In recent years, university admission criteria have been considerably changed by the introduction by the federal government of a new national secondary school exam known as ENEM ("Exame Nacional do Ensino Médio") and the creation of a unified, national university application system known as SISU ("Sistema de Seleção Unificada"). Candidates in any Brazilian state can now apply for admission into courses available in the SISU system, even if the course of interest is offered by an out-of-state university. Places in any given course within the system are then filled based on the ranking of the applicants in descending order according to their overall grade in the ENEM. The application process is divided into three stages and candidates who fail to get a place in their course/university of interest in a given stage may re-apply either to the same or to a different course/university in subsequent stages.