Oye Aritz!

    My name is Ariane and I graduated just this March. I have a degree in European Studies-International Business with a Double Minor in French and Hispanic Studies. I would like to take Masters in Spain but I’ve been having a hard time finding becas. I really need a scholarship because my financial situation prevents me from funding any further studies. I have tried to solicit the advice of Ministerio de Educacion y Ciencia through the Asesor de Educacion assigned to the Philippines. His name is Javier Menendez and at first he reassured me that he would help me find a university but after that initial reply he has yet to get back to me and it has been 5 months already. I repeatedly attempted to contact him again but to no avail.
    Since then I have constantly been searching for becas on my own; unfortunately the opportunities I come across are limited to European Nationals or to Latin Americans. I am a Filipino citizen so at this point I am even considering just finding a way to get hired and work in Spain for two years and hopefully when I have obtained the residency it might be easier for me to pursue my masters.
This isn’t just a silly dream for me and I want it so badly- I’m willing to do anything short of selling myself whether it’s manual labor or even being a nanny…sorry if I sound desperate; I’m really THAT determined.
    I’ve had my heart set on this for so long. Please advice me on the best possible course of action. I’ll listen to anything you have to say as long as you don’t tell me that it will be too hard and I should just give up. It’s already what everybody else has been saying.

                                              Thank you so much!
                                                    Ariane

ariane,

have you read and tried to meet the requirements in the ff
http://www.aecid.es/web/es/oficina/info/BecasMAEC/index.html

the philippines is included in group A

you just graduated this march, so you still do not have your diploma.
have you got certified true copies of your TOR and diploma and authenticated up to the spanish embassy? officially translated into spanish?

right now, it is almost impossible to get hired directly from spain for you to get a residence and work visa.

have you tried applying for a student visa? to study a language or two perhaps at the escuela oficial de idiomas http://www.eoidiomas.com  cost is 117 euros a year per language. since the cost is minimal, financial requirement for student visa may be lower.

have you checked the websites of the universities and their programs?

Hey Aritz! Thanks for the prompt reply.
I honestly can’t thank you enough for your politeness and sensible advice. Eres la hostia! :D
I have gone over Becas MAEC guidelines many times as well as several university programs. I have been looking north because I have a better chance of securing a slot there since most applicants are fixated on southern Spain. I considered Universidad de Pais Vasco and the university had a mobility program for Filipinos but the deadline had passed in May of 2009.
My other option is in Universidad de Zaragoza in Aragon. My problem there is that the application period for the course I want is in June already- the university itself doesn’t offer a scholarship that I can avail of so once I get admitted, I’ll have to apply for the Becas MAEC which means there will be a gap period because the Becas MAEC deadlines for this year were over before I even graduated in March. The application period for the becas don’t start until early next year.

Maybe you could clarify this for me too? So let’s say I apply to Universidad de Zaragoza this June and I get accepted. The classes begin in September but I can’t enroll because I haven’t even applied for the Becas MAEC yet. Will it be possible to defer my entry into the university until I can apply for the scholarship in January even if it will be many months after I’ve been admitted?
Also, drawing from you personal experience, is it practical to take the DELE while I’m still here? I have been studying Spanish for quite some time now and I realized that immersion will beat formal training any day. What i mean is, it seems to me that my Spanish will progress better when I’m immersed in it on a daily basis instead of me continually taking lessons and and practicing only in a classroom setting.
I’ve met people who went to Spain knowing nada and came back with perfect grammar and perfect accents. So I was thinking I could hold off on formal lessons and that includes taking the DELE.
I would have loved to take the language lessons there like you suggested but I can’t even afford that low-cost lesson and will still need the Becas Maec for such a course.

With regards to my diploma, at the moment I have both my diploma and transcript at the Department of Foreign Affairs and they are being authenticated and I will get them by May 17. I’m hoping I can take them to the Spanish Embassy soon after.
A different matter altogether, I know some people who have taken masters in Spain as soon as they finished college here. Is work experience of much importance? Right now I haven’t applied for a job yet because I’ve been busy with fixing all the documentation I’d need to apply for masters. I was thinking that I could take on a job once my masters application have been sent out so I can avoid distractions. I just don’t want to be stuck at an office if all of a sudden the Spanish embassy and the university have a request that I need to process elsewhere.

I’m sorry if this is really long…I hope I was coherent enough. If it will make a difference I promise you i’m not just some random airhead europhile that just feels like going to Europe. I spent my four years in college trying to maintain a good enough average so that the universities would consider me when I applied for masters. I didn’t graduate with latin honors (I missed cum laude to by .02) but I’m hoping that a 3.48 Q.P.I. will do. There’s a real sense of urgency for me to take my masters asap;  I received an e-mail about a new resolution on university standards worldwide.  The resolution is currently in the works and it implies that in a few years time Filipinos who want to take masters abroad will be required to study 2 more years because we don’t meet the international standard of 16 years of formal schooling that is common in Western countries. I’m really holding my breath here. It’s such a tough time to graduate since the world economy looks bleak and lots of things are changing. The two year residency for Filipinos in Spain can even be discontinued because the European Union want Spain to revise its “loose” immigration policy. Majority of the illegal immigrants enter through Spain and other Mediterranean countries (Greece, Italy) and the European Union is trying to curb the influx by imposing stricter and more uniform guidelines.

