Study Abroad in MEXICO

Mexico is a traveller's paradise, crammed with a multitude of opposing identities: desert landscapes, snow-capped volcanoes, ancient ruins, teeming industrialised cities, time-warped colonial towns, glitzy resorts, lonely beaches and a world-beating collection of flora and fauna.

This mix of modern and traditional, the clich?d and the surreal, is the key to Mexico's charm, whether your passion is throwing back margaritas, listening to howler monkeys, surfing the Mexican Pipeline, scrambling over Mayan ruins or expanding your Day of the Dead collection of posable skeletons.

One look at this country is enough to remind visitors that there is nothing new about the so-called New World. Despite the considerable colonial legacy and rampant modernisation, almost 60 distinct indigenous peoples survive, largely thanks to their rural isolation.

The coast and lowlands are hot and humid all year. The interior highlands are milder and drier, but can become freezing between December and February. Rainfall is scarce throughout most of the country

Currency
Mexican currency is the New Peso (MXN) divided into 100 centavos. Credit cards are widely accepted, particularly Visa, MasterCard and American Express. Travellers cheques are generally accepted, and are best taken in US Dollars. ATMs are available in most cities and towns and are the most convenient way to get money, but for safety reasons they should only be used during business hours. Although most businesses will accept foreign currency it is best to use pesos. Foreign currency can be exchanged at one of many casas de cambio (exchange houses), which have longer hours and offer a quicker service than the banks.

Languages: Spanish, Castilian.

Since spanish is widely used in the country below are few words in the language with their meanings in english that can be really helpful while in mexico hola hi
adiós goodbye
sí yes
no no
por favor
please gracias
thanks muchas
gracias thanks a lot
dispénseme excuse me
perdón pardon
OK OK
nada nothing

Population
The population of mexico is 103,400,165. About 70% of the people live in urban areas. Many Mexicans emigrate from rural areas that lack job opportunities -- such as the underdeveloped southern states and the crowded central plateau -- to the industrialized urban centers and the developing areas along the U.S.-Mexico border. According to some estimates, the population of the area around Mexico City is about 20 million, which would make it the largest concentration of population in the world. Cities bordering on the United States -- such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez -- and cities in the interior -- such as Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Puebla -- have undergone sharp rises in population.

Average annual growth 1991-97
Population (%) ....... 1.8
Labor force (%) .......3.1


mexico's Education system
The educational system of Mexico can be divided into four levels:

I. Preschool (preescolar): ages 3 – 6
II. Primary education (educación primaria): grades 1 - 6
III. Secondary education (educación média): grades 7-11,12,13
IV. Higher education (educación superior)

Compulsory Education Extended from Sixth Grade to Ninth Grade

In 1992, the Secretariat of Public Education officially increased compulsory education from completion of primary school (grade six) to completion of lower secondary school (grade nine).

Preschool Education (Preescolar)
The General Law of Education states that preschool education is a part of basic education, and therefore it is provided free of charge. In December 2001, the Mexican Congress voted to make one year of pre-school education mandatory, a provision that went into effect in 2004. Educational authorities deemed this measure crucial to creating a smoother transition for students from preschool to schooling at the primary level.

Primary Education
Primary school consists of grades one through six and has been compulsory since the constitution of 1917.

Secondary Education
The secondary level consists of two cycles:

I. Lower-secondary education (educación média básica): grades 7 - 9
II. Upper-secondary education (educación média superior): grades 10 - 11, 12, or 13, depending on the program.
I. Lower-secondary education may be divided into two types:

Academic lower-secondary education (educación secundaria) Technical lower-secondary education (educación secundaria técnica) Lower-Secondary Education General admission requirements to lower-secondary school include completion of primary education and entrance examinations. Lower-secondary schools are increasingly linked to primary education, while the upper-secondary schools are primarily under the auspices of tertiary-level institutions. It should be noted that the term “secundaria” always refers to lower-secondary study and never higher-secondary study. The lower-secondary cycle includes both an academic program designed to lead to further education (escuela secundaria), as well as vocational programs (escuela secundaria técnica). Upon completion of the three-year escuela secundaria, students receive a comprehensive transcript that allows them to apply to a higher-secondary school.

Upper-Secondary Education
Admission to upper-secondary school depends on institutional policies. Standardized examinations have been developed by CENEVAL/Centro Nacional de Evaluación (National Center for Evaluation) for lower secondary school leavers and are used as an admissions criterion for upper-secondary school.

Higher-secondary students are enrolled in SEP-controlled institutions, state-controlled institutions, in private schools, and in preparatory schools affiliated with, and under the auspices of, public autonomous universities.

