MOVING TO MEXICO FOR COLLEGE __ WHAT I WISH I KNEW _ UNIVERSIDAD ANAHUAC

Hey guys, welcome to this video. We are here at Universidad de Nueva Querétaro, which is my university here in Mexico. I am originally from Rome, Georgia, so naturally when I decided to come to university here, people had a lot of questions, so I decided to make this video to address those questions and to talk about my experience, what it's like, and of course if you have any questions later on that I didn't address or if you want me to elaborate on something, please leave a question in the comment section below and I will be so happy to get to them. And so let's get on to the video. As a Mexican-American, I always felt a sort of connection to this country, even though I had never really lived in it, and I know a lot of second-generation immigrants can relate to this. I always knew that eventually I wanted to experience what life was like here, and I didn't think there would ever be a better opportunity to do that than during my university years, especially since the traditional university experience in Georgia did really excite me, and I felt like I would just be doing it because that's just kind of what you do. Coming to Mexico was exciting, especially since I didn't know anyone who had done it beforehand, but after living here and doing it for a little over three years, I've learned that it's not just something that you can do to reconnect with your roots, it's also something that I would absolutely recommend to anybody. The first assumption people will usually make about why I decided to come to school here is because of affordability. That sometimes can come off as a bit offensive because what I feel like is being implied when saying that is that there is a trade-off of a superior education for a cheaper education, but I'm here to tell you that in my experience that's not the case at all. I don't understand why you wouldn't want to pay less for a cheaper education, but also receive an equal education or maybe even a superior one in some cases. University abroad can seem like an experience that is only made for the more fortunate, as it can apply, you know, costs with travel and staying abroad and tuition and living arrangements and everything like that, but as we'll touch on in a future video, one of the greatest parts of Mexico is how affordable it is and university is not an exception. I see coming here not just as an opportunity for people to experience a different type of life, a different culture, a different language, but also for people who maybe wouldn't be able to afford university otherwise to be able to receive that education that they might not be granted. The full tuition here at Anahuac is right around four thousand dollars and a little bit less for a semester, but they do have academic-based scholarships, they have athletic scholarships. Academic scholarships are based on your GPA and the athletic ones are, you know, just on performance, so if you do any sports, you know, you should look into those. Also, Anahuac is a private school, so that's why you're paying what is a relatively high price for Mexico, but that doesn't necessarily mean that that's what you have to do. The main university in Mexico is one called UNAM. It's in Mexico City. It's one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America, if not the most prestigious one, and it costs literal cents to go there. I think it costs like 50 cents to just register, and it's kind of more just a representative cost, but that just goes to represent how you don't have to spend a lot of money to have the best education possible. I searched online a lot about cities, universities, majors. I really nerded out for a really long time because I love that type of research. I was having a lot of fun doing that, but I kept going back to Querétaro because I kept hearing all this good news about it, about how safe it is, about the climate being amazing, about how much it's growing, and I study international business, so with all of the investment that companies are making here, I decided this is probably the best place for me and what I wanted to do. Of course, Querétaro also embodies the colonial Mexico that I wanted to experience from my time here. The size of the city is fantastic. It's a little over a million people, the population, and this means that it's not super chaotic like the bigger cities, but it does have all the commodities that you expect to have from a city. I never went to university in the U.S., so I can't say I know a lot about it, but from what I've seen, the main differences are there's no Greek life here, and there's not that school spirit that fills up enormous football stadiums and stuff. It's a lot more relaxed, the atmosphere here. It's more school-oriented, so you really just come to classes and then you leave, and that's your relationship with the university. They'll work with you here at ANOAC, but unfortunately, there's not really a clear pathway for international students, but I mean, I'm an example of how it can be done, so it's not impossible. But besides that, they are so willing to work with you here. They're really accommodating to me when I first arrived. For example, the professors let me turn in my essays in English, or they let me do certain things in English, or you know, they were really helpful, and so were the classmates. Everybody is really, really willing to help. That says a lot about people in Mexico in general. It is a good idea to know some Spanish before coming here, even if you're not so sure about how fluent you are or how perfect your Spanish is. As long as you know some, you should be fine, but that being said, I don't know if you would be able to do it without knowing any Spanish at all here at ANOAC. I may honestly recommend doing Tec de Monterrey over ANOAC because they do have a very clear international program. There's a lot of students from around the world there. They have campuses all over the country. ANOAC has seven too, but Tec de Monterrey has more and more cities. I believe that you can go there without knowing Spanish. Of course, they'll put you in a Spanish program and stuff that you'll learn on your way. The tuition is just barely higher than ANOAC. It's not much of a difference, and it is one of the most prestigious universities in Latin America, especially for the technology degrees. We'll link Tec de Monterrey's website in the description below along with ANOAC's website. I'm only speaking right now for universities I can talk to you about which are the ones that you're based here in Querétaro because, of course, there are other options in bigger cities like Guadalajara, like Monterrey, Mexico City, Puebla, but I can help you look into those, but what I can talk to you about right now are the ones here so I've mentioned ANOAC, I've mentioned Tec de Monterrey, and I guess my third recommendation could be Arkansas State University. They strangely enough have a campus here in this state. From what I've read, everything about it is exactly like a university in the U.S., so if you kind of just want to experience Mexico but still have the same type of education as you would receive in the U.S., exactly the same type of education, that might be an option for you, and all the classes there are done in English and the tuition is also a little bit higher than ANOAC, but it should be lower than anything you'll pay in out-of-state tuition in the U.S. It's literally Arkansas State University, so all of your degrees will transfer perfectly in the U.S. as well as in Mexico. So ANOAC is situated in the hills about 15 minutes, about a 15-minute drive from downtown, but the good news about that is that it's actually in a neighborhood called Cibata, and in the neighborhood closest to the school is the student living area, the dorms, which is like a two-minute walk from the university. I actually, that's where I lived when I first arrived to the university. It's, you know, it's a really great place to just show up when you don't know anything or anyone in this city. The costs are a little bit high, but I mean it's worth it at least to get situated. Eventually I moved out and now I share a house with roommates here in the neighborhood as well, so that's what I have to say about living arrangement. So these are some of the questions that I wanted to answer and address about my being here and going to university in Mexico. Like I said before, if you have any other questions, please leave a comment. We would be so happy to answer them. And lastly, I want to encourage anybody and everybody to at least think about going to school abroad, especially here in Mexico. But anyway, that was our video. So if you liked it, please give us a like and please subscribe, and we will see you on the next one. Bye!