hello everyone, i know this has been discussed on the subreddit before, but i believe my situation is different enough that it warrants a separate post because there is a lot of detail that i either do not understand fully, or just can not find all together,i apologize in advance for the length of the post, here's my situation:
i am an Egyptian national, with an Egyptian passport, i am 20 years old, and im currently finishing my first year studying business at the university of Alexandria, and planning to major in MIS (management of information systems) as it's the closest thing to Data Science that my high school degree allowed (73.9% overall).
i plan to study Data Science at the university of buenos aires, to hopefully settle and build a life there, and eventually get a citizenship, in other words this is a long term plan and i don't mind starting a new degree from scratch if it means im gonna have a better future. i believe argentina is my best chance to get out of egypt and that i can truly thrive and be a valuable member of society there.
i just started learning Spanish a little under two weeks ago, and im planning to apply to UBA once i reach a high enough proficiency, ideally i would like to be there by the end of 2028 or early 2029 at the latest (to avoid having to do a year of mandatory military service...), now my biggest concern isn't really the language, as i believe i can get to at least a b2 level by that time or even earlier, but rather the application process itself, as there are a lot of details that aren't clear to me for my situation specifically and i don't know anyone who did it before.
now here's the parts of the application process that are confusing to me, i know some of them might seem very straight forward to you but i personally have no experience with anything remotely close to this and i want to make sure i don't screw anything up.
i know im going to need a Spanish proficiency certificate, and to translate my highschool degree and get it apostilled, that is fairly straight forward, however here's where i believe the biggest room for error is and where i need the most help:
do i apply on the university's website first and then use the acceptance letter to apply for the student visa? or do i start the visa process first? i know that the school year starts around march and that application closes at the end of november, and i know that visa applications take a lot of time, so would i realistically be able to use my acceptance letter to apply for my student visa and actually receive said visa before march? or do i start the visa process first then present the visa along with the rest of my documents to the university? and if so, how early do i apply for the student visa? and would they even approve me if i don't have an acceptance letter??
furthermore, i know that i have to do something called a CBC before being able to do my actual degree that im going for, but, do i apply for the course that i want to study (in this case Data Science) and they just make me do the CBC first, or do i have to apply for the CBC first then apply for the actual course that i want next year?
also some miscellaneous questions that i have, how much of an impact are my highschool grades going to have here? is it possible that i get rejected because of how bad they are? furthermore, can i present my grades in my current university as proof that i am indeed a dedicated student (i have a 3.75 GPA in my first semester so far)? or would that be too unrelated since im starting a completely separate degree?
im very sorry if i sound like an idiot i promise im not, if anyone can help with any of these questions or has any other useful information please do help me i will be very thankful ❤️