Nguyen Phuong Anh

In February 2017, when she was in Vietnam on holiday after graduating from Franklin & Marshall College, Anh received the news that two prestigious US schools offered her full doctoral scholarships.

The University of California in San Diego, in top 44, and University of Massachusetts in Amherst, in top 74, both granted full scholarships worth $50,000-60,000 a year (more than VND1 billion) to study English literature. The Massachusetts school also offered a special amount of money to fund her studies and teaching.

Thousands of people apply for these scholarships, especially from the schools in the top 50.

Anh, who is from Hanoi, has also been granted a full master’s scholarship from Georgetown University, a school in the top 20.

Nguyen Phuong Anh has turned down two scholarships for doctoral study and decided to study first for a master’s degree in English literature in the US.

Besides the scholarship worth $40,000, or more than VND900 million a year, Georgetown University will also pay Anh for work at an office related to plagiarism and cheating on exams.

Amid great opportunities, Anh decided to study English literature for a master’s degree at Georgetown University. The girl plans to continue her study for a doctorate after obtaining the master’s degree and believes the degree granted by Georgetown would help her obtain a doctoral scholarship from prestigious schools.

“I want to study for a doctorate and become a professor, which is a very difficult thing in the US, especially for international students like me. However, the college experience shows that I am capable of doing this. I am the only foreign student in the English Literature faculty,” Anh said.

Graduating from the Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, the most prestigious school in Hanoi, Anh was granted scholarships by seven colleges in the US. She finally chose Franklin & Marshall College which allows students to try many courses in different majors before they find their real passion and make a decision on which major to choose.

Anh studied business in the first two years before she shifted to English literature, which she has loved since childhood.

When Anh was a first year student, she won a prize for promising writer from Franklin & Marshall College. 

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