Brazil Scientific Mobility Program

Frequently Asked Questions

Spring and Fall 2014

A. Common Application Q. What if I complete the First-Year-Application instead of Transfer? A. If you have completed a First-Year Application as opposed to a Transfer Application, then you will have to start an entirely new application by creating a new account. Q. If I made a mistake on my Common Application, how can I go back and change this mistake? A. You will have to contact the common application team directly to correct any errors you made in your application. If you have completed a first-year application as opposed to a transfer application then you will have to start a whole new application Q. I wrote my name incorrectly in the Common Application, how can I fix this? A. Your name can be corrected in the Common Application until you submit it. Once its submitted, you can no longer make changes. If you have already submitted your application and wish to make a change, please contact Common Application support. If the change is minor (like removing a special character), you do not need to correct this if it has already been submitted. B. TOEFL Q. Can I start working on my application even though I will not have my TOEFL scores until September 23? A. Yes, you should. You should work on your application as if you were going to apply for the Spring 2014 call. You should have your Common Application completed along with the essays so that you can submit your application if you meet the TOEFL requirements for group A. If on September 23 you realize that your TOEFL scores do not meet the requirements for Spring 2014, then you should change your Common Application to follow the instructions for group B1 or B2. C. Passport Q. I will have my passport after the September 30, 2013 deadline. Is this a problem? A. No, you can submit your passport at a later time. You should submit your passport as soon as possible.

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D. Letters of Recommendation Q. Can my high school teacher write my letter of recommendation? A. Your letter of recommendation should be written by a teacher from your university. It is important to have a professor who can assess your performance at the university level and write a letter of recommendation for you. U.S. universities like to see recommendations from professors at the collegiate level. Q. One of my professors is having trouble filling out my academic recommendation. She logged in as a recommender and completed the profile tab but my name does not appear on the student tab. What I should do? A. We are aware that the online system is not working correctly. We have updated our instructions on our website accordingly and are now providing the blank form for professors to fill out. You can find the blank form on our website and ask your professor to complete this version. Q: My instructor is trying to fill out my evaluation and it says List the courses in which you have taught this student, noting for each the student's year ( freshman, sophomore, etc.) and the level of course difficulty (100-level, 200-level; etc.). What level should my instructor write? A: In the US, course levels are standardized (where each level corresponds to how advanced the subject matter is in a course). Courses are not standardized in the same way in Brazil, so your instructor can leave this information out. The US institutions reviewing your application are aware that this system is not used in Brazil, so will not expect to have these levels written in. Q. How can we submit instructor evaluations? A. You should give the form provided to your instructor. They can either e-mail this form directly to bswbapp_Spring@iie.org (as long as they include your full name and Common App ID number), or your instructor can give you the completed form to submit with your other documents. E. Transcripts Q. Who can fill out the Registrar Report and do I need to submit this document along with my transcript? A. The Registrar Report should be submitted along with a translated copy of your transcript. This

document should be filled out by a school official (such as an administrator in your registrars office or head of your academic department) who has access to your entire academic record at your institution in Brazil. This official must be able to verify any of the information listed on the Registrar Report. Q. Does my transcript have to be in English, or can it be in Portuguese?

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A. Your academic transcript must be in English and issued by your Brazilian university official (with a stamp and their school signature). If your University is unable to provide you with English transcripts, you must have your official transcripts be translated by a certified translator. IIE also recommends visiting your local EducationUSA office to see if they are able to provide the certified translations. All original transcripts in Portuguese should be submitted along with your certified translations. Q. Can my advisor who filled-out the Registrar Report fill-out my Academic Evaluation? A. Yes, your advisor can write you a letter of recommendation. Q. If I graduated from another Brazilian institution, and am now completing my second degree should I send my transcripts from my old institution? A. Yes, if you have already completed a degree previously, a complete transcript from this institution should be submitted. F. Institutional Preferences Q. Where, in the Common Application, can I indicate a letter of support from a US institution that wants me and I want to go there? A. This type of letter should be included in your e-mail when you submit your other documents to IIE. You should also list this institution in your preferred institution essay. Q. I am being asked to list three school preferences, I do not know what school I want to go to, do you have a list of schools that you work with? A. We work with a large number of institutions in the United States. This list varies every year depending on institutions ability to host international non-degree students, sponsored by IIE. We are not able to provide you with an extensive list of institutions and therefore it is also not published on our website. We encourage that you conduct a thorough online research to determine which institutions are able to meet your academic need. Please note in order to list your preferred institutions you must not only make sure that the university offers your major but that you also meet their academic requirements (such as TOEFL, GPA, etc.) This section is optional so if you do not have a preferred institution, you are not required to list any preferred institutions. Please still list whether or not you have an interest in HBCUs, single-gender colleges, or religious-affiliated institutions.

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G. Field of Study Q. What fields of study are approved for the Brazil Scientific Mobility Program? A. CAPES approves students studying fields related to science, technology, and engineering for this program. If you are not sure if your field of study is allowed in the program, look over this list of approved fields from the official 143 call of the program issued by CAPES: i. ii. iii. iv. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x. xi. xii. xiii. Engineering and other Technology Areas (Engenharias e demais reas tecnolgicas) Exact and Earth Sciences (Cincias Exatas e da Terra) Biology, Biomedical Sciences and Health (Biologia, Cincias Biomdicas e da Sade) Computation and Information Technology (Computao e Tecnologias da Informao) Aerospace Technology (Tecnologia Aeroespacial) Pharmacy (Frmacos) Agricultural Production (Produo Agrcola Sustentvel) Petroleum, Gas & Coal (Petrleo, Gs e Carvo Mineral) Renewable Energy (Energias Renovveis) Mineral Technology (Tecnologia Mineral) Biotechnology (Biotecnologia) Nanotechnology & New Materials (Nanotecnologia e Novos Materiais) Disaster Prevention and Response Technology (Tecnologias de Preveno e Mitigao de Desastres Naturais) xiv. xv. xvi. Biodiversity & Bio-prospecting (Biodiversidade e Bioprospeco) Marine Sciences (Cincias do Mar) Creative Industry, projects and processes oriented for technological development and innovation (Indstria Criativa, voltados a projetos e processos para desenvolvimento tecnolgico e inovao) xvii. xviii. New Technologies of Construction Engineering (Novas Tecnologias de Engenharia Construtiva) Training of Technicians in the areas and topics listed in the preceding items (Formao de Tecnlogos, nas reas e temas listados nos itens anteriores) If you have any questions about these fields, please contact CAPES.

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