Higher-secondary studies are classified by curriculum, occupational pursuits and further education options as follows:

I. Academic University-Preparatory (bachillerato propedéutico)
II. Professional Technical Education (educación profesional técnica) leads to the vocational title título de técnico profesional (title of professional technician). This sector of upper-secondary study was formerly classified as terminal vocational study, but in 1997 the SEP designated it as “preparatory.” Holders of the título de técnico profesional are now officially eligible for admission to licenciado degree programs.
III. Mixed — university-preparatory and technical training — leading to a vocational title and the bachillerato--bachillerato tecnológico bivalente (technological bachelor with dual validity)

Vocational Programs Upon completion of a vocational program, the graduate receives a vocational title such as the Título de Enfermera or the Título de Técnico Profesional (Title of Nurse, Title of Professional Technician), and may have the title registered with the Secretariat of Public Education to receive a cédula (license). As such, the graduate has a federally recognized occupational license.

Academic University-Preparatory and Preparatory Programs with Occupational Training

Academic university-preparatory programs are offered at escuelas preparatorias (preparatory schools) or colegios (high schools), and technical university preparatory programs at various types of technical schools and institutes.

The upper-secondary sector, which developed to a large extent independently of the national ministry of education (SEP), is extremely diverse in terms of the number of academic programs and the structure of the programs offered. Traditionally, higher-secondary programs were offered under the auspices of local universities. In recent years, however, the SEP and the individual state ministries of education have fostered the development of freestanding colegios, and the number of private independent preparatory schools has steadily increased. Higher secondary university preparatory programs traditionally have prepared students by discipline — streaming in such areas as pre-engineering, pre-medicine, or the humanities among others. The recent trend, however, is for programs to offer a more general academic curriculum. Graduates (bachilleres) from upper secondary programs attached to universities and other higher education institutions have traditionally been granted automatic admission (pase automático) to their institution’s programs, whereas students applying from elsewhere must sit admissions examinations.

Upon completion of academic university-preparatory programs, the graduate receives a transcript certificate attesting to completion of the program. The transcript is issued by, or endorsed by, the higher education institution with which the higher secondary school is affiliated or the supervising governmental agency. In general, after completion of academic university-preparatory programs as well as technical programs incorporating university preparatory studies, the transcript will somewhere state that the student has finished the study of the "bachillerato" or the “preparatoria” (university-preparatory studies). Graduates do not always receive a diploma or degree certificate indicating conferral of the title of bachiller (bachelor), as is usually the case in other Latin American countries.

Higher Education
The system of higher education has expanded tremendously in the past quarter century. In the period 1971 to 2000, total enrollment increased more than six-fold from 290,000 to 1,962,000, while in the last decade of the twentieth century alone there was a 50 percent increase in tertiary enrollments. The "opening" of the system came in response to social demand for access to tertiary studies as the size of the middle class increased with rapid economic development.

Admission to Higher Education
Completion of an academic or technical upper-secondary program (preparatoria or bachillerato) is ordinarily required for admission to tertiary level institutions. Certain university departments require that incoming students complete higher-secondary programs in a track relevant to their prospective major field of study. For instance, students wishing to study medicine are generally required to have completed a bachillerato program in a biology or pre-medicine track. For this reason, graduates from liberal arts programs wishing to enroll in a technical/scientific program may be required to complete a second bachillerato program in a scientific/technical stream in order to make up for deficiencies. Normally, however, the student is exempted from the general courses offered in every bachillerato program, having to take only the specialized-track courses.

Selection processes at institutions of higher education differ greatly, reflecting the demand for admission to their programs. Institutional entrance examinations and bachillerato grade point averages are mechanisms which institutions have traditionally made use of in selecting incoming students. Some institutions grant graduates of affiliated bachillerato programs automatic admission (pase automático), while requiring bachillerato graduates from other institutions to undergo an entrance examination and to meet stiffer academic requirements.

Mexico, until recently, had no national standardized examination to indicate the academic performance of upper secondary graduates. Since 1994, higher secondary exit examinations designed by CENEVAL have been used increasingly for the admissions process to higher education. Some universities use a Spanish version of secondary school examinations designed by the College Board in the United States as an admissions examination.

Cities of mexico
Tijuana
Ensenada
La Paz
Ciudad Juarez
Guaymas
Chihuahua
Topolobampo
Durango
Mazatlan
Puerto Vallarta
Manzanillo
Lazaro Cardenas
Nuevo Laredo
Monterrey
Leon
Guadalajara
Mexico
Acapulco
Matamoros
Tampico
Tuxpan
Veracruz
Coatzacoalcos
Oaxaca
Salina Cruz
Progreso
Merida


MAJOR EVENTS OF MEXICO
Independence Day, September 16 (1810)
Day of the Dead, November 2
Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe - December 12