I think he is referring to my post. I was told 100 pesos per something (I can't remember if it was month, semester, or what). But that was at the public college. Lindsey is talking about the private college, and actually even that price looks pretty reasonable to me. That will get you like one day at Kindercare in the US.
- Thread starter tomas2
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College Tuition in the DR
I think he is referring to my post. I was told 100 pesos per something (I can't remember if it was month, semester, or what). But that was at the public college. Lindsey is talking about the private college, and actually even that price looks pretty reasonable to me. That will get you like one day at Kindercare in the US.
tomas2, I think if you can afford it you should do it. Sure you should be prudent and make the help based on performance. It is very admirable what you are considering doing and just by posting others were able to shed a light on how affordable it is to do so. The life I have now was made possible by a poor girl who got a low paying teaching degree in a third world country. You have definitely given me something to think about. I given in other ways but sponsoring someones education may be the route I take in the future. And to the others who are doing it now, kudos.
When and if I move full time to DR I plan on attending UniCaribe and studying derecho. I want to be in school and do something productive while I am here not just sit at the colmado drinking beers which I looooooooooooove doing! Tomas2 just do the deed man, try it out for a year and give that girl the chance to be somebody. If she screws up during those 12 months and blows that chance. Hey you tried. I tried helping a Tia here by letting her do work as a housekeeper and run errands. She thought I was just giving her free money after 3 weeks she was out. I still love my Tia but I ain't giving her another red cent. Now I have a young lady who is not related to me doing the job and I am paying her and considering giving her the chance to go to school as well. Just do it, perform due diligence as you are doing now but continue opening your heart and your wallet. Like Sinatra said, "regrets, I've had a few"...So in spite of the harsh opinions of some, give it a shot.
I am pretty sure I am going to do it, it is just the timing now. She is the youngest of 11 children (she said her mother kept trying until she got a girl), and right now she is taking her last 2 years of high school (the way I understand it, you "finish" school the year you turn 17 whether you have actually finished all the material or not, so students that got a late start, or missed some years due to other issues can take 2 years of high school in the same year (again, this is how I understand it...I am sure someone else here is more knowledgeable on the topic?and maybe they can also explain why kids here don?t go to school when it rains, another concept I have been having trouble grasping :cheeky
. Anyway, she looked overwhelmed when we talked about it, and everyone that participated in the assessment agreed it would be better to wait another year. Timing and opportunity are both important ingredients for success, and it seems like they are both not quite there yet. When I come back in December I (and others that live here) will look at it again.
Thanks for your opinion by the way
No, you finish when you finish and pass the National Exams!!
Man, you sure are lost. When and if this happens, get back to us. The UASD is her best option. It is cheap and she will not feel threatened there by the high-flying kids for wealthy families that attend most of the private universities.
Again, go slow, get her input....right now she does not have a clue!!
Good luck.
HB
Man, you sure are lost. When and if this happens, get back to us. The UASD is her best option. It is cheap and she will not feel threatened there by the high-flying kids for wealthy families that attend most of the private universities.
Again, go slow, get her input....right now she does not have a clue!!
Good luck.
HB
Actually...what I meant to say was after 17 THEY (the public school system) are finished with YOU (the student). But why am I "lost"? Please explain.
You are lost because you do not have a clue about the Dominican educational system. I really can't say that you should have a clue, it is not a necessity for living here.
Look, I do not know who put that idea about 17 in your head. It is totally, absolutly, false. You graduate from High School (Secundaria, Bachillerato) when you finish the course work and PASS the National Exams. THEN, you have the option of trying college. There are no age limitation on high schooling.
There are many other options. The Armed Forces, the National Police are two. There is INFOTEP for practical training in many fields. There are computer schools, language schools. Small hotel and restaurant schools. The universities are many and varied. Teh UASD is the national university, state subsidized and costs very little in money and a ton in patience and time. It is a "popular" university that says it has 160,000 students.
You need to go slow. Get guidance from professionals (besides us know-it-alls here on DR1) and most of all see what she wants to do. Discard, as I think you have done, such items as architecture, interior decorating and other such nice sounding fields, and see if you can steer her towards something a bit more practical in today's job market.
