La Universidad Catolica

I am going to give you a little insight into the Catholic University here in Santiago. I am taking Chilean Geography at this school, in their San Joaquin Campus.

(A side note about campuses) All of the universities here, do not have one campus like almost all universities in the United States. Instead they are dispersed around town. Each campus usually has a focus. For example, the architecture program is all in one campus. This makes sense because the students go to college knowing what exactly they are going to do. Students who become part of the Architecture Faculty are going to do things related to Architecture and therefore (primarily) only take classes on this subject, meaning they stay in their respective campus. They do not value the 'well rounded' or 'liberal arts' mentality like the United States does.

The Catholic University is private and tends to have mostly upper class students who can afford to pay the considerably higher tuition costs. I personally like this university the best because it is very traditional and things are particularly well organized. The students here were also the most friendly out of all of the classes I visited (apart from the students in my IFSA program).

Unlike Minnesota, our class doors swing right out to the 'quad'. The buildings do not hold hallways with classrooms, most, if not all, have classrooms that are pretty much part of the out doors. Which will make sense when it gets warmer here, but currently it creates a pretty chilly learning environment.

The libraries at this university are particularly nice, probably due to the higher tuition, but I have found myself spending most of my study time here. I will have to take a picture of the campus that I spend most of my time at because it is gorgeous. On a clear day you can see the modern, steeple looking thing that is attached to their chapel and behind the entire campus are the Andes mountains. It really is spectacular, when the pollution isn't too bad. ;)

I think the reason I like this university the most is because it really does feel a lot like Saint Thomas and home. (Minus the mountains of course.) The professors seem down to earth, easy to talk to, and the students are very nice as well.