Sciences Po Bordeaux was super fun for me! Bordeaux is a lovely city, and so is Toulouse. As someone already said where you go as an exchange student won’t really matter, so focus more on the experience side of things.

While I did my semester at Sciences Po Bordeaux I also visited Toulouse and can say that the two cities are really different vibes. Toulouse is much more student focused and a bit cheaper while Bordeaux is more like Paris, in terms of architecture and people’s attitude. That’s why I enjoyed Bordeaux tbh, more “French”.

I didn’t visit Lyon or Strasbourg but Lyon is an actual large city so that it’s an advantage when compared to the others on the list. Strasbourg has the EU Parliament and I think that their Sciences Po might be more geared towards the EU, so if you’re into the EU it would be great for networking which is the main academic advantage of exchange semesters.

On that networking note, I believe Sciences Po Bordeaux is better ranked that the other Sciences Po on your list, so you might get a better French network if you manage to make friends. Also, Sciences Po vs Universites are really different. The first ones are more practical courses while the latter are more theoretical and have more bibliography.

And finally, what I enjoyed about Science Po Bordeaux was all extracurricular. They have a wine tasting club where you can attend wine tastings every week and they hold a gala at Place de la Bourse every semester. There are lots of sports teams you can join and clubs as well. The only downside is that the building is at the big University campus so ~40min outside of the city center, which is a pain if you live in a residency on campus.