Sunday, March 13, 2011

How to study in Argentina if u are foreigner

As many people know already especially here in South America,Argentina has a good education and the titles are valid(at least here in south america) and furthermore the education here on state universities,schools and courses provided by city councels are FOR FREE!!!
And furthermore there are no entrance tests! For any type of studies - nor artistic once,nor whichever,which for example in slovakia they would just take 5 people from 1000,here who comes,studies.
If he doesnt have talent,he with highest probability wouldnt pass trough first exam period :) Though and though.
For this reason are comming every year a loads of foreign students especially from different parts of South America,especially from Colombia,Chile,Brazil. The Buenos Aires is every suffering with invasion foreigners,who would like to start to study something new or finish something old, or just simply do some courses for fun.

But watch out,not everything is as pink as is painted. To could enter the University u have to have all your papers,like the certificate of the birth,your high school certificate with subjects u studied and many others translated and stamped by Argentinian govermnet. This could take about 60 days (and believe me,it would).
The thing,that certificate of your graduation from Highschool is valid just for people from MercoSur means
Bolivia,Brasil,Chile,Colombia,Ecuador,Paraguay,Peru,Uruguay,Venezuela and as well some priviledged countries from Europe,who had probably biggest number of emigrants to Argentina and generaly kept a good relationships back home as Italy,Spain and France,

And u ask,what about the others? when the education is for everybody... Well,there is the option,which they will hapilly offer u and is as welll for free. Get back to Argentinian highschool and make a new graduation from subjects which u for sure didnt have.
 The subjects are :
Civics education (in slovak Náuka o spoločnosti)
Instruccion civica (seems like the same same translation as one before - well,as I was explained is the same crap about the politic system in Argentina)
Geografia de Argentina (sounds like fun,especilly when u know it on your own,trough travelling ;) And yes we had the Geography of Argentina on basic and high school in Slovakia as well,but well u have to do it again obviously
Historia de Argentina. Dont worry - there are just 500 years max to study ;)
Literature of Argentina - this could be really interesting... (loved this subject in Brazil,when I was studiing on uni there,but as I have seen the papers from girl who was preparing for exams of it- looked more like memorize who what where and read sever books and thats it :/
Language and Literature - I am kind of not getting the repetition,but seems like the exam from Spanish (what if u have certificate,could be probably accepted,but even though not,as Argentinians consider Argentinian spanish for different language and u would have to learn all the things from argentinian dialect ;) like declination with vos :P
As I counted well - there are 6 subjets, and there are 2 exams organized per year. One in August and another one in December. And they wouldnt let u to subscribe for exam of more than 4 in one time (seems like otherwise your brain would blast or something ;)) Anyway - that makes u depandant for one year of the highschool they sent u to and the place where u should go for consultation of the papers,which they would maybe provide u. Anyway even though u came to ministery and u have your papers stamped,translated and whatsoever,they have 2 months to pick up the high school for u and then they send u there to pick up your information and ask for help over there with some addictional data which they could ask u on during exam.

Well,seems to be more than bit complicated? Yeah,for sure it is - it took me 3 weeks till I got to these information as on embasy they dont suffer with knowledge of none information regarding studies in south amercican countries and in basic,they havent been able to respond me to any question I gave them or about part of my family which emigrated or whatsoever.
Then later on each official institution in argentina has very restricted time when is opened (many times just 4 hours a day and that measn 2 hours in the morning and somehow 2 hours in the afternoon) etc....

Anyway,if u still dont feel desperate and u would bump your head against the wall and trying to find a solution,there is one!!! As well found by accident and good soul of some friends who knew more and knew especially the people who were going trough the same crazy nuts biroctratic process as I was triing to find out how does it work :)

There exist one thing which is called UBA XXI, which allows to everybody who doesnt have this byrocratic procedure yet done and even for argentinian high school students to sign in and study on distance! Yei! The link is for interested http://www.uba.ar/academicos/uba21/
Well,not that Yeii,as the UBA - what is University of Buenos Aires has first year Ciclo de Orientacion Comun - means that u will study and make exams from the subject from highschool. Means one year of studiing what they could check in one test of before entering university. And u are not allowed too subscribe for more than 3 subjects regarding to carrer u would like to study. Anyway,dont worry,there are 2 sibjects same for everybody - Scientific thinking and some more politic crap of argentinian system (in this point I would have the feeling that they are really triing to convert u to argentinian ;)
Anyway,if u survive one year of studiing absolute irrelevant things mixed with high school matters and other things + some high school subjects,which u would be able to finish all in one year hopefully,u are IN!!! Yupii!!!
And study whatever u want to!
The truth is I am not sure if there exist any other option how to study something when u dont have tramite/high school graduation from your country) accepted and validated. All the universities outside of capital will ask u for it. Means finishing highschool subjects and then sign to University - whichever u like to. But be carefull,many of them doesnt have title valid outside of Argentina!!!

Then there exists the courses which are offered by the city council,especially in Buenos Aires,but u wouldnt find the information very easily and the inscriprions are just once a year and the place where does it take is one colegio 15 squares on the left from Obelisc and name of that once which I tried to subscibe on was Lengua VIVA. Means they are offering something like 10 languages where there is class twice a week with native speaker for donation. If u dont have money or u dont wanna pay or u cant its for free.
Well,for some languages they offer sometimes just the higher level,like the one I was interested in,what was Arabic and they told me to do the test of level - in 2 weeks later from the time I was there.
Anyway - inscription is till the begining of semester on Universities and u can subscribe for how many u would like to. I was thinking of Brazilian Portuguese Highest level as I have one certificate from Portuguese already and I love their literature. But noone was able to tell me how does the level of highest level of portuguese looks like. No schema,no insight of the studied matters,nothing.
The people in different institutions in general dont share the information,nor the common sense,nor the good will,nor the good heart. Working like maschines,just with information given,dont ask them what they dont know.So,in every institution u would get just a part of information and then u get another hint maybe where to go to ask for another part information. And at the end u would end up eaten by this magnificent huge byroctaryic aparat of Argentinian educational institutions,where noone knows anything,they wont talk to u by email,nor on the phone and in general would behave very arogant.

Well! But for everybody who would still like to fight it! Especially the carrer of Medicine is very popular and I think it worth for it at least to give it a try !:)
Some more info on http://estudiarenargentina.siu.edu.ar/StudyinArgentina.htm





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