Moving To Argentina And Attending School

[Maymouse]

I'm new at this, so please bare with me.

I want to move to Argentina. I don't know how serious I am about this yet, I need to find out some more information to be 100% sure. But so far, I haven't had second thoughts.

I just have some questions, and I've tried to find answers online but have come up empty handed. I'd love to look elsewhere but I don't know where to start.

Here is my situation. I am currently a student at a community college in the states, and am receiving financial aid to cover my education. Before Argentina got into my head, I was just going to get my A.S. and pursue a degree, and eventually a career, in Software Engineering. Now that I have Argentina on my mind 24/7, I want to go there and finish my degree, find a job there, and continue my life there permanently.

Now here are my questions:

1. The US has financial aid to help aspiring students through college. Does Argentina offer something like this? To my understanding (from the little bit of information I managed to uncover), tertiary education in Argentina is unofficially not free? Do I understand this correctly, or is it truly free like some of my research stated?

2. If I wanted to move to Argentina and attend school there, how do I transfer my credits? Would they even count toward the degree I am pursuing in Argentina?

3. Do I have to be in some kind of "study-abroad" program in order to transfer/ receive credits?

4. If you don't know the answers to these questions, or don't know enough, who can I contact to get the information I am requesting?

 

[Matiasba]

who can I contact to get the information I am requesting?

I think you should go to some Arg consulate or something in the US. Or contact them online.

Edit: sorry, I supposed you re american.

 

[dancingheadphones]

Well, let's see... You covered a lot of ground there, so let's go one step at a time.

Firstly, what is your nationality? Argentina is relatively easy to get into, but it might take different paperwork if you have a Mercosur passport than if you're a US citizen, for example.

There are (obviously) 2 ways that you can go about going to college in argentina. One is indeed free (public state universities). They are 100% free, it costs about u$s18 to register and that's it. Do bear in mind argentines pay 21% tax on basically all goods so the "free" part is debatable... But for your purposes it is free. It's a pain in the **** in Buenos Aires specifically as UBA has the CBC (ciclo basico comun) which is a leveling (core) 1 year program you MUST complete before beginning your program of choice. This covers math/study skills/university level writing and is comparable to a first year core program at some schools stateside. Aside from that most people will agree that while state schools are of respectable quality, you go through hell with the bureaucracy of it all and the fact that you really have to be a teachers pet if you want your profs to even know who you are. I think UBA had just about 300k students enrolled in 2011, and the campus is actually scattered buildings all around the city so you don't really have a "campus" experience here. Unless you go to Universidad Austral, which is modeled after the US system, is a good school, costs like it, and brings me to the second kind of schools here, AKA private.

Private schools are generally less respected in terms of quality for the ""classic"" programs (medicine, economics, arts&sciences generally, architecture and such), offer shorter programs, are obviously fairly expensive (at least for argentine standards) and as a rule of thumb, it's like going to a private high school in the sense that you're paying for the degree so you really don't have to do much other than show up to get it. So, feel free to reach out to any of them about tuition (some even have it on their websites). Off the top of my head I would assume Universidad de Palermo, UCEMA, UADE, UB and ITBA probably have what you're looking for in terms of program offerings, they are more likely to validate your credits as someone probably gets paid to handle that kind of bullshit (not the case in state universities).


Just a word of caution for you- Argentina is a breeding ground for techies. They abound, they are self-trained and most web programmers/programmers/UX/UI designers/web designers (both front and back end)/etc do NOT go to school for it here. The schools have subpar-funding and technology-related careers are subject to that constraint, so most people with a real passion for it simply pursue it, learn and develop their careers on their own. Jobs are underpaid (as with most industries) compared to what you'd get stateside. I wouldn't be too certain about your future here as a software engineer, considering the companies that you could be interested in working for are actually either leaving the country right now or significantly trimming jobs (i.e HP, IBM, Thomson Reuters).

 

[sleslie23]

1. The US has financial aid to help aspiring students through college. Does Argentina offer something like this? To my understanding (from the little bit of information I managed to uncover), tertiary education in Argentina is unofficially not free? Do I understand this correctly, or is it truly free like some of my research stated?

