parts: your project and the collective one. Each troop have their subjects (ex: Conquest of the Unknown, the Laugh, The Ridicule,...) and must write something, individually, in a field that we use to study, your choice, and must cover what you've learn in your years of study and some research about your particular project (examples for Conquest of the Unknown: The extraterrestrial sexuality, the Bermuda triangle, the lady in the Victorian Epoch,...). Then you find yourself a team (of 3,4 students) and make a piece of theatre of your subject and your sum of knowledge during your study. It is generally consider like a lot of fun, but a lot of work during the week preceding the theatre presentation.
What is the trick?
Okay, all is not quite so beautiful and bright in Sciences, Letters and Arts, in exchange of those nice periods of time, SLA require a lot more works than regular programs, you have cut subject in different field, so you could end up reading them and understanding them in homework or the teacher could decide to go a bit faster than you are used to. Because some important subject can be cut during the process, a the end, you can take a complementary course of chemistry or math6 for free and having no exam on the suject at the end. They also decide to make you choose in the final session between physics III, biology II or an other program (it used to be German course but now it is changing to a history about the US and social course on the Americanization of the world) so if you want to be a doctor, you won't have to take physics III.
The R rate is also improved by 0,5 but, students, and some professors, usually don't find that enough of the amount of work SLA students used to put, there is always speaks of change, but nothing has been done yet.
We use to say that SLA student could go everywhere, it is not actually true, but not false too. Some art university programs ask for a portfolio to enter in their field of study such as dance and song. If you are able to compile a portfolio outside the program, you can enter those fields however, it is very complicated and every student will be in admiration of you if you achieve such things. It has happen before, but, instead of the admiration, you will receive criticism about your stupidity of taking this program instead of an easier one.
Because the program is quite hard, if you fell a course during the first session, you are ask to leave to program however, you could still continue in nature or pure science without much problem in two years, your grades will also happen to raise...
What kind of student am I to go there?
You must like to study, this is important, since you will be studying a lot ; you would also have to be a good student in secondary, having 80% or more in general, and depending the CEGEP, a minimal grade in certain field, you must have complete physics, chemistry and math 536 in secondary too. The minimal grade is very important, since the average of your grade will most certainly fall a lot during the first months, you might reconsider your choice and even be tempted to leave, several students in different CEGEP happen to leave SLA in the first session finding it too hard, meanwhile, if you survive through it, rare are those who quit after the second session.
In general, people who tend to go there are people very interest by various fields and don't really know what they are going to do in a future job (they choose SLA to have access to all the fields). People tend to be more generalist than specialize and when they are specialize, they know quite everything on the subject, you can be surround by real genius, artists and athletes ; don't worry if you can't find your category, you are exceptional you too...
I'm interest!
Good, you can now join the rank of SLA students to become a great doctor, physician, or... chef! You might find that there is not lot of student in your troop (an average going from 15 to 25, there is no selection at all, the program is just not enough known), but the benefit from it is that you are always with the same people and you end up having a very strong group feelings. Students that enter in SLA end up all knowing each other during the rest of their lives and they are even some weddings between them! The professors love to have a SLA class because they are always asking interesting question. The students love to be in SLA class because they can ask question, even strange and the professor will be able to answer you.
You can find here some information about the content of the course of a Grasset's SLA (in french only): Here
1which stand for Collège d'Enseignement Général Et Professionnel (College of General and Vocational Education). Most CEGEPs offer two types of programs: pre-university and technical.2People who are studying this particular program are called SLA too (Ex: Have you seen a SLA around?).3The R rate is used to permit student to access restricted programs, the higher your R rate is, the most program you can enter. The average is always 25 and to become doctor, you usually need one over 32. Exceptionnal students are over 38.4each session correspond to half a year for a total of four sessions5which were in order: Jean-Yves Quesnel, Paul Guertin and Éric Lavigne (simultaneously) and finally Mélanie Deveault6or both, or simply not