Anyway…I’ll be crossing my fingers. Thanks a lot!!! Feliz fin de semana!

ariane,
you only get the student visa if you get the scholarship.
you cannot enrol without the visa or student card.
i do not think enrolment can be deferred.  i guess you will have to repeat the process.
some students will enrol and pay, classes will start as scheduled.
in your case, you depend on the grant. why should they wait for you?
it is not their problem and it will be waste of time and effort for you for the simple reason that you will have missed lessons and your lack of proficiency in spanish will be an obstacle in your effort to catch up.
once you get the visa, you can enrol in the master degree you applied for and any other course, subsidized, free or otherwise.

unless you are good at languages, you will need to go on studying spanish while you are waiting for the visa and when you are here because when you get here you will have to go to the bank, the police, the school, the landlord, etc and you will not understand them. i have been in spain for years and my grammar is good that was after a lot of hard work.
my accent is still filipino speaking madrile?o spanish. when you learn enough spanish you will learn if those you met really spoke spanish perfectly with perfect accents.
it is not necessary to have job experience to enter a master’s program. minimum requirement is a bachelor’s degree.
where did you get the info on requirement for filipinos to study two more years?
it is absurd, after getting a bachelor’s degree, you go back to senior high school?

get your high school transcipt and diploma true copied and authenticated up to the spanish embassy, officially translated as well.
you can have it officially accredited as first the 10 year secondary education (graduado en educaci?n secundaria) and since you entered university they will also you a 12 year secondary educ accreditation (bachillerato)
you will have to have your bachelors degree officially recognized. look for a match in the websites for degrees offered in spanish universities.

the two year residency is a requirement for filipinos to apply for citizenship as enumerated in the spanish civil code and it is not going to change in the foreseeable future.

now getting your first residency is difficult and it may get more difficult.
but there is a backdoor at least for the time being.
if you have spent 5 years as an illegal immigrant you can apply for residency if you meet the requirements for it
if you have spent 2 or 3 years as illegal immigrant, you can apply for residency if you meet the requirements for arraigo social or laboral.
also if you have had a student permit for 3 years and if you get a job offer and meet some other requirements.
now the above backdoor may be firmly closed or half opened depending on the agreement reach among european govt or governing political parties.

Aritz you’re absolutely right.
Obtaining the residency has always been hard (Spanish bureaucracy isn’t exactly the most efficient in the world) and is only getting more and more difficult along with a bunch of other things. Taking masters in Spain and in Europe in general is also getting more arduous, competitive and expensive. About the additional two years of schooling for Filipinos- I probably didn’t explain it well enough. As absurd as it sounds it may soon become reality. Below is an excerpt from an e-mail I received which has most of the details:

From: AEuSS Online <aeuss.online@ yahoo.com>
To: aeuss_online@ yahoogroups. com
Sent: Sunday, February 7, 2010 23:55:45
Subject: [aeuss_online] Our diplomas will be USELESS?! [URGENT]

“According to this article
(http://opinion. inquirer. net/inquireropinion/ editorial/view/20100130- 250394/Time_bomb)
the EU will soon stop recognizing diplomas from the Philippines because they don’t meet international standards, and by that I mean:

1. Only 14 years of school (6 elementary, 4 high school, 4 undergrad) versus the 15 to 16 in other countries
2. Low quality as a result of low funding (only 2.5% of the national budget, versus the suggested minimum of 4% and the 5-6% of major Asian countries ; triple shifts, meaning students get 1/3 of the school time that other kids in other countries do ; overstuffed classrooms and outdated materials ; etcetera—a really big and depressing etcetera)
3. Less hours devoted to major subjects (we have 2 years of general ed, versus America’s 1 year and Europe’s 0 years)

Now, don’t blame the EU. These standards were agreed upon by 29 of Europe’s Ministers of Education, and since the Bologna Accord was made in 1999, 27 other countries have signed. (http://www.philstar .com/Article.aspx?articleI d=540592&publicationSubCateg; oryId=442)
So our government has had 10 years to comply with the BA’s standards, but not much has been done to change the status quo. GMA boasts of increased government spending for education, but factor in inflation and there’s no change in REAL value, just NOMINAL value.

Anyway. To solve the problem, we need to:
1. Add Grade 7 to public schools—which the government is NOT inclined to do because it costs money, and they’re already having a hard time getting enough kids through to Grade 6. We might not have this problem if less money went to personal coffers and more to our education, but I don’t know exact figures.
2. Increase the time for major subjects in college

#2 is where it gets tricky, and where we are also most affected. The reason I believe we have so many years for General Ed is that our universities want to level the playing field between private and public high school students. To get rid of that concern, government needs to enforce stricter standards at the high school level—which, again, costs money. They would rather pass on the cost to universities and their students, who will be forced to add a 5th or 6th year just for the diploma to meet international standards. But can we afford that? And should we have to pay that, when the root problem is lack of preparation at the basic ed level?

I want to say no.

I always knew the situation was bad, but only now am I really feeling the urgency of it. I’m freaking out especially because I just left an Ivy League university to be in this country, and I don’t want to have to bail.

I don’t know how we’re going to fix this just yet, but I know what we need to start doing:
1. TALK TO YOUR SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS. Know the details first, though. Ask informed questions.
2. TALK TO RELEVANT GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES. And don’t take vague, motherhood and apple pie statements for an answer.

It’s our money, our diplomas, our time on the line here.”

I hope this has shed some light on what I was getting at the last time. I don’t wanna weigh the odds because I know it will be discouraging but I do understand that the sooner I get there and take my masters the better.
Am I good at languages? Well I’m quite passionate about learning other languages. It simply thrills me. I’m not an expert yet but the willingness to learn and the drive to improve is definitely there!
Thanks for your two cents and if I’m lucky my next post will be good news.