>>11393305Here in Brazil, public universities are the very best institutions in the country, and often in Latin America as a whole. Despite ranking really low when compared to european, asian and anglosphere universities, unis such as USP, UFRJ and Unicamp are some of LatAm's best.
Unlike in Europe and the US, where you have this whole thing about writing a letter and explaining your aspirations, listing everything you did in High School (such as clubs, sports, extracurriculars, and so on), and whatever else you think is important, acess to public universities here solely takes into consideration your performance on a standardised test. Some have their own entrance exams, while most use the national exam scores. After you do your test, you'll be ranked among other students applying to the same course and institution as you according to your score.
The result of this system is that the entire educational system of the country turned into money grabbing prep schools that offer you absolutely nothing aside from preparing you for the test. These schools work like fucking fast food chains, and whenever it's financially viable, they'll open their new McSchool™ in your neighborhood. They'll also spend tons of cash in advertising their brands, filling the whole city with their banners where they boast about how many admissions they got to the elite unis this year. And it's not just banners on the streets, they also put their advertising on buses, social media, everywhere.
Now, when I say they do nothing but prepare you for the tests, I really mean nothing.
Do you want to take a programming class? Fuck you. Join a science club, or maybe a book club? No such thing. Make science projects and go to expos? Nope. High School robotics tournaments? Forget it. Sports? There's 1 hour of physical ed, and that it. And don't even get me started on arts. I'm not bullshitting you, kids on these schools don't even read classics. They're just taught what the book is about. There's moar
