Location
  • Brazil
    • São Paulo
Term
Academic Year, Fall, Spring
Subject Areas
Business Cultural Studies Economics Film Global Studies Language Studies Latin American Studies Political Science Sociology Sustainable Development
Need-based funding, Merit-based funding, General grants/scholarships, Payment plans, LGBTQIA+ funding, BIPOC funding
Health & Safety

Program Details

Program Type
Provider
Degree Level
Bachelors
Housing
Apartment
Language
Portuguese

Pricing

Price Details
CET makes it a point to include as much as possible. The CET program fee covers tuition, housing with a Brazilian roommate, activities and excursions (including a weeklong Traveling Seminar and an overnight trip), medical insurance, visa processing & fees, and course materials/textbooks.

The program fee does not include meals and transportation to/from São Paolo.

Still wondering how to budget for your time abroad? CET offers scholarships, and CET staff is happy to provide advice on keeping discretionary purchases to a minimum (i.e., they can tell you where to get cheap eats).
What's Included
Accommodation Activities Classes Wifi
Dec 09, 2024
Aug 16, 2023
12 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

If you want to step out of your comfort zone and understand Brazil from a local perspective, this program is for you! The curriculum is a combination of Portuguese language courses and electives taught in English, but intermediate and advanced students may opt for full immersion by taking direct-enroll courses in Portuguese alongside Brazilian peers.

Choose from one of three academic tracks to shape your Brazil experience according to your interests and academic needs: Social Justice & Inequality, Socially Sustainable Business at FGV, and Direct-enroll at USP (Pre-requisite: 3 semesters of Portuguese). Excursions, including a week-long Traveling Seminar to Salvador da Bahia, allow you to engage with Brazilian society and not just spectate. Students of all Portuguese language levels and majors are welcome!

Video and Photos

Diversity & Inclusion 💙

CET believes in making study abroad accessible to students of all races, religions, origins, abilities, gender identities, and sexual orientations. We’ve gathered experiences from BIPOC students to share as resources such as the Identity Abroad pages, Perspective Pieces, and Identity Abroad Support Networks. We are also dedicated to becoming a more anti-racist organization by transforming our workplace, programs, and industry with our Justice, Equity, Diversity, & Inclusion (JEDI) Action Plan.
CET supports and welcomes students of all identities on our programs. We provide program-specific information under the cultural climate section of our Identity Abroad webpages for LGBTQ individuals in each of our program locations.
CET makes every effort to offer accommodations comparable to that of the students’ home institution. Disclosing early helps us to make proper preparations. The accommodations offered at each program can be found on each program location's Identity Abroad page. These pages can provide a good idea about what classes are like in terms of workload and class time. Initiating one-on-one conversations with Student Service Coordinators can also help inform students' decisions and determine if a program will be a good fit.
CET makes every effort to offer accommodations comparable to that of the students’ home institution. The levels of accessibility, from wheelchair accessibility to extra time on exams, are under each program location’s Identity Abroad page. Initiating one-on-one conversations with Student Service Coordinators can help inform students' decisions and determine if a program will be a good fit.

Impact 🌎

CET is an environmentally conscientious organization at our headquarters in DC and programs all around the world. In each of our centers, we adopt local measures to reduce our carbon footprint and contribute to sustainable practices. As part of our ongoing efforts towards sustainability, we’ve partnered with Cool Effect, a nonprofit focused on reducing carbon emissions through scientifically-proven, hand-selected carbon projects worldwide. For each trip taken by one of our staff members, travelers, or students, we donate to support three carbon projects chosen by staff volunteers every year.
When we set up a program overseas, we become a part of that local community. And as a community member, we are responsible for contributing to local initiatives in meaningful ways. Our website lists some local philanthropic organizations that help us fulfill this responsibility—they host our students, and we support their missions.

