<p>I would like to exchange messages with other Brazilian graduate who may be trying to enter any American program.
I am from USP and UNICAMP, applyng for PhD programs in Philosophy.</p>
<p>Tudo bem? Aonde que voce quer estudar nos estados unidos?</p>
<p>I repeat below my initial post in the thread "Philosophy applicant in distress":</p>
<p>"I am a Brazilian student preparing the application for PhD programs in Philosophy, but I would like some realistic advice on which 6 institutions to apply of the following list: NYU, Pittsburgh , Columbia, Harvard, MIT, Stanford, UCLA,Cornell, CUNY, Chicago, Brown, Southern California,Penn, Washington/St.Louis, Johns Hopkins, Miami. I would like to apply for all of them, but it would be too expensive to me. As an intl´student, I must pay not only application fees but the certified translation of my lots of transcripts. I am also concerned with what I consider my major handicaps: 1) AGE: I am turning to 36. I got my college degree in 95 and my MA in 2003. I actually have never been away from academy. In all this this time, I have taught philosophy at the undergraduate level. What kind of impression is it going to cause on admission committees? 2) GPA: I got 8.3/10.0 in the undergrad courses and straight A at Master´s.
My GRE scores: verbal: 530, quantit: 640, analytical: 4.0 I know these are low scores. But can I expect to be forgiven for being a non native speaker of English? By the way, my last score on TOEFL (not valid anymore): 253 - I am going to retake TOEFL in November.IELTS score: 8.0 My main interests are, in order: phil of mind, Ancient philosophy, phil of language, Kant, phil of law. </p>
<p>I know that a lot of wight in the selection is put on the writing sample, that you cannot evaluate here. But I know that, in the universities of better reputation, the applicant has his paper read only after his other credentials are already evaluated... I appreciate any suggestion, advice and comment. Thank you a lot!! "</p>
<p>If you scroll down that thread, you will find the helpful comments I got...Now, I would like to know of the experience of other Brazilians, even if not in Philosophy, in the process of application. I am mainly concerned on how our Brazilian grades are interpreted...Sometimes I think that the GRE will not be my only problem - my undergraduate GPA does not seem anyting exciting...
And what about you? Are you from Brazil? I live in São Paulo...</p>