Chile Forum

patagoniax wrote: Licenciado is usually a bachelor's degree equivalent in Chile. Magister is the Chilean term for equivalent to a North American Masters.

The following wikipedia item is not bulletproof but potentially useful

Yes, agreed. But I meant something more in the sense of 'homology vs analogy'.

A LIcenciatura degree does not include a major and a minor, but only one subject, so when comparing a Licenciatura and a BAchelor's degree, you end up with way more credit hours for the major subject.
I don't know how it is for social sciences but for natural sciences normally we can apply directly to a PhD program after Licenciatura. All the cases I know, including my own, were the same. We translated Licenciatura as Bachelors and then we had to take the qualifier exam earlier than usual because we had already taken the graduate level courses during the LIcenciatura, so in the end the Licenciatura degree was taken as a Masters degree (cases in USA, Canada, Germany and France).

I found LIcenciatura more similar to a German Diploma than Bachelors.
But on the other hand Chilean Universities do offer Master degrees, so it is a kind of weird system and I remember at Catolica they were trying to make it more similar to a Bachelor's by removing some core courses and (maybe?) adding other less relevant courses from other areas. But I have no idea whether they did it or not, it was in the plans a few years ago, then I lost track.

I kind of like the idea of having the chance of studying different subjects that count toward your degree (major and minor), with the Licenciatura, you are allowed to take other courses from other careers but they do not count as credit hours.
On the other hand, you end up with a pretty solid base with the Licenciatura, so both systems have positive sides.

The good thing that the chilean system has (or used to have?) is that you pay a fixed amount for the career you are studying, and not per credit hour, so if your GPA is good you can have permission to take more credit hours and enroll in courses from other careers, even though they will not count as valid credit hours. Also there used to be a way to study two careers at the same time, and you only pay the most expensive one.

rocksana wrote:I don't know how it is for social sciences but for natural sciences normally we can apply directly to a PhD program after Licenciatura. All the cases I know, including my own, were the same. We translated Licenciatura as Bachelors and then we had to take the qualifier exam earlier than usual because we had already taken the graduate level courses during the LIcenciatura, so in the end the Licenciatura degree was taken as a Masters degree (cases in USA, Canada, Germany and France).

I found LIcenciatura more similar to a German Diploma than Bachelors.

Interesting. I'm about to get my Licenciatura next year, but the university doesn't give you much attention in terms of homologation and stuff except when you prepare for the Título with the thesis. What could I do? I´d like to get this on the fast track, I don´t like the fact that careers in Chile are so long.

In Europe we have 3-year Bachelor's degree programmes. Can I say in my Spanish language CV that I am Licenciado?

patagoniax wrote:

rocksana wrote:I think it is equivalent to a Master's degree, although after Licenciatura normally Master degrees are offered (used to be a bit redundant).
'

Licenciado is usually a bachelor's degree equivalent in Chile. Magister is the Chilean term for equivalent to a North American Masters.

"Magister" is the equivalent to the Master degree in English speaking countries.

For what its worth, I had my wife's licenciado evaluated by World Education Services (which is considered to be one of the best evaluators of foreign degrees) and they said it was equivalent of a USA Master's. It required 5 years of study, all in one major. Magister does not seem to have a US equivalent. If you are really intrested, you can put your university and degree into http://www.wes.org/evaluations/preliminary.asp and pay $25 and it will give you an approximate equivalent.

RG1981 wrote:Thanks for the info guys...did anybody here study at U Chile? Any feedback or advice? Will it be hard for me to get in because I'm foreign or will they take into account that I've already been here for 3 years and go easy on me?

Stick to Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica de Chile. They are the only ones which make it into the ARWU ("Shanghai") ranking.

http://www.arwu.org/Country2010Main.jsp?param=Chile

My 2 cents.

In Chilean high education system there are 3 "academic degrees" (grados academicos): Licenciado, Magister and Doctor

Licenciado is obtained in programs of 10 or 12 semesters minimum (5-6 years), Magister and doctor may vary a lot, specially Magister who has 2 different choices: professional (usually are 1 to 1.5 years intensive or part time programs, like MBAs) and academic who are at least 2 years full time programs. Academic magister aims to those interested in research or teaching at universities, professional magisters aims to people who work in private world (managers, etc.)

Doctorate may also vary a lot, some requires regular study and research, other doctorate programs just required research and publish in ISI Journals, may take between 2 to 4 years

There are also "professional careers" with 8 semesters (4 years) typically the "ingenierías de ejecucion", those are aimed to people who want to work in private industry, not in academy, some MBA programs allow to enter having this "titulo profesional" but you can not obtain an academic magister with this in most of programs. Titulo profesional is the most similar to Bachelor (in Science or arts) as far as I understand, the difference in that in Chile you can not obtain academic degree of licenciado unless you study the 1-2 aditional years.

You usually are accepted abroad to master master programs with a Chilean Titulo Profesional, but to obtain it in Chile you need the Degree of Licenciado