Just to be clear, this student is not the one that was interested in Interior Design. This one has told me she wanted to be a teacher since the first day I met her. I did some checking around today with a Dominican guy who runs a school here, and he gave me some background, and hooked me up with a young woman that is currently attending UASD in Costambar.
Here are some of the things I heard in these discussions:
The reputation of UASD, and the education one receives there are both quite good.
The tuition is ridiculously cheap (like 100 pesos a month, or a semester, or something) depending on the program choice. Books and fees are extra, but it didn?t sound like they were that significant.
The major cost barrier is the transportation costs, and time in transit. It costs 55 pesos (and 3 vehicles) to get there from Cabarete, and 135 peso to get home at night (4 vehicles).
The public university is not very welcoming, and the process of enrolling and figuring out what you have to do is somewhat difficult and pretty intimidating, especially for poor students from the public school system. Evidently no one from the public university goes to the schools to recruit students and describe the process. Everyone must learn it on their own (by going to the registrar, etc), or finding someone that has to buddy up with.
The private university is a little more user friendly, and it is easier to get through in 4 years (something that was described as impossible at the public university due to a lack of teachers, especially in some programs, this woman was studying to be a math teacher, and many of her teachers had to come in from Santiago or Santo Domingo, which meant students needed flexible schedules), but the tuition is quite a bit more, and from what I heard (I don?t know if it is true or not) the education received there was not as good.
Back to my student. I offered to pay this woman to help my student through the process of getting enrolled (again, from what I heard, tough love ?you need to figure this out?? would be expecting too much for a girl in her situation, in fact now that I think about it I bet she has never even been to Puerto Plata before...most of these kids have not been more than 10 miles from Cabarete), showing her around, and just helping her get established.
We started with an interview with the girl and the student, and at the conclusion of the interview it was decided she was just too young to right now, and we would pick it up again next year.
Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts.