Female student who was 'worst in English in class' won 5 master's and doctoral scholarships

Once the worst English student in the class, struggling to keep up with the program, but Huong Giang made an effort to "break through" and 6 years later was accepted to 9 top universities in the world for master's and doctoral degrees, including 5 scholarships.

Nguyen Huong Giang (24 years old) recently won a full scholarship for a PhD program in Strategy and Policy at the National University of Singapore, the school ranked 8th in the 2026 QS Ranking of World Universities.

In addition, the female student was also admitted and won scholarships for master's and doctoral programs from 8 other universities, including a 7 billion scholarship for the doctoral program in Economics at the University of Manchester (UK), a full Eiffel scholarship for the master's program in Applied Economics at the Toulouse School of Economics (France), a tuition-free scholarship for the master's program in Economics at Tilburg University (Netherlands)...

Nguyen Huong Giang has just won a full scholarship for the PhD program in Strategy and Policy at the National University of Singapore. Photo: NVCC

Growing up in the traditional sewing village of Thuong Hiep ( Hanoi ), Huong Giang said that most young people in her hometown, after finishing school, often choose to return to their hometown to work. According to the concept of many people here, this job brings a stable income, even higher than "sitting at a desk".

“Even my parents did not support their daughter studying far from home because studying a lot does not necessarily mean a high salary compared to working. Therefore, before that, I did not have a clear picture of the path of studying abroad,” Giang said.

It was not until he entered university and met friends and teachers that Giang felt "inspired" and had many new perspectives.

Passing the entrance exam to the advanced program of Foreign Economics at the Foreign Trade University, at first the female student was "shocked" because her classmates were all excellent.

“Most of the students, if not directly admitted, still passed the exam due to the admission combined with foreign language certificates, so most of them have IELTS 7.5-8.0,” Giang recalls.

Giang's English level at that time was only equivalent to 4.0 IELTS. The study program used 100% English, making it impossible for the female student to keep up.

Having always been at the top of her class for 12 years in high school, entering university and being in the weakest group made Giang confused. But instead of sliding down, this shock made the female student determined to change.

Being "blind" to Listening and Speaking skills, Giang spent most of his time reading specialized documents and practicing academic writing skills.

Accepting to put aside all side activities to focus on studying, after only one semester, Giang caught up with her classmates and achieved a GPA of 3.9/4.0, in the top 5% of the faculty. In her second year, Giang took the IELTS test and achieved a score of 7.0/9.0.

When her English was more solid, Giang began participating in projects to learn scientific research methods. This process helped her change her mindset, from which her goal of studying abroad gradually became clearer.

The turning point for Giang was in her third year, when she participated in a six-month exchange at Mannheim University (Germany). Here, she was exposed to a dynamic academic environment, where the professors were all leading experts in their field, with many publications in leading international journals.

“The professors imparted a lot of knowledge that was very up-to-date and practical. Those experiences strengthened my determination to pursue higher education related to economics after graduation,” Giang shared.

Huong Giang is one of three outstanding students from the Foreign Trade University selected to participate in a discussion with the US Secretary of Agriculture, discussing the role of youth in trade and economic development. Photo: NVCC

Right after graduating from university, Huong Giang received news that she was accepted to a combined master's and doctoral program at Institut Polytechnique de Paris (France) - a school ranked in the top 50 in the world. At the same time, she also received an invitation to work as a research assistant at the Asian Development Bank.

Faced with two opportunities, the female student chose to stay in the country to work because she thought this was an ideal environment for her to improve her research skills and expand her academic network.

Passed master's and doctoral entrance exams at 9 universities

However, Giang’s dream of studying abroad still burned within her. While working, she also started preparing her study abroad application. Looking back on this period, Giang said she “always felt overwhelmed.”

“To balance everything, I often make a weekly to-do list and regularly review the tasks to make appropriate adjustments,” Giang said.

Giang started working on the application in November 2024 - the time he graduated with a GPA of 3.94/4.0. Although there has been no international publication, according to Giang, this does not make the application "weaker".

“It is important that the profile emphasizes thinking ability and research skills through experience in project work and diverse data processing,” Giang shared.

In addition, this was also “confirmed” in a letter of recommendation from a professor at Rutgers University (USA), who is a strategy expert at the Asian Development Bank. The highly prestigious letter from the teacher also became an “important certification” in the Vietnamese female student’s application.

Huong Giang is a former student of Foreign Trade University. Photo: NVCC

In her essay, Giang shared the reasons why she chose to major in Management and Strategy. Growing up in a traditional garment village, Giang realized that there were some issues related to sustainable development such as waste, air pollution, and economic development not going hand in hand with educational development because parents encouraged their children to stay home and work.

These things make Giang worried. Therefore, Giang hopes that his doctoral work will find solutions to help craft villages participate in the global value chain according to a green, circular model.

Admitted to a series of programs at top schools in Singapore, England, France, the Netherlands... Giang decided to choose the National University of Singapore to do her PhD in the next 4 years.

Currently, Giang has gone to Singapore, preparing to enter the first year of her doctorate. During this time, the female student aims to focus on studying, attending conferences to expand connections, and finding research opportunities to be able to successfully complete her doctorate program in 4 years.

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Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/nu-sinh-tung-kem-tieng-anh-nhat-lop-trung-tuyen-thac-si-tien-si-o-9-dai-hoc-2430885.html