UBA Registration

[STElmoFranco]

Hello,

I would like to register for a class or two at the UBA. I do not want to earn a degree, simply take a few classes for enjoyment. Has anyone sucesfully enrolled? It is not clear to me what documents are required for registration since various UBA and Argentine government websites contradict each other. Thanks!

 

[emilyr]

I posted about this before. I currently am enrolled in the Maestría en Economía program at UBA Facultad de Ciencas Económicas, so I won't have a lot of time to answer your detailed, specific questions (and I should not be on here beludeando!, pero es lo que hay...) and I studied there before as a non-degree seeking student a couple years ago. But I posted info on it here: http://baexpats.org/expat-life/6712-courses-uba-2.html#post44885

You are not clear whether you want to take SPANISH classes there, in which case other people as well in the thread posted useful information about that.

In short, outside of the Spanish classes, every facultad (college) is different in terms of their rules for visiting students, etc. Each COLLEGE IS AN AUTONOMOUS ENTITY WITH ITS OWN ADMINISTRATION. These are not contradictions, just different policies for different colleges. Plus, you need DIFFERENT DOCUMENTS depending on the LENGTH of your student visa, whether it be one semester or a year or more. You have to literally check it out at the program website and the site where you want to study.

But the fall semester just began a couple weeks or this week in most colleges, so if you already speak Spanish and want to take courses, you best RUN, not walk, TODAY to the facultad and try to find the student office and ask them to direct you to the person who can help you enroll as an international student. It may be too late, but they often make exceptions for international students who presumably don't know how to jump as well through the hoops.

 

[marksoc]

Or simply you can go to the class that you like, talk to the professor, and sit. You will not earn credits, but you will learn.

 

[emilyr]

great idea marksoc, you can ask to be an oyente! Some professors say they strictly do not accept them, but it is definitely common.

I would imagine this works best in pubilc universities with no undergraduate tuition, like UBA, but others are worth a shot. The worst they could say is, "Pay us lots of money or no."

There is more than just UBA, though, that are public, as I am finding out. Here's a list of the nacional, or public universities, with contact info, addresses, and websites (Though refer back to my previous posts; you should make contact with UBA by the Facultad you are seeking).
http://www.mincyt.gov.ar/universidades.htm
Look for the ones in Capital Federal or Ciudad Autonomo de Buenos Aires. The second chart lists private ones.

 

[emilyr]

STElmoFranco, also to your point about what documents you need. Documents for registration requested for different universities is different but is all what you might expect; sometimes you need letters of rec, translated, your transcript or certificado de materias (translated sometimes officially=$$ or not in the case when I did an exchange I got away with translating it myself), sometimes a curriculum or resume.

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTATION depends. A one semester visa for 5 months means you need NONE of the documents listed on the government site. That is for the year visa. You only need to get your certificado de domicilio or proof of address, and antecedentes policiales or police records for ARGENTINA, all once you get here. The university rep has to give you a form proving enrollment and send you on your way. Plus, you have the 50 peso fee to legalize the antecendentes, then the fee for the short-term visa.
The year visa is the one where you need your FBI police records WITH apostile, your birth certificate WITH apostile, the Argentine student visa application form, as well as the other things on the Argentine government site.

Plus, you need patience and a good smile and a good attitude to get through running around the city getting this and that form taken care of.

 

[STElmoFranco]

Thank you very much for your posts. They were extremely helpful! To clear up a couple things. 1) I plan on taking my classes in Spanish. I speak it fluently. 2) Luckily I'm not trying to register for the semester that just started so I have a little bit of time to prepare. I just want to take a classes for a semester or two. I can just register with everyone else and than afterwards get the domicilio and police records? I was just looking at the facultad de letras website and there is no schedule of courses listed. Do they post this information before registration?

Thanks again!

 

[emilyr]

STElmoFranco
Perfect! To quickly answer your questions...

1) I plan on taking my classes in Spanish. I speak it fluently. 2)I can just register with everyone else and than afterwards get the domicilio and police records? I was just looking at the facultad de letras website and there is no schedule of courses listed. Do they post this information before registration?

1. I have found that as a foreigner, there is sometimes a different process for registering, but yes, generally if you are enrolled in the full 2 or 4 year program, I think you register with everyone else.

When I was in an intercambio and working with their International student office, though, and not for actual full admittance into the university, they registered me specially after the dates in whatever classes I wanted. (I hear it’s a bitch, it’s hard to get into classes you want using the regular registration method because they fill up fast, but this might be different in Letras. Ciencias Exactas, for example is really small, Economicas is HUGE.)
http://www.filo.uba.ar/contenidos/secretarias/general/extranjeros
This website spells it out for you, the reqs for admission as well as the process. Lucky you – I only had an email! And it looks like you will need to register in personal on a special form, which means you won’t have to fight for course vacancies (again, this is good news!) – unless you plan to do a full program, i.e. full undergraduate or graduate degree there. Even though you might not be exchanging ANYTHING with a university back home. This is probably the process they will want you to use unless you apply as a degree-seeking student.


2. I have never taken class from Letras, but yes, the first thing you do is get ACCEPTED to take courses. You will already have entered on the 90 day visa if you are a US citizen. Then the school must give you a certificado de inscripción.

If you are planning on getting the year visa and studying for a year, you need your FBI records apostilled which might be easier to get in the States. Plus, you need your birth certificate apostilled. Those things you do in the States.

The domicilio thing is to prove your residence HERE, and only takes 24-48 hours so you can do that here AFTER you get registered. (If you are only hoping for one semester of studies, forget the BC and the FBI records. You only need your antecendentes policiales for ARGENTINA, your Argentine criminal record.)

Focus first on getting your university papers for acceptance and your papers together for the States. The BC cert & apostille are a half day trip to your state's capital. Otherwise, keep in mind a mail-in process may take a few weeks at least. FBI records I have not done yet (because you only need them for the year visa) but am about to do. (There are other threads on this site about it which are super helpful!)

3. COURSE SCHEDULES: Economicas has a site that requires login information for registration. That is where they keep the course SCHEDULES.

For now, look at the Plan de Estudios for every carrera because those list the classes that are given for each major. You can pick specific classes and inquire about enrolling in those specific courses that way. You may not be able to enroll in any old class if it has prereqs. I could not find any course schedule with times, classrooms, etc, for Letras – this is probably for safety and to keep Argentine students and regular Argentines from wandering into a class wanting to audit and by-passing the regular registration process trying to sit in on courses last minute. They will probably send you the schedule and course listings in a document form once you are enrolled as they did me, but yes, it doesn't usually come out until the last minute. The Calendario Académico 2010 for Económicas was not posted until late Feb!


TRANQUILO, they are so much more flexible on dates and inscripción. There is really no WRONG order to do things. Even if you forget all your documents from the US, you can still get them from here. It will just cost you more money and hassle.