Giang, 24, recently secured a full scholarship for a PhD in Strategy and Policy at the National University of Singapore, ranked 8th in the 2026 QS World University Rankings.

Additionally, she was accepted and awarded scholarships for master’s and PhD programs at eight other universities, including a VND7 billion scholarship for a PhD in Economics at a French university and a tuition-free master’s in Economics at Tilburg University (the Netherlands).

Growing up in Thuong Hiep, a traditional tailoring village in Hanoi, Giang said most young people in her hometown usually return to the village to take up the craft after finishing school. According to local beliefs, this job offers a stable income, and sometimes even higher than that of an office job.

“Even my parents didn’t support me studying far from home, as they thought more education wouldn’t guarantee a higher salary than the trade. So, I hadn’t initially envisioned studying abroad,” Giang said.

It wasn’t until she entered university, meeting peers and professors, that Giang found inspiration and new perspectives.

Admitted to the advanced program in International Economics at the Foreign Trade University, she was initially “shocked” by her highly accomplished classmates.

“Most were either directly admitted or qualified through combined admissions with language certificates, with many holding IELTS scores of 7.5-8.0,” Giang recalled.

Her English proficiency was just equivalent to IELTS 4.0, and the 100 percent English-taught program overwhelmed her.

Having topped her class for 12 years, finding herself among the weakest at university unsettled Giang. Instead of faltering, this spurred her to change.

Struggling with listening and speaking, Giang devoted most of her time to reading specialized materials and practicing academic writing.

Sacrificing extracurricular activities to focus on studies, within one semester, she caught up with her peers, achieving a GPA of 3.9/4.0, ranking in the top 5 percent of her faculty. By her second year, she scored 7.0/9.0 on the IELTS.

With stronger English, Giang joined projects to learn research methods, reshaping her mindset and clarifying her study abroad goals.

A turning point came in her third year during a six-month exchange at the University of Mannheim (Germany). There, she engaged with a dynamic academic environment and professors who were leading experts with publications in top international journals.

“The professors shared up-to-date, practical knowledge. Those experiences solidified my resolve to pursue higher education in economics after graduation,” Giang said.

Upon graduating university, Giang was accepted into a combined master’s and PhD program at Institut Polytechnique de Paris (France), ranked in the global top 50. Simultaneously, she received an offer to work as a research assistant at the Asian Development Bank.

Given two options, she decided to stay overseas, seeing it as the perfect place to sharpen her research abilities and grow her academic network.

Securing master’s and PhD admissions at nine universities

However, her dream of studying abroad persisted. While working, she prepared her study abroad applications, a period she described as “constantly overwhelming.”

“To balance everything, I made weekly to-do lists and regularly reassessed tasks to adjust accordingly,” Giang recalled.

She began preparing her applications in November 2024, after she graduated with a GPA of 3.94/4.0. Though she didn’t have international publications, she believed this didn’t ‘weaken’ her application.

“The key is to highlight critical thinking and research skills through project experience and handling diverse data,” she commented.

This was further supported by a recommendation letter from a professor at Rutgers University, a strategy expert at ADB. The letter’s credibility was a vital asset in her application.

In her essay, Giang explained her choice of Strategy and Management. Growing up in a traditional tailoring village, she observed challenges to sustainability like waste, air pollution, and economic growth outpacing educational development, as parents encouraged children to stay and work in the village.

Now in Singapore, preparing for her first PhD year, Giang aims to focus on her studies and seize research opportunities to successfully complete her program in four years.

Thuy Nga