observação da educação universitaria

something the people in the program tell us about classes is that people from the morning might be very different from those studying in the afternoon. many students here have to work during the day and therefore choose the night schedules. PUC has the same classes in the morning as it does during the night so that's not a problem. the difference is more in the effects that these different schedules have on the people.

matutino vs. vespertino
people in the morning, as i was told, are supposed to have more time and no need to work in order to pay for school. these people might be more energetic during class because that is what they focus most on during the week. so far, i've tried a couple of classes in the morning and it was hard to tell from the people that i met whether or not this was true. the people i met were from second year -university here takes 5 years approx. to finish- so they were relatively young and students begin to work as they acquire experience, meaning that they begin looking for jobs or internships later in their career, during their 3rd or 4th year of university.

people in the night, as i was told, are supposed to have less energy to spend during classes because they come to university directly from work, which is evident because the great majority is wearing working clothes at night. they also have less time to do homework and have more tight schedules so group works are more challenging. nevertheless, people have mentioned that their discipline and willingness to get things done might be better because they are used to working under a schedule that demands dedication and efficiency.

final thoughts...
the reason why i mention this is because it represents an entirely different reality from the one at Macalester where students are not entirely paying for their own education. it would be very challenging to have a student earn 40,000 USD in one year. it is true that the services provided by these higher education institutions are not the same, library, computer, resources, because of the difference in tuition prices but it seems like different education levels must adapt to society's earning potential regardless of the quality of education. since relatively wealthy brazilians don't earn as much as lots of relatively wealthy people do in the US, the universities have to come up with a system that adapts to the societies where they operate.

i'm also not saying that the education at PUC is cheap. 7,000 US Dollars per year isn't cheap, but it is not 20,000 per semester. what i'm trying to get to is that private education within a country will depend on its country's wealth. PUC is considered to be the best private university in the State of São Paulo and second best private school in Brazil and it is composed of entirely different systems and numbers in terms of prices, as well as the number of students, schedules and classes. this is something that i find worht mentioning because because everyone speaks of São Paulo as a cosmopolitan city. a place where prices are the same in many of the goods and services in all the other world cities. from my experience so far, and i recognize that i might be wrong, higher education is not one of those goods.