{"id":7442,"date":"2026-06-18T20:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T20:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/chile-sites\/pontificia-universidad-catolica-de-chile\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T18:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T18:46:20","slug":"pontificia-universidad-catolica-de-chile","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/chile-2026\/chile-sites\/pontificia-universidad-catolica-de-chile\/","title":{"rendered":"Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Thursday May 14th, we started out our day visiting Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, the San Joaqu\u00edn campus. Upon arrival at the campus, we were greeted with much more greenery and a slower pace compared to what we had experienced at the Universidad de Chile the previous day. On our walk to our meeting room, we passed under a canopy of trees and glass artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The first presentation was given by Dr. Andres Bernasconi on the accreditation process for universities and colleges and the prestige that comes with receiving a 7 year accreditation status. Followed by Dr. Carlos Gonz\u00e1lez, who gave the next presentation on student experiences and what factors are affecting Chilean students’ learning. Which was informed by a survey that is sent out to students that asks them not only about their learning, but also other factors that may impact their ability to learn, such as their caffeine intake and nicotine usage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After the first round of presentations, Dr. Paula Clasing, a CSHPE Alum, gave us a tour of campus, pointing out significant structures, the campus chapel, and the student hangout spots. Like typical college campuses in the U.S., we saw students hanging out in green areas, carrying around \u201chot-n-readys” from Little Caesars, and meeting with their student organizations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Like most Universities in Chile, Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile does not have on campus housing, so the campus environment was constructed to create a welcoming environment that was comfortable for students to stay at all day, since the campus was further from the center of Santiago.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The last presentation of the day was with Dr. Ver\u00f3nica Santelices who taught us about the mandatory standardized test (PAES) for university admissions, and its weight in the admissions process. The test is administered on the same day for all students in the form of a paper test, and students are required to complete the reading and math tests. There are elective tests in History & Social Sciences and Science that students can choose to take in addition to the required tests. Unlike most universities in the U.S. who use a holistic admissions process, Universities in Chile use students’ PAES scores as the primary admission requirements. This difference was particularly interesting since our higher education systems are pretty comparable, but we do deviate in interesting ways that will stick with us in our continual learning of higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We closed out our official time on campus by visiting the UC Innovation Center, which is a large and imposing, brutalist structure that towered over all the other buildings on campus. On the outside, the large concrete structure, which was built through private funding, juxtaposed the greenery of the rest of the campus. However, when you walked in, you were greeted by an open center that allowed you to see all the way to the top of the building and all the other floors covered in floor to ceiling glass windows. Here, we learned that the building’s purpose is to open students and visitors up to conversation in the name of continual innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our next stop was to cross the main street and transportation hub to visit the neighboring technical college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Alaina Oehmler<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Thursday May 14th, we started out our day visiting Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile, the San Joaqu\u00edn campus. Upon arrival<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":7452,"parent":7360,"menu_order":6,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/page-sidebar-right.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7442","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fimg_url":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2026\/06\/20260514_144803-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7442"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7442\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7589,"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7442\/revisions\/7589"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.marsal.umich.edu\/studentstories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}