Report from exchange experience at Tecnológico de Monterrey, México
Name of the University: Tecnológico de Monterrey, México
Exchange semester: 4th
Spring, 2012
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SCHOOL
The campus of Tec is very big, and it has a lot of different buildings. There are lots of tables
outside so you can study in the sun, and there are tamed deer and peacocks walking around.
The school have a lot of sport facilities like a swimming pool, a gym, basketball courts,
climbing wall etc., and there is also a big football stadium right outside campus (football is
the second religion of México, and Monterrey is one of the best teams in the country). This
semester there were few exchange students compared to earlier semesters, but in total we
were about 50 internationals, and all of them were undergraduates. The graduate students
are on a different campus called EGADE which is localized closer to the city center.
In most of the courses there are partial exams (it may be as many as up to 4 in each course)
during the semester. And don’t be surprised if you end up having a lot of homework, quizzes,
hand in’s and presentations. But in overall the work is not too difficult, it’s just a lot to do
(but this is very individual for each professor).
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Information about the university
I didn’t get too much information about the university before I left from Norway, but I got a
big folder with tons of information on arrival day. There were no difficulties with this, but I
was a bit nervous since I was travelling alone and had little to no information.
Visa Procedure and travel experiences
The school arranges different types of presentations for the international students to follow
during the first week. Here they will inform you how to get the visa. The easiest (and I will
say only – since it’s a lot of papers and most of them are in Spanish) way to get your visa is to
go to the lawyers office who specializes in student visas. This law office is localized on
campus. The visa costs about 1000NOK in total, since you have to pay the lawyers as well.
You should be careful with not losing the small paper you will get when you get off the plane
(like USA you fill out a paper on the plane, and they stamp it and leave you a piece to save so
you get out of the country). You need this to get your student visa.
The ticket to Mexico I ordered from Killroy, there you can order a student card for 100NOK
and you can buy student tickets which makes it very cheap to change your return ticket (you
can also change it to go to other countries).
Academic Calendar
Arrival date was on the 3rd of January, and we had an introductory week until the 9th of
January when the lectures started. The examination period started in the end of April, and I
had my last exam on the 12th of May. They also have a spring break which is called Semana
Santa, and it’s in the beginning of April.
Reception
You have different receptions in each building; it depends on what you need help with. But
in general you can go to the international office which is located in a big building called CIAP
(this is the same building as the lawyer office).
The administration is prepared for you to arrive. The only difficulty you may have is that
each department knows what they are doing, but have no clue of what the other offices are
doing – so if you don’t really know what you’re looking for it may be hard to find.
We met a lot of Mexican students that was a part of the international program when we
arrived, and we were with them a lot during the semester.
Housing
I already had housing when I arrived in Monterrey – the man who rented out the apartment
even picked me up at the airport. I lived in a very famous student place called Villas Tec
which is localized about a 10 minute walk from campus. The school wanted me to live on
campus, but I chose to not listen to them, which I didn’t regret a second. The residences of
the school have a lot of rules according to visitors (no guests in your room) and to alcohol
(completely forbidden to just bring it in). I will recommend for all students to send a mail to
gaston@rentaplace.mx to get an apartment in Villas Tec. They have more rooms in each
apartment, and will just find an available room for you – I got three really nice roommates.
Costs
The rent I paid for my apartment was the biggest cost I had each month, it was on 5000
pesos which is about 2500NOK. It is a bit expensive for being in Mexico, but it’s definitely
worth it compared to how my apartment looked like. School books were about the same
price as in Norway, but most courses don’t use books (only copies from the shop inside
campus, they are cheap). Domestic flights are actually a bit more expensive and sometimes
similar to flying domestic in Norway, other than that most of México is extremely cheap
compared to Norway.
The International Office
As earlier mentioned there is an international office in the CIAP building, they are
responsible for 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.
Exchange promotion
We didn’t have any days where we were supposed to promote for our university, but it
seemed like a lot of students had heard a lot about Norway and really wanted to visit it
someday. We also had some presentations about our home countries, and I was sure to
mention my school in those.
Social Activities
You get to meet all the internationals in the beginning – and the international office arranges
a dinner with everyone. I was mostly with international students the whole semester, and
most of them also lived in Villas Tec or close to it. The relationship between the students was
very good, it was interesting to learn about each other’s culture and we learned a lot from
each other. There were different kind of student organizations, but as far as I know none of
the international students were part of any other then sport clubs. I really liked the school, I
had at least one other international student in each class, and I met people I knew around
campus all the time.
Culture and Language
Faculty and other students mostly know English, but for sure there are exceptions. But you
can’t expect people outside campus to know English. It’s easy to learn some common
phrases, and normally you will be around campus so someone else nearby is a student and
can translate for you. There are a lot of possibilities to travel around an experience the
Mexican culture – also close to Monterrey. The school arranges some of the trips, and a
group of Mexican guys arranges trips for the international students. So there is no lack of
adventures.
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. On a
social level 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 look at 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
The courses on the international program list are mainly in English, but I actually ended up
having a course in Spanish which was supposed to be in English (but you can switch courses,
so you’ll find it out early on). Some of the teachers struggled more with the English than
others, but in general is were pretty good and understandable. It is a very different way of
studying compared to BI, mostly because there is a lot of mandatory work through all of the
semester. Most of the courses are taught in a theoretical way, but we had some group
assignments which were more on a practical level. Most of my professors used cases and
group work additionally to the regular lectures. I felt that I had worked more in Mexico
because of the mandatory part (you also have absences, are you away more than 6 classes
you will automatically fail the course), but the courses at BI are way more difficult. The
relationship between the faculty and students is very good – you could arrange meetings
with them and they were happy to meet you. I actually didn’t talk too much to my
classmates other than when we had group assignments – mostly because they were mainly
Mexican and already knew each other, and I always had another international student in my
class.
Required Literature
If the course is in English, the literature is supposed to be in English – this was not a problem.
Even in the course I took that was taught in Spanish we had an English book. The level of
literature was very low compared to BI, very few pages to read in total. Some of the
literature was used for detailed knowledge and some of it for a broad overview – it really
depended on the course. Exams are normally based on the literature – which is what they
talk about in class. Not so much about the understanding, as BI is – more about actually have
been reading it and remembering it.
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.
 What types of exams were you given?
 What knowledge level was required to 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 will need to use this building (called CETEC) when you have to print
something for classes. 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
I had a couple of courses that were cancelled, so I had to change come – but it went ok. You
get absences if you change a course and miss some of the classes in the new course – even if
it is the schools fault, so be aware of this and talk to your professor. This is the 5 courses that
I ended up taking.
:
Course name:
Prereq.
Exam
Approved as
EC2006
International Economic Policy
Written
Elective
HI2013
Spanish intermediate
Presentations
Elective
MT2009
B2B Marketing
Written
Elective (in Spanish)
NI2001
International negotiation
Written
Elective
NI3010
International Strategic Management
Written/Case
Elecitve