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[eo-nomine]

Hola folks,

I've been thinking about studying at the UNAM - not to do an intercambio thing, but to do a full carrera. My Spanish is good but most importantly I can write well in Spanish, so I think I can pull it off but I've been hearing rather scary stuff from Mexicans recently, so I thought I'd ask here. How hard exactly is it to pass the entrance exam? Do you *have* to go to one of those expensive vestibular style preparation centers before sitting the exam? As a foreigner, do you think I would be disadvantaged compared to other mexicans (some peeps from the cedep seemed to think I would be)?

Also, is it common for mexicans to study and work (full time) at the same time?

Thanks in advance, suerte,

eo nomine

[cwc]

Why do you want to go to UNAM? Even though UNAM is the highest academic governing body in Mexico, few students from provincia aspire to go there. UDLA or TEC are the main options if you don�t have to be in DF. What do you want to study? What is your nationality? Mexico has this thing about it taking a very long time to get your degree after you have completed the coursework. These are real questions. Please don�t read any sarcasm into them.

[eo-nomine]

Hola,

Thanks for the quick response! First off I should say that I am just looking into studying at the UNAM and not dead-set on going there. I am one of those who really like DF, and the UNAM happens to be in DF. It has a good reputation, including in economics (as far as I know), which is what I planned to study. It was also very high in the 2005 Times Higher Education Supplement, which really caught my attention, so I decided to look more seriously into the uni.

I have three nationalities, New Zealander, Irish and French.

Cheers,

Eo

[MELEE]

I have some more questions for you.
Do you already have a Bachelor's degree?
Are you looking to do one or an MA?
If you want to do a Bachelor's, one of the biggest issues if it were me would be the time. Lost of courses in Mexico are 5 years of course work, then you have to do this outragous (for BA level) thesis. Most students spend one year working on their thesis, so they've worked for 6 years and they only have a BA.
If you are looking to do an MA, then its a whole different story. My husband is doing his MA in Maths from UNAM. He had an entrance exam, and an entrance interview and more weight was given to the interview. He has the option of doing comprehensive exams or a thesis. The professors are the best in the country, many recoginized internationally, at the MA level his classes are very small, the average class size is 4! (of course this is maths we're talking about)

UNAM has a very extensive web site, that has loads of information that is not that easy to find, I've spent several hours looking for information I saw on there once, but couldn't find the path back to it again!

[tortuga]

What does UNAm charge foreigners to study? (Either those pursuing a degree or just taking individual classes)

[eo-nomine]

Uh ho... 6 years to complete a BA does sound like a lot indeed (yes, I do want to do a BA). BAs were also quite long to complete in Argentina (thanks to the Ciclo Basico Comun), is this the norm in Latin American universities?

You said "most courses" are 5-year courses... is there a page on the UNAM website with more details about this? I've been looking into it but as you said, it's quite a challenge to find what you're looking for on the site.

Anyway, thanks for the info!

[tortuga]

Uh, hello? Prices? Anyone willing to share?

[MELEE]

[tortuga]

In reply to your post, thanks for the information.

You are not a nice person, as this and your previous posts show. Also, I posted this several days ago, the times on the webpage are different.

[Guy Courchesne]

MELEE is a nice, but busy person.

I don't post this thought much, but there is google to answer many of the questions people post on this forum. I'm always happy to help someone out, but sometimes I wonder if google remains a mystery to some people.

[tortuga]

You�re right Guy, Google can be useful at times.However, rather than surfing through thousands of entries, most unrelated (I got Pumas, books on sale, etc) I was hoping to get a quick answer, as in a number, from someone who is attending now and would know. "Should be the same" isn�t an answer. "X pesos per hour/class/semester... "etc was what I was hoping for, since I have to decide in the next week what Im going to do.

[Cdaniels]

[delacosta]

[FreddyM]

I have a friend who is an ESL teacher who is studying for a degree in Alta Direcci�n (similar to an MBA), and he pays virtually nothing to attend. Then again, he is Mexican, so I don't know how that compares to a foreigner studying there.

I am also considering enrolling there, maybe in a graduate program in Economics. I've heard from this friend that most degree programs are free for Mexicans. UNAM however holds a lot of seminars and diplomados that are open to the public and where they do charge for attendance.

And regarding the pretigiousness of the university, if you have ever been on the campus, it is a behemoth. There are bound to be really good programs there. The things I have heard about Mexican universities are that UNAM got a really bad reputation after the student strikes in the mid nineties, in which the system was virtually shut down for more than a year. After that happened, many employers would not want to hire anyone from UNAM. Its reputation has become to recover since then, as evident by that recent ranking someone else mentioned it being in the top 100 in the world now.

The private colleges, while they have status, I have also heard many BAD things about them, that they are the refuge for rich spoiled kids that have never had any demanding coursework in their lives. These are places like Westhill, Ibero, Un. Panamericana, Un. de las Americas in Puebla. Tec de Monterrey had a good reputation until they started expanding too fast in the past few years, supposedly the quality of the students they had been receiving dropped (unsurprisingly) as they increased enrollment. Two schools that are private and seem to have really great reputations, even amongst university professors in the U.S. are ITAM and CIDE--although they are small schools by comparison.
I've ruled out trying to attend any of these private schools since I wouldn't be able to afford their tuition anyway. And getting into a good program at UNAM seems like not a bad choice, since the tuition would be free (for me, since I am a Mexican citizen), and I have a graduate degree from the U.S. already to counterbalance any biases against a totally Mexican education.

Oh, and as far as pursuing studies while working...I guess even though if you are enrolled in a full degree program you are considered a full-time student, many have to work for economic reasons. If you are not afraid of hard work, then it is doable. My friend has been doing it for a couple of years, teaching ESL to eat and studying in the evenings to secure a better future.

[Guy Courchesne]