Hello! I am thinking about applying directly to a University in Spain, into a Doctorado program (tercer ciclo). I was just wondering if anyone on this messageboard has attempted to do this before? Any thoughts or advice? Is the paperwork and redtape going to be really annoying? Any advice or comments would be greatly appreciated at this point. Thanks

Hey Ricky,

No better person that can answer this question than Jer. He did a year's worth ot Ph.D. studies at the Universidad Complutense. I'm not quite sure how that went, but he can tell you more about this.

I am also thinking of doing Ph.D. work in Spain.

Shawn

Thanks Redwood. Jer - could you post some information on how your experience went? Could you also talk about the application process? Thanks so much.

and if you have any info about master's degrees...

I'm considering doing a master's degree as well. Where/what/when are you looking to study? After weighing my options, what's important to me and talking to my professors about what schools are best for my degree, I think I'm going to apply to La Universidad de Cantabria for next spring, pursuing a degree in either translation or teaching a foreign language. I haven't decided which yet. But I'm not going to even start the application process until I've visited Santander for a week to make sure I want to commit up to 3 years living there. I thought about doing a program in Madrid through an American university but in the end I think the cons outweigh the pros... The majority of the classes (or at least the ones that interested me) were in English and I don't want to do anything except language study in English. I want to be in class with Spaniards, which is something I missed out on when I studied in Seville. So I think I'm going to go with the longer application process and do the Spanish university.

Melinda

Hey all, I�m back from USA and just found the time to get to this thread. Better late than never.

Melinda, we spoke at our multimadrid NYC get together last week and you mentioned that one of your Spanish teachers is from here and is going to help you with the application process.

Please do us a favor and keep us posted here since it will surely help others out in the future (like ricky1581 for example).

You see, when I appleid to the Doctoral program at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid years back, I did so as a British citizen, not as an American one.

So, as far as I could tell, my application process was the same as it would have been for a Spaniard or other EU national.

I have no experience applying directly as a non EU national and am looking forward to reading all about Melind�s experience applying to the Universidad de Cantabria as a U.S. citizen

Maybe you can keep a log here Melinda??? Posting after each step in the process??? The info would be invaluable!!!

Ok, as for the studying via a U.S. university program -vs- just applying directly to the Spanish university, each has advantages and disadvantages.

If you are going to use the degree in the U.S., it will be worth more if it is from a U.S. institution but the price tag will be hefty

Also, compared to the university sytem here, the U.S. system is very much guided, take the student by the hand and show him/her the way.

Here in Spain, you are on your own and often times do not have the guidance you need. This can be difficult if one is used to the extensive guidance of the system in the U.S.A.

As for me, I am glad I did the 1st year of my Doctorate here in Madrid directly through the Univ. of Madrid.

The quality of education was, in my opinion, exceptional.

I must admit that my decision was made based purely on economics as my Masters Degree drained my resources.

I paid about $300 for my 1st year of Docoral study here

Saludos,
jer...

Well first I made myself a pro and con list to see which was better. I listed what's important to me and then listed what each course offers. Here's what I came up with:
What I want:
1. To take classes with Spaniards
2. To become completely fluent in Spanish
3. Access to a decent language school that offers Italian, German and Catalan
4. To specialize in something that allows me to utilize more than one language and is useful on an international level.
5. To be in a province on the northern coast (that's where the majority of my friends live)

USA:
Pro:
Easy to apply
Gives housing and food
Easy contact from home or in Spain
Guidance through the entire process

Con:
Too much English
Classes in my BA study abroad program seemed dumbed down
Students weren't serious
Only offer Masters in Spanish Language or Literature
Our students were kind ostracized from Spaniards when I studied in Seville
Costs a lot

SPAIN:
Pro:
Classes with Spaniards
Classes in Spanish
Cheaper
Classes are more challenging
Wide variety of majors to choose

Con:
Have to find housing
Beaurocracy
Language (well... for me since one of my top choices is in Catalunya)
Completely on my own (well except for my friends in Lloret de Mar)

I met with my professor on Tuesday and after discussing various options that interested me for degrees, we both agreed that probably the most interesting and most useful for my particular goals was a degree in tourism. A search on the ministry of education's website (www.mec.es) showed that pretty much any university in the country offers it.