2. If I wanted to move to Argentina and attend school there, how do I transfer my credits? Would they even count toward the degree I am pursuing in Argentina?

3. Do I have to be in some kind of "study-abroad" program in order to transfer/ receive credits?

4. If you don't know the answers to these questions, or don't know enough, who can I contact to get the information I am requesting?

1. Short answer is no. Although there are many public universities that have no tuition, you would still have to fund your living expenses. Most people I know who attended public universities also worked full time.

2. Credits won't transfer (at least to the University of Buenos Aires).

3. Study-abroad would only be applicable if you are studying short term in Buenos Aires. Then those credits would be transferred back to your home university. Likewise if you are studying here, you can do a study abroad, but it's not a way of transferring existing credits.

Also, note that if you are from the US, your high-school diploma is not valid in Argentina. You will have to spend the first year studying for and taking equivalency exams. Longer if you are not already fluent in Spanish.

Honestly, I don't see any advantage in trying to study here considering you have already started in the US. You would be better off finishing there and moving here. Most undergraduate degrees take 5-6 years to complete, though I know people who have spent almost 10 years finishing a degree in computer science at UBA. Of course they were working full-time the whole way through, but realistically you are looking at 7-8 years because you will have to go through the process of passing the high-school level exams.

 

[RichardP]

It might be just as well to do an officially approved program through your university and spend a year in Argentina. This is the only way you can use financial aid from the US and receive credit toward your degree. This is what I did.

 

[DerAchtundzwanzig]

Private schools are generally less respected in terms of quality for the ""classic"" programs (medicine, economics, arts&sciences generally, architecture and such), offer shorter programs, are obviously fairly expensive (at least for argentine standards) and as a rule of thumb, it's like going to a private high school in the sense that you're paying for the degree so you really don't have to do much other than show up to get it. So, feel free to reach out to any of them about tuition (some even have it on their websites). Off the top of my head I would assume Universidad de Palermo, UCEMA, UADE, UB and ITBA probably have what you're looking for in terms of program offerings, they are more likely to validate your credits as someone probably gets paid to handle that kind of bullshit (not the case in state universities).

I don't want to get into a private vs. public school discussion here, but "it's like going to a private high school in the sense that you're paying for the degree so you really don't have to do much other than show up to get it"... Really??? And then you mention ITBA in the same paragraph, which is one of the most well-respected schools in Latin America in Engineering.. Really??? If you don't know what you're talking about just don't write anything, but don't mislead the OP or future post readers. Thanks!

 

[Matiasba]

I don't want to get into a private vs. public school discussion here, but "it's like going to a private high school in the sense that you're paying for the degree so you really don't have to do much other than show up to get it"... Really??? And then you mention ITBA in the same paragraph, which is one of the most well-respected schools in Latin America in Engineering.. Really??? If you don't know what you're talking about just don't write anything, but don't mislead the OP or future post readers. Thanks!

ITBA not, Ucema, Udesa and Di Tella neither, but there are a lot of private universities which are REALLY easy or High School style. UB, UCES, UADE, Kennedy, Palermo at least. Some carreers in UCA too. El Salvador as well it cant be compared with UBA. Austral either. IMO, from what I know, and I ve known a lot of people from different disciplines of these universities, the difference with UBA is abismal.
Just to start talking, UBA has + 2 years of study average...

 

[FloriaTosca]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but does anybody on this forum have any experience doing the high school equivalency exams? How did you do it?

 

[Montauk_Project]

Don't mean to hijack this thread, but does anybody on this forum have any experience doing the high school equivalency exams? How did you do it?

i wrote how to do this about 5 times on different threads. it is true, you need to take 6 exams at any public high school, you do not need to go to class.

 

[ghost]

You seem to be talking about using your PELL grant and any other grant/loan funds to cover the cost. I suggest that you check out Lincoln College here in BA. They are a US format college and your credits will transfer back. However they are also tightly alligned with UBA so your credits could transfer forward if you chose to stay. http://www.lincoln.edu.ar/luc/fit/aboutluc.htm