Because the Brazilian educational system is very similar to the American, Brazilian exchange students can spend time studying at American high schools without disrupting their matriculation at home. Secondary education requires 2,200 hours of actual school work and is divided into a minimum of three grades. The majority of Brazilian university students in the U.S. come for postgraduate degrees. In 1995 there were 5,497 Brazilian university students in the United States. University students receive institutional support as well as funding from the Brazilian and American governments.
Brazil ranks twelfth among countries of origin of foreign scholars in the United States.
The Chair of the Department of Economics at the University of Chicago, Jos Sheinkman, is a Brazilian. American scholars such as archaeologist Anna Roosevelt at The Field Museum, Chicago, contribute to research in Brazil. In 1996, Roosevelt's team discovered in a cave in the Amazon new evidence of ancient human cultures dating back some 11,000 years. In the last few years many Brazilian artists have had shows in the major museums of the United States. D.C. In 1991 the Museum of Modern Art in New York mounted a major exhibit of the work of Brazilian master landscape architect, Roberto Burle Marx's breathtaking range from small-scale private gardens to large public works.