I decided on 2 universities that I'll be applying to: The university of Girona and the University of Cantabria. Girona is my first choice because I'll be spending the summer working there and since my job is 3-10, it would be very easy for me to go there in the mornings to ask questions, get to know the university and see if I would want to study there. I'll also have to find a place to stay in a residencia so I can visit the reccomended ones and see what I think. My only downfall is that their entire website is in Catalan with no translation so I'm afraid that there is a language requirement. After I choose my exact degree, my professor is going to write to the head of the program to ask about language. I understand it spoken at an intermediate level, I can read it almost perfectly but I can't speak it at all. If they'd allow me to take the class in Catalan but do the coursework in Castellano, I'd be fine. But just in case there's a language problem, I chose a second school.

I chose the University of Cantabria mainly because of its summer language school. I'm learning Italian and I want to continue and study German as well and their school came hihgly reccomended to me. Plus it's offered at a discount to students. I believe the school also helps with housing, but I'm not completely sure yet. I'm not worrying about that until I get through admissions.

So that's where I'm at right now. I've chosen my top two choices and the major that I want to go for. I don't know exactly how helpful my application process will be because I'm actually going to be working in the country during that time, which is a definite advantage. But hopefully I won't give up on this because of registration problems and it'll help someone.

Melinda

Melinda,

GO FOR IT!!! Nothing beats a failure but a try. And please do as Jer suggest so that we can see your process step by step.

GOOD LUCK and keep us posted.

Shawn

Melinda ...I agree totally with Shawn! You have to go for it. I am SO excited for you. It sounds like an excellent decision. You will learn SO much and the areas you chose are so beautiful.


I found a good site on Universities in Spain here
BTW I missed you all at Xunta last week , but it sounds like you all had a good time.Esperanza (marcela)

I have a question for Jer. Even though you have a British passport, didn't you have to show them your American degree and all of that? All of the information I can find about applying as an American doesn't mention anything about Visa issues (those would come later of course). But in order to apply, you need to show them a copy of your Foreign Degree and also include what courses you have taken in your area of study, how many hours of classes you have, etc. This is so they make sure that your level of study is the same as Spanish students. Did you have to go through all of this to apply? Thanks so much.

Hi Esperanza!! I'm sorry we missed each other - it was such a pleasure to meet you a few months back Thanks for the site, I'm going to look around tonight.

Ricky - I believe you have to go through the homologacion of your degree to make sure it's transferable. I started reading the description of it on the University of Cantabria's website, but it was confusing and gave me a headache so I've given up until I need to look at it. If you want to check it out, it's at http://www.unican.es

Melinda

hey Melinda. I am pretty sure you can get into a Spanish university without the homogalacion of your American degree. Doing various website searching, I came across a section on almost every University website that talks about gaining admittance without the formal homolgacion of your degree. This is what I was talking about in the last post - where you have to contact the department you are applying for, send them a copy of your degree, send them a list of what courses you have taken, what they have dealt with and how many hours per semester they were. However, this is also confusing to me and I am wondering if that is what Jer had to do in order to get into the doctorado program at Complutense. Any help from anyone at this point would be greatly appreciated - thanks in advance. -Erika

Hi ricky...

Sorry for the delayed response to your question, been busy.

quote:

I have a question for Jer. Even though you have a British passport, didn't you have to show them your American degree and all of that?

Good question. Although Melinda has stated that she believes one must go through the "homologaci�n" of your degree, that was not the case when I applied to grad school here years back. Things may have changed since then but all I had to do was send my degree and transcripts with my aplication. They did not need to be in a sealed envelope nor sent directly to the U. of Madrid my undergrad university back home as they make you do when you apply to grad school in the U.S.A. I had them sent to me and then I sent all pertinant info in one big courier bag to the Complutense. I also sent a complete list of all courses I had taken as an undergrad and in my Masters degree with the descriptions (glad I kept all those syllabi from college). I think including all the syllabi was overkill but I was paranoid and better safe than sorry.

Hope this helps Erika.

Saludos,
jer...

Jer, I'm probably completely wrong - I'm going to start working seriously on this in about 3 weeks after my finals are finished. Right now I have 2 papers to get done and 3 tests to take so it's taking a backburner to my grades. I won't get in to ANY school if I let my grades slip at the end!

Melinda