Punished for subversion in accordance with the decree number 477, considered the AI-5 of universities, Rousseff was expelled from the Minas Gerais Federal University and barred from resuming her studies at that university in 1973. She decided to attend a preparatory course in order to take the vestibular exam in economics at the Rio Grande do Sul Federal University. She was admitted to the university and graduated in 1977, this time not participating actively in the students' movement there. The year before, in March 1976, she gave birth to her only child, daughter Paula Rousseff Araújo. After graduation, she got her first paid job after serving her prison sentence as an intern at the Foundation of Economics and Statistics (), an organization linked to the government of Rio Grande do Sul.