HB
Look, I do not know who put that idea about 17 in your head. It is totally, absolutly, false. You graduate from High School (Secundaria, Bachillerato) when you finish the course work and PASS the National Exams. THEN, you have the option of trying college. There are no age limitation on high schooling.
There are many other options. The Armed Forces, the National Police are two. There is INFOTEP for practical training in many fields. There are computer schools, language schools. Small hotel and restaurant schools. The universities are many and varied. Teh UASD is the national university, state subsidized and costs very little in money and a ton in patience and time. It is a "popular" university that says it has 160,000 students.
You need to go slow. Get guidance from professionals (besides us know-it-alls here on DR1) and most of all see what she wants to do. Discard, as I think you have done, such items as architecture, interior decorating and other such nice sounding fields, and see if you can steer her towards something a bit more practical in today's job market.
HB
Hillbilly is completely correct. There many options. For example if she did Dental school- PUMMC has an excellent Dental program but it is expensive and demanding( I know a young Lady in her 3rd year) Some of her friends changed to the Dental program in La Vega- cheaper and easier but not international recognized. So depending on this girls aspirations, abilities, and realism, with your support both morally and monetary she has many options.
Hillbilly is also correct about high school -- no age limit---many adults going to high school. My wife taught adult education( math) for 8 years.
Hillbilly is also correct about high school -- no age limit---many adults going to high school. My wife taught adult education( math) for 8 years.
Thanks for your response. I guess I am not sure what I can do with it though. I thought from my earlier postings it was pretty clear what I knew and what I didn?t know (lots of ?the way I understand it?, etc) in hopes it would generate corrections from people that actually do know, and thinking other readers might have the same questions. I certainly was not intending to pretend I was an expert on the Dominican Education System. Nor did I feel like I needed to be for what I was thinking about doing. My objective was to triage whether I could help this one girl go to college. With information I received here and elsewhere I believe I succeeded in my goals.
(Q)Was it financially possible for me to help?
(A)I don?t have the exact details on cost, but even if the numbers were scaled to multiples of what were mentioned (if they were credits, classes, months, etc) I could still probably handle it.
(Q)Was it logistically possible?
(A)Yes, she could live in Cabarete, and take the guagua daily to PP. I talked to a student that was doing exactly this. It was expensive, but I got some rough numbers, and I think I can swing it.
(Q)Was the education program she has told me she wanted to pursue a practical choice and would lead to decent employment opportunities?
(A)From what I heard here and elsewhere, teaching seemed to be a decent choice (and again, the girl that mentioned she wanted to be an interior designer is a DIFFERENT girl).
(Q)Are there other good choices (in hopes of future employment)?
(A)Yes. People mentioned several. Thanks.
I am going slow (I have decided to wait until next year). I have gotten advice from people that ?know?, a current student at the very school I am considering (and you recommended), and a guy that owns a private school in Calijon with (I believe?don?t quote me) over 200 fulltime students. These 2 resources were good enough for my purposes. And as for career choice (teaching), this is something she has chosen, and has been consistently telling me for 5 years.
I don?t mean to be rude, but I am still trying to figure out what is behind the ?man, you are lost? comment. From other posters I would understand they were just trying to being a jerk, and I ignore it. Until now, I haven?t seen evidence of this being your style.
No biggier. I just saw the myriad ideas,and tos and fros and with you talking about 17 years of age being important in some way connected with her high schooling, it just seemed like you did not have a clue to educational reality here....
It got your attention, too.
Be well and prosper!
HB
It got your attention, too.
Be well and prosper!
HB
I disagree. I think the bro is a bit lost. Not in a disparaging way but in a way that may be too altrustic. And in his own words I m not convinced the girl wants to go to college. Its hard to meter with poor people sometimes. They have no faith in anything because everything can be dash by lack of funds. So you talk to her about college and she feels overwhelmed, so you want to wait a year and allow her to mature. Well, the analogy is she may be like wine or she may be like fruit. She may mature to the level of interest where it may benefit you, or her desire may be corrupted by the mundane events of living in the poor section of the campo surrounded by tall-tales and chisme. And since you are not here personally, I dont see how successful you could be in mentoring from afar. Even the mentor by-proxy system you want to establish for her to be successful doesnt sound like a well thought out plan or in the least doesnt sound like it will be well executed to the benefit of the girl or your money.
Now you can do what you want to do but to me, I think you ll burn the candle at both ends to do ALL of this for her and she wont complete 1 semester.
Well, ?you go to war with the army you have? as a brilliant military leader once said.
For this to be to come to a successful conclusion (completing the college degree and getting a teaching job) it will require a significant personal investment (time, dedication), personal resources (talent), financial resources, and support resources (mentoring, support).
At this point is the project 100% resourced? No. But I have been assigned to projects with a lot less resources than I have here (and lots of ?known unknowns??or was it ?unknown knowns??well?whatever?again quote from that famous military mind), and somehow we are usually able to bring it to a (sometimes grinding) success. It seems like there is at least enough here to get started (assuming we get over a couple of hurdles next December).
I did make a trip to Puerto Plata today to track down my social worker friend. I described the situation, and asked her for her thoughts. She confirmed the tuition is very cheap, but stated there are significant additional costs like transportation (which I knew about), books (which I knew about), tests (well, maybe I knew about that), and probably a computer (which I hadn?t considered at all). She said a lot of the papers need to be prepared on a computer and printed, so if the student didn?t have these they would have to go to an internet caf? or something if it was not easy to use the resources at school (like they were commuting daily from a long way), and this could be relatively expensive.
I asked her about the feasibility of maybe having her live in PP close to school during the week to save time and money in commute, but she didn?t think that would be cost effective. She did mention they do have Saturday classes which would save on commuting, but I wasn?t a big fan of this because I was thinking it would take her forever to get through school taking one class a semester.
She than informed me that you can take almost a full load of classes just going on Saturdays (like maybe 5 classes?...although I am not sure exactly how this is done...it just doesn't seem like enough time to me). She said it can be a very long day (and she knew from experience because she had to do this because she was working when she finished up her masters), but this definitely opened up some new possibilities.
So there you go. Brain dump. Do with it what you will.
Well, I wouldnt consider Donald Rumsfield a brilliant military leader. Not unless the Hamburgler is the worlds greatest sous chef.
I dont know how a woman who is sketchy about the college education will take 5 classes on Saturday and not be overwhelmed. Now YOU have planned it alot but what will she do?
I m going to stick by my projection, 1 semester then she calls it quits.
There may have been a touch of sarcasm in there. They really need to come up with some universally accepted\understood sarcasm HTML tags. The lack of same has gotten me in trouble in the past.
Not being sarcastic, but do you realize that the UASD really does put out graduates that have been going to school on Saturdays from early morning to late afternoon??? Maybe 15 credits? All in one day. (Sarcasm + Gee, sounds like quality education to me!)
I like your idea of a pension in POP during the week. From Cabarete to POP has to be what? 60$ a day is frares? X 5 = $300 a week....she can get a room with a meal or two for that in POP...I betcha!
Keep working on this. I can help, but go slowly.
HB
I like your idea of a pension in POP during the week. From Cabarete to POP has to be what? 60$ a day is frares? X 5 = $300 a week....she can get a room with a meal or two for that in POP...I betcha!
Keep working on this. I can help, but go slowly.
HB
I just started a similar thread, asking about education costs. I did a search but all I came up with was private school info. Thank you to Tomas for directing me here
Maybe someone who knows could fill us who don`t in on the whole DR education system and associated costs from start to finish...
I know that public elementary school is free provided that the children can obtain a uniform and supplies needed. I`m guessing that highschool is the same?
I too was curious about the costs of a public university or tech school?The real numbers...
I`ve seen many organizations who fundraise for uniforms and supplies to send younger children to school but I don`t think I`ve seen anyone who mentions highschool or university....Are there any groups out there who help with this?
Maybe someone who knows could fill us who don`t in on the whole DR education system and associated costs from start to finish...
I know that public elementary school is free provided that the children can obtain a uniform and supplies needed. I`m guessing that highschool is the same?
I too was curious about the costs of a public university or tech school?The real numbers...
I`ve seen many organizations who fundraise for uniforms and supplies to send younger children to school but I don`t think I`ve seen anyone who mentions highschool or university....Are there any groups out there who help with this?