The Federal University of Santa Maria is a Brazilian public university located in Santa Maria, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, funded by the federal government of Brazil. It was founded in 1960, by Professor José Mariano da Rocha Filho. Its campuses span over 1,837.72 ha, with a total of 386,968 m² of buildings and 28,307 students. UFSM's presence in the municipality of Santa Maria is one of the reasons why the city is sometimes called "university city" or "culture city". It is located in western Rio Grande do Sul, approximately 290 km far from the capital city of the state, Porto Alegre, thus being set in the heart of the pampas of Brazil. As a public university, students do not pay tuition fees. It is the oldest federal university not located in a Brazilian state capital city, and the largest in number of undergraduate courses offered in Rio Grande do Sul state. As for 2015, the university was ranked at position 15 at national ranking from MEC.
Admission
Like most other Brazilian higher education institutions, the admission for undergraduate courses in UFSM is mainly based on an annual open test called vestibular. The only request to be filled in order to apply for it is to have completed a high school course. UFSM's vestibular comprises a multiple-choice exam and a written essay and lasts for 3 mornings and 1 afternoon. The multiple-choice exam contains 15 questions on each of the following subjects: Portuguese Language, Brazilian Literature, Chemistry, Mathematics, Physics, Geography, History, Biology, Philosophy and Foreign Language. The written essay is usually an argumentative text on a theme. UFSM offers also a serial admission program, called PEIES, which consists of a multiple-choice exam applied at the end of each of the three years of Brazilian high school, plus a written essay only in the third year. UFSM was the first university in Brazil to adopt such a program, through which 20% of all the undergraduate students are admitted. UFSM's vestibular and PEIES are both prepared and administered by Coperves. In 2011, the most competitive course was Medicine, with over 96 candidates per opening. Since 2015, vestibular was replaced by "SISU", a national wide selection system for general university entrance, as it happens to most of federal universities on the country.
* the ' — Coordination of Secondary and Technical Education offers 4 other undergraduation courses at the Campus of Santa Maria:
Technology on Cooperative Management, Technology on Geoprocessing, Technology on Mechanical Fabrication, and Technology on Computer Network;
* the Unidade Descentralizada de Ensino Superior de Silveira Martins — Descentralized Unit of Higher Education of Silveira Martins offers 4 undergraduate courses at the Campus of Silveira Martins:
They are administered by UFSM's Coordenadoria de Ensino Médio e Tecnológico' — Coordination of Secondary and Technical Education''. The schools offer the plain high school syllabus, plus optional vocational education.
Paleontology
UFSM is a center for studies of paleontology, since the city of Santa Maria sits on a deposit of fossils. It is considered an important institution of Paleorrota.
