The secret to hunting for scholarships to the world's top universities

Focus on expressing yourself

How to prepare the best application, compete with thousands of other excellent applications from many countries around the world to conquer billion-dollar scholarships from the world's top universities is a question that many students are interested in and asked the guests at the talk show "Footsteps on a journey of a thousand miles".

Sharing at the discussion, Le Tue Chi, a student at the Specialized Language High School, University of Foreign Languages, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, who just won a scholarship worth 8 billion VND to Harvard University, said that a profile that clearly shows one's own personality is very important. Although she participated in many extracurricular activities, Chi only prepared her profile in the middle of grade 11, quite late compared to many of her friends. However, because she had determined her passion, Chi's extracurricular activities all focused on a cultural and artistic theme, and that helped her profile to be easier when the activities were consistent.

Tue Chi believes that through a consistent profile, the admissions board can see that the candidate has a clear direction, is focused and persistent in pursuing the subject, and this will be an advantage in increasing the profile score.

This is also the experience of Nguyen Khanh Ly, a 12th grade English 1 student at Hanoi National University of Education High School for the Gifted. Ly has just been admitted to Yale University, one of the 8 universities in the Ivy League - the top universities in the US, with a scholarship worth 8.9 billion VND. Ly has dreamed of studying abroad since 9th grade, but she said that, unlike Tue Chi, she is quite vague about her true passion. Therefore, Ly's extracurricular activities are also diverse in many fields. Only when she was in 11th grade, determined to apply for a scholarship, understanding that the application needs to focus on highlighting a bright spot of herself, did Ly realize that she needed to spend time to learn more about herself.

“I look back on my entire learning process and realize that since elementary school, I have loved history, and I determined that my love for history would be the main color in my profile and I would focus on extracurricular activities on the topic of history and diplomacy,” Ly shared.

Determining the main color for the profile also helped Khanh Ly overcome difficulties in writing essays when she found ideas and inspiration from her grandfather's diary about his days on the battlefield.

For Le Bao Duy, a student majoring in Physics at Hanoi National University of Education High School for the Gifted, the most outstanding point in his profile is his confidence through a series of cultural activities he has participated in since grade 6, when he was a student at Cau Giay Secondary School. With that confidence and outstanding academic achievements, Duy successfully won a scholarship worth 7.8 billion VND from Bucknell University, USA.

Confidently conquer top universities

Besides preparing documents, how to get high scores in international English certification exams and SAT exams is a question that many students ask the speakers.

Answering this question, Nguyen Thu Binh, a student at Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, said that the first thing is to spend a lot of time studying on your own. Thu Binh scored 9.0 on the IELTS test on her first try, achieved an SAT score of 1,560/1,600 points, and just won a scholarship worth 6.2 billion VND from Hamilton College (USA).

Since middle school, Binh has read classic novels in English to expand his vocabulary, such as Harry Potter, Don Quixote, Les Misérables, etc. In high school, Binh started writing stories in English to improve his writing skills. To practice speaking, Binh chatted with family and friends in English. “Finding friends with the same passion to practice speaking is very important,” Binh shared. According to Binh, the most difficult of all skills is writing. To write well, you need to practice writing a lot and accumulate vocabulary to be able to use it correctly and fluently.

Sharing his experience with his juniors, Binh said that he had encountered many difficulties when he was too passionate about English and neglected the other subjects. After that, Binh had to work very hard to make up for lost knowledge to be able to pass the transfer exam. “Study regularly and allocate time reasonably for each subject to achieve the best results,” Binh advised.

Le Bao Duy also advised to allocate time appropriately. According to Duy, to have a good profile, students need to participate in extracurricular activities but still have to balance between extracurricular activities and studying to get good grades.

Passing on the inspiration to her juniors, Khanh Ly said that when she applied for a scholarship to Yale University, she was very hesitant because this is a top university in the world and there were so many excellent students from all over the world with applications, but Ly was successful.

“We always think that top universities like Harvard and Yale are terrible, but really, as long as you know who you are, what you want, have passion and devote yourself to that passion, success will come,” Khanh Ly said./.