Alice Kaplan, a close student of French intellectual life, quotes an anti-Nazi teacher who, when coaching pupils for the Ecole's entrance exam, wondered if they would put their intelligence and learning to misuse.

ECONOMIST: French writers

Camus was a first-rate philosophy student, and the French meritocratic system had purchase even in the distant province.

NEWYORKER: Facing History

"We could have saved so many more people with these guys, " remarked a film student as he watched the French set up tents and begin treating a growing line of wounded.

CNN: O'Brien: Haiti's cultural core suffers, too

It's also nice to be back visiting in France -- the last time I was in the south of France -- or the first time, rather, was as a college student, and I've never forgotten the extraordinary hospitality of the French people and the extraordinary views that are available here.

WHITEHOUSE: President Obama and President Sarkozy of France Speak on Bilateral Meeting | The White House

The student from Barlaston, Staffordshire, was going home on an overnight train to Paris - from which French police believe she was pushed or fell.

BBC: Second woman dies on French night train