hello im am undocumented immigrant from brazil living in america. i came here as a baby and am now about to turn 18. i have deportation relief (DACA) but with the current political climate i dont think its gonna be of much use any longer. im debating about moving to brazil and living with family, while my parents stay here so they can pay for my education and theyll join me eventually (willingly or not). my grasp on portuguese is good, but i prfer english. i cant afford college here, so i 1/2
2/2 dont see a point if i have no future. im gay and have schizophrenia which is disabling and will put me at a disadvantage, anyway im asking u bc u seem to kno about politics and i wanna kno if the politics in brazil woukd make my life worse than here. i would live in MG if i moved, thanks!”
Alright, ok, that’s like, the hardest question i’ve gotten in here ever, but let’s talk.
If you really want to move to Brazil for college, you gotta keep some stuff in mind. There are plenty of free universities here, and they’re VERY good. However, because they’re free and a few of the best in the country, they’re really fucking hard to get in as well, especially for more traditional courses like meds or law or engineering (and to a few more other courses that might require structure like filmschool even) etcs. Our system of selection is... messy. They don’t really take into account what you’ve done in high school. It’s a test, a bit like a SAT but only once a year and different in every college. Most of the public ones now take ENEM that is like, our SAT, our national thing, but quite a few still have their own tests (private universities generally have their own tests but will also take in ENEM results as a subscription at some point of the year). The public ones that have their own tests often separate them into two parts: first part is about 90 multiple choice questions in every area (we’ll talk about this in a bit), and if you get the minimum amount of those right you get on for a second part a couple of months later: 3-4 days of written questions in all areas again (but with different weights) and a writing task, generally a dissertation, and depending on your career choice, an “abilities test” (like, if you’re pleading for Architecture, they’re gonna test you to see if you can draw a little and that kind of thing). There’s no interviews, with rare rare exceptions in like, a couple of med schools.
For all the public ones, the areas covered in the tests are Maths, Physics, Chemistry, History, Geography, Portuguese, Biology, English or Spanish (more often, English) and (in some, not all) Philosophy/Sociology. In private universities, it depends for what you’re applying and on the institution, but there’s also always a written task required and multiple choice questions. I’m saying all of this because... You’d likely need to move and then go through a year or more of prep courses here to get into universities if you want a public one or if you’re in for a harder career on private ones, and that’s a cost to consider.
Now, regarding politics... While we are experiencing a bit of a conservative wave, I don’t think we’re all set on a path that would affect you as a member of the lgbt community. There sure are VERY prejudiced politicians, and some of them will sure be running for president next year, but I still don’t think they have the necessary strength to win. Of couse, it COULD happen, since Trump happened, but I don’t think it will. Of couse, I gotta say, homophobia is still a very real problem and we get cases like kids getting beaten to death for being gay still today on the newspapers, one happened I think just last week, but I think you’ll also find quite a welcoming community inside universities (especially if you’re on the... human/art side courses, not... math side courses). So I don’t really think you have to worry about the gay part of that. And neither about schizophrenia. I mean, I don’t know exactly how that affects you, but the only concern I’d have regarding the politics of it is that the government was cutting expenses on the public healthcare system, so maybe it’ll be harder to get free medication or free therapy than it’s been these past years, but it’s still probably gonna be possible and I suppose you have to pay for any of that in the US already, right? But otherwise I don’t think there are any regulations or weird ass norms to keep you out of college or of doing anything here because of either of those things, nor I think there will be any soon, if you’re worried. mAN I don’t know if I helped at all??? I guess what i’m saying is I only think you have to worry about getting into a university here, the rest will be ok, in my humble opinion. And ofc, if you have any other questions at all about university entrance or politics or the country or whatever, my askbox is always open
