The first USP quota students, who graduated this year, improved their academic performance throughout the courses, shortening the distance that separated them from other students. The conclusion comes from a survey by the Center for Metropolis Studies, coordinated by Marta Arretche, with 11,000 university students.
Even in the most popular colleges at USP, the maximum distance recorded between those coming from public and private schools was 1.2 point in the grades, on a scale from 0 to 10. This difference appeared right at the beginning of the course, in the 1st semester of 2018. By the end of 2021, it had dropped to 0.7.
The quota law, subject to revision this year, came into force in 2012. The university started its program in 2018, with a reserve of 37% of the general vacancies of each faculty, and gradually raised it to the current 50% of quotas per course . Students from public schools, blacks, browns and indigenous people compete.
Jéssica Marcolino, 25, from Minas Gerais, who is majoring in architecture at USP, says that at first she felt a distance from her colleagues. "I have always identified more with the faculty staff, where I saw familiar faces, than with the faculty and students.
Translated by Kiratiana Freelon