Going to college in Dominican Republic?

coconutrae

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Jan 9, 2012
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Hello everyone!

I had a question about going to college in Dominican Republic. I am currently a freshman in college - I live in the US. I want to be a high school spanish teacher. My spanish is not yet fluent - but it is getting there. I am really considering going to Dominican Republic to finish school. I would love to immerse myself in the culture and i feel that it would only add to my experience of learning spanish. Can anyone give me options or advice? What are the colleges that would be best? Is fluency in spanish required in all the universities?
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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I am in a masters program at PUCMM here in Santiago and I can honestly say it is no doubt the most pleasurable experience I have ever had at school. Granted I'm much older than the other students (I'm almost 47) and am no doubt more mature but still I feel very well received from the students and teachers although my Spanish is not perfect to say the least. Dr. Lynne Guittar is a friend of mine and runs the local program. Here are some links for you:

Contact CIEE Study Abroad | CIEE Study Abroad Contact Information
Study Abroad with CIEE in Santiago, Dominican Republic | liberal arts
Study Abroad with CIEE in Santiago, Dominican Republic | liberal arts

Good luck
 

jabuti

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Mar 13, 2011
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Hello everyone!

I had a question about going to college in Dominican Republic. I am currently a freshman in college - I live in the US. I want to be a high school spanish teacher. My spanish is not yet fluent - but it is getting there. I am really considering going to Dominican Republic to finish school. I would love to immerse myself in the culture and i feel that it would only add to my experience of learning spanish. Can anyone give me options or advice? What are the colleges that would be best? Is fluency in spanish required in all the universities?

I was on the same path as you are and decided to go to PUCMM. Besides being drop dead gorgeous, I found the students to be quite friendly. While the DR may not have the highest prestige among accent snobs, it had few Americans. I liked that it kept you from hanging out with other gringos.

My classmate went to Guatemala for super cheap, but I think you can tell by talking to her that she lived in a gringo bubble there. Costa Rica looked worse. DR has Taino caves and is "the cradle of the new world", something that no other place can say! Easily the most rewarding thing I've done to date.
 

bob saunders

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I was on the same path as you are and decided to go to PUCMM. Besides being drop dead gorgeous, I found the students to be quite friendly. While the DR may not have the highest prestige among accent snobs, it had few Americans. I liked that it kept you from hanging out with other gringos.

My classmate went to Guatemala for super cheap, but I think you can tell by talking to her that she lived in a gringo bubble there. Costa Rica looked worse. DR has Taino caves and is "the cradle of the new world", something that no other place can say! Easily the most rewarding thing I've done to date.

My brother has been in Costa Rico for two months taking Spanish and he says he has no regrets. I have been there and say as much of a fan of the DR as I am, Costa Rico has it beat in most ways. Ticos are very friendly and are generally more educated than Dominicans. The country is 10 times cleaner.
 

coconutrae

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Jan 9, 2012
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I was on the same path as you are and decided to go to PUCMM. Besides being drop dead gorgeous, I found the students to be quite friendly. While the DR may not have the highest prestige among accent snobs, it had few Americans. I liked that it kept you from hanging out with other gringos.

My classmate went to Guatemala for super cheap, but I think you can tell by talking to her that she lived in a gringo bubble there. Costa Rica looked worse. DR has Taino caves and is "the cradle of the new world", something that no other place can say! Easily the most rewarding thing I've done to date.

would you mind sharing how you went about it? were you already fluent in spanish? how many years of college did you already have under your belt? i am hoping to do this maybe for fall semester of 2012. is it hard to get into pucmm?
 

coconutrae

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Jan 9, 2012
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My brother has been in Costa Rico for two months taking Spanish and he says he has no regrets. I have been there and say as much of a fan of the DR as I am, Costa Rico has it beat in most ways. Ticos are very friendly and are generally more educated than Dominicans. The country is 10 times cleaner.


i love dominican republic. i love their culture... their attitudes... the country... everything. that's why i want to go there to finish my education.
 

coconutrae

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Jan 9, 2012
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I am in a masters program at PUCMM here in Santiago and I can honestly say it is no doubt the most pleasurable experience I have ever had at school. Granted I'm much older than the other students (I'm almost 47) and am no doubt more mature but still I feel very well received from the students and teachers although my Spanish is not perfect to say the least. Dr. Lynne Guittar is a friend of mine and runs the local program. Here are some links for you:

Contact CIEE Study Abroad | CIEE Study Abroad Contact Information
Study Abroad with CIEE in Santiago, Dominican Republic | liberal arts
Study Abroad with CIEE in Santiago, Dominican Republic | liberal arts

Good luck

do you happen to have the contact information for your friend dr. guittar?
 

Chip

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would you mind sharing how you went about it? were you already fluent in spanish? how many years of college did you already have under your belt? i am hoping to do this maybe for fall semester of 2012. is it hard to get into pucmm?

Look at the links I posted for you. There have the admissions requirements and everything you need. You do need apparently 4 semesters of college Spanish or "equivalent" to apply. Also, Dr. Lynne Guittar has run the program for many years and she can answer any questions you have so I would give them a call and they will get you in touch with her. If not let me know and I will get her local # for you.
 

coconutrae

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Jan 9, 2012
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Look at the links I posted for you. There have the admissions requirements and everything you need. You do need apparently 4 semesters of college Spanish or "equivalent" to apply. Also, Dr. Lynne Guittar has run the program for many years and she can answer any questions you have so I would give them a call and they will get you in touch with her. If not let me know and I will get her local # for you.

i don't know that i would want to do the study abroad program. i would much rather just transfer into the school directly...
 

Chip

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i don't know that i would want to do the study abroad program. i would much rather just transfer into the school directly...

I would still contact Dr. Lynne as I'm sure she probably has had this request before too.

With regard to foreign students, I'm not sure how much they accommodate them with regard to language.

What I can tell you is that you plan on just jumping in and taking classes from my own experience your reading and writing need to be fairly good not to mention listening ability and to a lesser level speaking ability. I think if you can listen to the news in Spanish from say CNN and Univision in the States and understand at least 85% of the words they are saying and 95% of the context then you should be ok in that area. With regard to reading you need to be at about the same level, 85%, for reading comprehension of major news source in Spanish. This no doubt would make your reading ability better than some of you fellow Dominican students but you will need this advantage until your "ear" is adjusted enough. BTW, I'm in my second semester at PUCMM.
 

Chip

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Here is a link showing the admission requirements for undergraduate studies and appears they give an exam for foreign students to judge their Spanish ability.

Pregrado

Needless to say they never asked me to take to the exam. I just had to talk to the department head and one professor in Spanish and they accepted me pending arrival of my college transcript. Maybe if you give them a call and you do well enough communicating with them they will waive this requirement.

Here's admissions contact info:

Contactos
 

Africaida

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Jun 19, 2009
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Here is a link showing the admission requirements for undergraduate studies and appears they give an exam for foreign students to judge their Spanish ability.

Pregrado

Needless to say they never asked me to take to the exam. I just had to talk to the department head and one professor in Spanish and they accepted me pending arrival of my college transcript. Maybe if you give them a call and you do well enough communicating with them they will waive this requirement.

Here's admissions contact info:

Contactos

Meant for those who might be underestimating your skills ? ;) :)
 

nas

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Jul 1, 2009
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Chip, this is a very interesting statement:
With regard to reading you need to be at about the same level, 85%, for reading comprehension of major news source in Spanish. This no doubt would make your reading ability better than some of you fellow Dominican students but you will need this advantage until your "ear" is adjusted enough.

Are you saying that a Gringo with just 85% Spanish reading comprehension could read better than his Dominican counterpart?
Well, I see. So "Stupid" equally applies to educated and non-educated Dominicans....
 

jabuti

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Mar 13, 2011
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My brother has been in Costa Rico for two months taking Spanish and he says he has no regrets. I have been there and say as much of a fan of the DR as I am, Costa Rico has it beat in most ways. Ticos are very friendly and are generally more educated than Dominicans. The country is 10 times cleaner.

There seemed to be dozens upon dozens of language schools in CR. I really wanted to get away from other North Americans. I can't imagine on going to one of these study abroad programs to Barcelona, where one single organizer was signing up 300 people from the US.
 

Chip

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Chip, this is a very interesting statement:

Are you saying that a Gringo with just 85% Spanish reading comprehension could read better than his Dominican counterpart?
Well, I see. So "Stupid" equally applies to educated and non-educated Dominicans....

Please re-read my post because I never said anything about anybody being stupid nor said 85% reading ability of anything in Spanish was important but rather news articles in Spanish and better still if they are from all over.

BTW I have plenty of Dominican friends and families and see there facebook postings everyday see the orthographic errors. I am also talking about hs graduates entering college, not college graduates. If you doubt me I will refer you to Prof. Hillbilly of the PUCMM.

If i have any criticism it is for the government that doesn't invest the money into education and too when they steal funds that should go to services of the citizens and especially the poor, thereby causing kids from poorer families to drop out of school to help the family pay the bills - like my father in law who left school in third grade to cut plantain.
 
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