Financial Aid (Ajuda de Custo) em cursos onlines

22 de junho de 2019; 5 minutos de leitura

Na internet existe muito material de qualidade, mas é muito difícil encontra-los consolidados de forma que basta estudar e não ficar procurando muita coisa adicional.

Esses são os MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), também conhecidos como cursinhos online - há, pensou que eu ia traduzir o acrônimo não é?

Se você, como eu, tem muita gana de aprender, mas infelizmente está na época das vacas magras, existe, agora felizmente, uma solução para nós! O Financial Aid, ou ajuda de custo/bolsa de estudos, banca o determinado curso pra você de maneira gratuita, e garantindo um prazo generoso de geralmente 180 dias para completar o curso.

Logo abaixo vou colocar alguns textos que escrevi para solicitar a ajuda de custo. Tanto no site da Cursera qunato a edX, possuem a seção para solicitar, e têm excelentes cursos das mais diversas áreas disponibilizados por ótimas instituições, vide CS50 de Harvard ou Machine Learning da univerdade de Stanford.

Note que explicitamente a solicitação deve ser sincera e não simplesmente para economizar uns trocados uma vez que os cursos são relativamente baratos pela qualidade que possuem. Com 120 reais por exemplo, você consegue tirar a certificação CS50 disponibilizada pela uni de Harvard. Imagine só pagar por algo similar presencial? Minha carteira até doeu.

Sem mais delongas seguem os textos, lembrando que não basta copiar e colar, são de caráter pessoal e devem representar sua situação atual, fora que são avaliados por pessoas.

Curso de Machine Learning – Stanford University na plataforma Cursera

Why are you applying for Financial Aid? (150 words minimum required)

Currently I am a student in Brazil taking Computer Science classes at a private university. Now I have no job to be able to afford the expenses of new courses since all the money I have saved in my two years job working as a phone technical support is now being used to pay for my university fees.

The minimum wage here is about 313$ dollars, my university costs 200$ and going up each semester, so I cannot pay for the certificate if I sum up all my needs like food and rent. I get some help from my family but sometimes is not enough. We have a job crisis here in Brazil, so almost all jobs have very low pay, and if I take it, I risk not being able to study, which is my priority.

With financial aid, I would be able to complete the course without impact in my savings so my studies can continue.

How will taking this course help you achieve your career goals? (150 words minimum required)

I want to work with is artificial intelligence and machine learning because it is the job of the future.

After a lot of research, this is the best course I found and everyone that I see whom works or study with machine learning advises to enroll in it. Currently I am at week five, studying hard to be able to keep up with the deadlines. For my BS in Computer Science, my thesis work will be related to machine learning, and this course will help me a lot to achieve my dream job and complete my graduation.

After completing this course, I plan to pursue other courses, like deep learning and genetic algorithms. Moreover, when I complete my bachelors, I plan to apply to a master’s degree in another country. In addition, the verified certificate increases my credibility on the subject, further prospecting my chances of getting a good internship.

Deep Learning Specialization - Curso 1 - deeplearning.ai

Why are you applying for Financial Aid? (150 words minimum required)

Currently I am a student in Brazil taking Computer Science classes at a private university. Since my last financial aid application, I have managed to study a lot on machine learning, but I still got no job and I can not pay for this specialization now.

All the money I managed to save on my previous job is almost gone so I’m dependent on my parents to continue paying for my university and living fees. Getting a part-time job here in Brazil is very difficult, we are almost recovering from the financial crisis but is very difficult even getting to an interview.

Since I am now at half completion of my degree the prospects of getting an internship this year is great, but I can’t afford to stop studying. With the financial aid, I would be able to complete the course and it will be a big addition to my resume so I can get my dream internship.

How will taking this course help you achieve your career goals? (150 words minimum required)

My biggest dream is to get a job within artificial intelligence and machine learning in a big company. So, I’ve spent more than a year by now, studying hard to get to it.

Studying is important to me, and I plan to continue doing it more and more and then share it all back to those in the same situation as me.

I have finished the base machine learning course by Andrew NG with financial aid, and now I am looking forward to the Deep Learning specialization, where I will learn a lot more on neural networks and I will continue to write my thesis on genetic algorithms all thanks to the free online courses available on the internet.

This course along with the machine learning course will help me greatly achieving my dream data science career, and after my degree in computer science is completed, I will pursue my master’s degree abroad.