I am from Sao Paulo, the capital of the state of the same name, and every time I had to travel to visit my grandparents in the countryside I saw a huge university by the road. That was UFSCar, one of the best public universities in Brazil. I always said to myself that one day I would be there.
The years passed by and when the time came for me to make THE decision on which university to go I saw myself with two excellent options on my hands: Unesp and UFSCar. The first was close to my home and the other 3 hours away. I decided for UFSCar and now I see I couldn’t have made a better decision: five years studying hard in a top quality university made me the industrial engineer I always wanted to be; but leaving the nest to live on my own in a completely different environment made me a woman.
Sao Carlos is a wonderful city – the weather is lovely (a bit too unpredictable, I must confess), people are extremely friendly, there is a young and cheerful atmosphere all around the place (there are 4 universities in town) and it has a good infrastructure.
If you allow me to give one single piece of advice, irrespective of where you want to study, I would say: "Don’t simply get a degree – make friends, go out, join groups that match your interests (I joined AIESEC and the academic directory of my course) and strive to be the best ‘you’ possible." This is the time of your life and you will miss it when it has passed!
