Report from exchange experience at Tecnológico de Monterrey, México
Name of the University: Tecnológico de Monterrey, México
Exchange semester: 5th
autumn, 2012
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The school campus is really big compared to BI, and a lot of the school is outside so you can
relax on benches and read outside in the sun. There are also animals walking around in this
outside area, like birds, deers and squirrels. They have offices in the school for international
students so you can get help when it comes to school and other stuff that is not school
related.
In most of the classes you have partial exams, maybe 3 of them during the semester, in the
classes you don’t have is usually because it’s a final project instead. You need to have 6
classes and it is going to be a lot of homework in most of the classes.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information about the university
You get to know everything you need to know in the first introduction week of the school.
Before this you probably don’t get a lot of info, but it is actually not necessary before this
intro week.
Visa Procedure
You get the information about what you need for the VISA in the school. Don’t lose the
tourist VISA they give you when you enter the country, you will need it for the procedure.
For some, this is really easy to get, but for others if you are unlucky this can be a long and
stressful process. If you want to do this really easy you pay the lawyers in the Tec school and
they do it for you, but then you obviously need to pay a little bit more. For us it was just as
easy just to bring all the papers to the visa office ourselves. The immigration office is one of
the few places in this country where they speak English. However, the visa law was changed
during the semester when we were there, therefore we are not quite sure what the new law
requires. One thing is that now you have to apply before arriving the country.
Academic Calendar
We arrived the 1 of August, after this we had the intro week and then school started. Our
last exam was the 4 of December and after this is the start of the holidays. The only holiday
in between was the independence day.
Reception
The only reception you need is the international office, and they will tell you where this is in
the first week. And the office for getting help with your VISA and other problems that has
nothing to do with the school. These two offices are in the same building but in different
floors, and if you ask the students they all know where it is. Once you arrive, you will receive
emails with all the information necessary and where to meet.
Housing
We rented an apartment in a complex called Torres Tec. Here a lot of students live and most
of them are studying in the Tec. It is really close to the school, around 7 minutes by walking.
This is a perfect place to live for the social life, because there are a lot of exchange students
but also Mexicans. In the complex right next to it is Villas Tec with the same kind of people.
We had an advantage by having the pent house with a huge balcony, which does not exist in
Villas tec. Other than that there is not a huge difference between which of the complex to
choose, but we would definitely recommend choosing one of these complexes. There are
cheaper places, but here it is a gathering of most of the internationals and it’s nice rooms.
There are also more parties here. For the penthouse with four bedrooms and three
bathrooms we paid 4750 pesos each, which is roughly 2500 NOK.
Costs
The rent for the penthouse is 4750 pesos each, for a three bedroom apartment in villas is
4000 pesos each, around 1800 NOK. The rent does not include hot water, gas, electricity or
internet. The gas and hot water is about 200 pesos a month, the internet and tv combined
about 500, the electricity bill is the one that can skyrocket. Take our advice and leave the aircondition alone. The price for electricity grows exponentially and can get very expensive.
Otherwise it is a cheap country, but it will still end up getting expensive if you choose to.
The International Office
As said before the Tec have an International office for all the international students. They
have opening hours, and you can go there and ask for whatever. They don’t know
everything, but they really want to help you, and are willing to make some phone calls if it is
necessary to help you out.
Social Activities
In the beginning of the semester you have an international dinner where you can meet a lot
of your fellow exchange students. You can also sign up for playing football tournaments and
other sports, but this you have to do yourself. Also it is a lot of trips you can sign up for
which is organized by some of the students in Tec. This is recommended to see a lot of the
better places in Mexico for tourists, and it makes it easier when you have organizers and
don’t have to plan this yourself. Otherwise there are plenty of parties every week, no
worries.
Culture and Language
Inside tec a lot of people speak English, also most of the students. When you move outside
of campus, don’t expect anyone to speak English. The best thing is to learn Spanish, although
this will prove difficult unless you hang out with non English speaking people. If you learn
some basic phrases it is not hard to get around, and people are extremely friendly and will
try to understand you.
Cultural and Social Effects from the Exchange Experience
I feel that after my semester in Mexico I learned a lot about different cultures, both Mexican
and others because of all the international students. I find different cultures very interesting,
and it’s interesting on how it affects the way we act and think and mostly prioritizes. In the
social perspective, I’ve grown a lot, I’ve become much more outgoing and social – and the
situations I found a bit awkward before is no problem at all anymore (like presentations in
class or big gatherings of people). I think that big companies will definitely see an exchange
experience as a very positive thing, it shows that people want to experience a lot and that
they are not afraid of taking a risk.
ACADEMIC INFORMATION
The Teaching situation
You can of course choose to have subjects in Spanish, otherwise it is no problem finding
English courses. Be aware, this is not a vacation, the students you meet who attend Tec are
hard working. You have to do the homework and prepare the presentations in order to pass
the courses. It is not that hard, but it requires work throughout the semester and not just
reading two weeks before the final, then you will have already failed. The teachers are
mainly very good and speak English very well. If you choose to participate in the classes and
it is interesting that you will find a very different relation with your teacher than at BI. The
classes consist of no more than 40 people, some 15.
Exams
I had very different exams in each course – I had written tests, presentations, true and false,
multiple choice and also a case exam. If you read the pages that the professor tells you to
read, you will easily pass the exams.
Other
Students have access to the library from 7 in the morning until 4 at night. There are
computers in the library. There is also an IT building with a lot of computers where you can
scan and print. You get a student number and password, you don’t need this to access the
computer – but you need it to print. They have a similar site to Its Learning, which is called
Blackboard – this is used frequently by all teachers.
Description of Courses
Remember that the courses you choose before coming to Mexico is probably not the same
as the one you end up taking. At least that was the situation for us, we found the page to
select the courses messy and unstructured. No need to worry though, you can change the
courses in the first week and drop courses for a month. We had 2 Spanish basic courses,
which were useful, but did not exactly make us very good in Spanish. The two Spanish
courses were a lot of fun though and the atmosphere is much more relaxed with only
internationals. We had two marketing classes, which were pretty good if not a bit shallow. It
is much more discussion which can be more fun than just sitting and listening to a professor.
Our final course was financial management. A very good professor, with some adjustment to
learning the terms in English.