3 years of conquering the full scholarship of the 'poor but stubborn' girl

 3 years of conquering the full scholarship of the 'poor but stubborn' girl

Thuy Linh once "swallowed tears" refused many partial support, before winning a full scholarship in Europe.

At the beginning of September, Bui Thi Thuy Linh, 25, completed her unfinished business in Vietnam to go to Italy to study. In the next two years, the Thanh Hoa girl will study the Master of Economics program on Globalization and European Integration under the Erasmus Mundus full scholarship, worth about 47,000 USD (about 1.3 billion VND). "I took a very long road, even a detour to get here," Linh said.

Thuy Linh has been interested in Economics since she was a high school student. She is impressed with the financial and economic analysis programs on television. Moreover, Linh believes that she studies natural and social subjects relatively evenly, if according to economics, she has the opportunity to apply a combination of reasoning and calculation. Therefore, despite the family's encouragement in the field of education, Linh still chose the Investment Economics major of the National Economics University.

Determining the goal of studying abroad early, the girl born in 1996 focused on achieving high academic scores (GPA). Linh also participates in scientific research and extracurricular activities to gain experience.

Bui Thi Thuy Linh, a former student of the National Economics University, is currently studying for a master's degree under an Erasmus Mundus scholarship in Italy. Photo: Character provided

Bui Thi Thuy Linh, a former student of the National Economics University, is currently studying for a master's degree under an Erasmus Mundus scholarship in Italy. Photo: Character provided

In 2018, Thuy Linh graduated from the National Economics University with an excellent degree, at the top of her class. Full of energy, possessing impressive achievements and having experience in participating in international collaborative research projects, Linh hopes to soon achieve her goal of studying abroad. However, things did not go well.

That same year, Linh applied for the Erasmus Mundus scholarship's Models and Methods of Quantitative Economics program. She has known about this European scholarship since she was in university. "Compared to other programs, Erasmus Mundus is a merit-based scholarship that emphasizes academic ability, suitable for those pursuing economic studies like me," she said.

After two months of waiting, Linh received an email saying that she had passed the job and was supported 75% of the tuition fee. However, Linh's parents are teachers in the countryside, their income is barely enough to live on, and cannot pay the rest. She knows that if she opens her mouth, her parents are still ready and find ways to support, but Linh does not want to create more financial burden for the family. Therefore, the young girl always told herself "must win a full scholarship".

After Erasmus Mundus, Linh won another partial scholarship from Taiwan but had to refuse. At that time, Thuy Linh was psychologically affected quite badly.

To find a balance, she had to apply for an online job from home for a month. During that time, Linh understands that each person will have their own "timeline", no need to feel too pressured or rushed when friends study abroad earlier. She is determined to conquer Erasmus Mundus once more.

However, when she returned to the program Quantitative Analytical Methods and Models in Economics the following year, Linh's results were no different from the first time. Having experienced the feeling of failure once, she faced it more calmly. After many days of researching the reason, Linh realized that the winners of this program's full scholarships all have national and international math prizes or math certificates. Meanwhile, her achievement in Math in college was not really outstanding.

Thuy Linh (first row, third from right) at the conference on Big data and online pricing at Swansea University, UK, 2018. Photo: Supplied

Thuy Linh (first row, third from right) at the conference on Big data and online pricing at Swansea University, UK, 2018. Photo: Supplied

Finding the cause, Thuy Linh continued to wait for another year, studied a pre-master's course to improve her capacity, and moved to a master's program in Economics on Globalization and European Integration. With the main essay, Linh said that countries invest a lot of FDI in Vietnam, helping to improve export capacity but labor productivity has not improved, still among the lowest in Asia. This is a paradox. She expressed her desire to study this issue in depth as well as pursue economic research to serve society.

The essay was developed by Thuy Linh based on the research done and the ideas built in the previous submissions. With three years of experience in preparation, she believes that essays do not need to be too long or use a lot of academic and fancy words. How to write an essay with a moderate capacity, simple for readers to grasp the problem is what candidates need to do.