Uncovering Mexico
Jeremy Schwartz is the Mexico correspondent for Cox Newspapers. He is based in Mexico City.What's on this page?
The entry titled "Mexican universities tougher to get into than Harvard."
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Home > Uncovering Mexico > Archives > 2008 > July > 22 > Entry
Mexican universities tougher to get into than Harvard
Here’s a statistic that may help explain Mexico’s economic malaise: only about 9 percent of students who applied to Mexico City’s vast National Autonomous University (UNAM) got in for the fall semester. That number, which comes to us thanks to David Agren over at The News (Mexico’s biggest English language newspaper has finally jumped online) and is further proof of the lack of opportunity that stymies Mexico’s youth.
As Agren reports, highly subsidized public schools like the UNAM are basically the only option for low income youth. Mexico’s private universities generally charge stratospheric prices and Mexico’s many so-called “institutes,” while cheap, are poorly regarded by employers. So when the UNAM rejects 57,000 kids in a single semester, you have to wonder where they will end up.
School officials blame (shocker) a lack if public funding for the space shortage, saying it hasn’t kept up with increasing demand.
But it’s not as though job prospects for college grads are all that great in Mexico City. The city is littered with computer science majors selling pirated software and biologists driving taxi cabs. More than 40 percent of Mexicans aged 15 to 24 can’t find a job, according to the nonprofit group Young Entrepreneurs for Mexico.
As Mexico lurches toward democracy, one if its biggest challenges will be creating opportunity for its youth. For too many, Mexico remains a closed society.
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By Michael Wolf
July 24, 2008 10:10 AM | Link to this
9% is a small number, but alone it doesn’t mean much. Of those who weren’t let in, some were rejected for lack of space (tragedy #1). Some had the ability but lacked sufficient secondary education (tragedy #2). Some simply didn’t have the academic talent, regardless of earlier education, and were rejected for that very reason. But we’d need a breakdown of the remaining 91% to put that 9% figure into context.
By Monica Ortiz
July 25, 2008 12:15 PM | Link to this
Hi Jeremy, My name is Mónica Ortiz and I’m from Mexico City. I totally agree with you. I applied to a Phd program and I got rejected. It was a lot more difficult to get into the UNAM’s program than it was when I got into a masters program at UT Austin. So great excuse to go back to Austin!!