Program Highlights

  • Electives in Politics, Economics, Sociology, Film
  • Courses taught in English or Portuguese
  • Traveling Seminar to Salvador da Bahia
  • Local Brazilian roommates

Program Reviews

4.62 Rating
based on 21 reviews
  • 5 rating 76.19%
  • 4 rating 19.05%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 4.76%
  • Academics 4.05
  • Support 4.45
  • Fun 4.7
  • Housing 4.6
  • Safety 4.7
Showing 9 - 16 of 21 reviews
Default avatar
Gloria
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

An incredible study abroad experience

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What would you improve about this program?
The courses provided by CET oftentimes overlapped in material, especially Poverty and Inequality and Current Social Issues in Brazil. The lectures during Poverty and Inequality were often long-winded and didn't encourage much discussion. In that course, the most fascinating aspects were the site visits--maybe lectures could help prepare us more for what to expect in those immersion trips.
In addition, this program could do a better job in providing resources for students who would like to practice their respective religions while abroad. Perhaps a list of places of worship in São Paulo could be provided to students at the beginning of the semester.
In addition, in the spring semester, classes didn't begin until one month after we arrived. This was due to Carnaval and to the fact that the academic year had not yet started at PUC. We didn't realize this until we got there--CET could do a better job of notifying us of this during the pre-arrival orientation.
Finally, the student visa registration process was very long and didn't end until a month before the program end date. Oftentimes, the program coordinators would notify us of required meetings at the consulate only days in advance of the scheduled meetings, leaving us to scramble and reschedule previously scheduled commitments and sometimes miss classes. In these various steps often of short notice, students had to pay up to $50 for a visit to a consulate. This process was more expensive than I had expected and was definitely an inconvenience especially for students who hadn't budgeted for this. CET could do a better job of detailing the monetary requirements of this process and its length.
153 people found this review helpful.
Leaynet
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Amazing experience

My overall experience in Brazil through CET was extraordinary. Although I already learned and knew quite a lot about Brazil, its culture, its society and also the Portuguese language prior to my trip in Spring 2018, the CET/PUC courses that I took, the different activities I took part in, as well as the trips that I made, both through CET and independently have really helped me gain great wealth of knowledge about the country and the people, as well as better my conversational skills. I have also made a lot of friends throughout my program, especially with those outside of the CET Brazil program. Since my return to the United States, I feel more Brazilian. In other words, I can say that Brazil is in me. I would highly recommend this program.

125 people found this review helpful.
In Paraty, Brazil
Jeffrey
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

CET Brazil

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What would you improve about this program?
I have few complaints about the program, but there are definitely some areas in which it can be improved. First, when I arrived in São Paulo, Brazil's school system was still in summer and we didn't have classes until the third or fourth week there. The first week was all about orientation, but between orientation and classes, there was not much structure. It was nice for a bit because as a group we got to plan a trip to the beach and go to Carnaval. However, after all, that passed I was kind of like...well what's next? So, some more structure (ie group activities) or resources on what to do in the city would be helpful. Second, academically, it was a bit difficult to adjust to the teaching style in Brazil which was definitely more lecture based. Professors made really noble attempts to make the class more interactive and some were definitely more successful than others, so it could be useful for CET to train professors hired for CET courses on how to adapt the classes a bit more to an interactive rather than lecture style. Third, while I appreciated the tours organized by CET's tour guide, I felt like we often did too much during each trip and I struggled to retain/connect to a lot of what was said.
136 people found this review helpful.
Jack
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Experiences and People I Will Never Forget

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What would you improve about this program?
I would say that the program was lacking a bit more organization when it came to program and class dates. Many activities were postponed or cancelled with short notice. Other than that, the program was enjoyable and well-rounded.
87 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Kala
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Brazil Spring 2018

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What would you improve about this program?
I think some of the CET courses could have be more linear in their direction.
85 people found this review helpful.
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Sahidah
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

CET Brazil '17 Experience

To say that this changed my life would not be enough to encapsulate what this experience meant to me. My semester in Brazil was time well spent and will forever have a special place in my heart. I was challenged intellectually and emotionally because I chose to throw myself into Sao Paulo, Brazil head first. The food, people, culture and studies all made me reconsider everything that I had ever known about Brazil, myself and my own country. There is no place better to go if you want to have the time of your life. Brazil will take you, break you for your own educational growth and then put you back together as someone well versed in the best that Brazil has including coxinhas and cafe com leite. You will only enjoy this too much!

What would you improve about this program?
By letting more students know that this program exists! Everyone should have the opportunity to chose this as their study abroad choice.
87 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Evelyn
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Sao Paulo: The Best Place on Earth

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86 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Steven
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Summer 2016 in São Paulo

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91 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers