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
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.