No IELTS, ‘farmer’s daughter’ still won a PhD scholarship

Nguyen Thi Hoa (born in 1996, hometown of Thanh Van, Thanh Oai, Hanoi) has just won a full PhD scholarship at RWTH Aachen University (Germany) without any English certificates.

Attend village school to ‘walk fast’

Nguyen Thi Hoa said that from a young age, she only attended the village school to “walk to school quickly”. When I went to high school, I chose to attend Thanh Oai A High School for the same reason that it was “near home”, even though this was the school with the lowest entrance score in the district.

Self-identified as strong in natural subjects, she likes to study Math, but Hoa could not get into the school’s math competition team. That year, when she was in grade 11, the Physics team was short of people, and Hoa was recommended by a Physics teacher: “Let’s take the Physics exam”. Not on any team right now, seeing this as an opportunity to try her hand at Physics, Hoa nodded.

That year, Hoa brought home the consolation prize. At the beginning of the 12th grade, the teacher again selected me to be on the team for the Physics competition. This time, I went to the city competition for excellent students but didn’t get the prize.

Although she did not win the prize, her love for Physics was rekindled in little Nguyen Thi Hoa. At the end of grade 12, Hoa chose to apply for admission to Physics (international standard program) of the University of Natural Sciences, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

Hoa is an alumnus of the University of Natural Sciences, Vietnam National University, Hanoi

The choice is like that, but entering the first year of university, Hoa was “overwhelmed”. In particular, English makes it difficult for Hoa to keep up with her classmates.

“The first semester, my final score was only 2.32. In the second semester, fortunately there were some subjects related to Math, I regained my confidence and the final score of the second semester was 3.6″, Hoa recalled.

In her major, Hoa chose to study Theoretical Physics and Mathematical Physics with the thought of “studying Physics and learning Math at the same time”. At the end of 4 years of university, Hoa went on to study for a master’s degree in Physics to go deeper into her favorite major.

At the beginning of 2019, through friends, knowing the research direction of Mr. Nguyen The Toan (Dean of Physics Department, Director of the Key Laboratory of Multi-scale Computational Science for Complex Systems), Hoa bravely I met the teacher to ask for a job in the laboratory.

During her graduate school, Hoa maintained her job as a tutor to earn extra income. I once received an offer to teach at a private high school, but I refused because I wanted to devote myself to graduate studies and research.

Surprise study abroad scholarship

“If you don’t go study abroadMaybe after completing my master’s degree in Physics, I will teach at a high school,” Hoa said.

The PhD scholarship in Germany came to Hoa unexpectedly when one day in early October 2021, Mr. Nguyen The Toan forwarded to Hoa information about scholarships from international partners. Reading the information, feeling that the scholarship was quite close to the research direction she was doing, Hoa boldly “applyed”.

By mid-November 2021, I received the news that I had been accepted for a scholarship and began to prepare documents to study abroad. Hoa officially set foot in Germany in mid-February 2022, studying at RWTH Aachen University. This school also arranged for me to do research at the IAS-5/INM-9 institute in Forschungszentrum, Juelich to complete my doctoral thesis.

Until now, the girl “a real farmer’s daughter” still sees everything happening so fast, like a dream. I have never “apply” for a scholarship to study abroad, I don’t have any English qualifications like IELTS or TOEFL; I only have English since university days,…”.

On the day of the interview, in contrast to Hoa’s anxiety, the “try to understand” of the interview board made Hoa feel more confident.

“They ask a lot: Theoretical physics, statistics, quantum mechanics, … The question with many problems is very broad but actually all the knowledge in the university. Many questions I don’t understand, when asked again, they are ready to repeat, even type the question and send it via chat,” Hoa said.

The time to “apply” the scholarship is also when Hoa is often at home. Knowing about their daughter’s high aspirations, Hoa’s parents were worried, because: “Why do we have money to study abroad, son?”. Only when Hoa Bao announced that she had won a scholarship and confirmed that she could study abroad without spending money, Hoa’s parents were at ease.

Talking about pursuing basic science and opportunities after graduation, Hoa shared: “I think if you study well, keep pursuing your passion, there is no shortage of opportunities for development. Opportunities come very suddenly at times we never thought of ourselves.”

Hoa is also grateful to the University of Natural Sciences for helping her have a solid foundation in natural sciences, and Thanh Oai A High School – where “low input but not low output” helped her meet her friends. enthusiastic and dedicated teachers. These teachers have created a springboard to help me become more stable and mature on future journeys.

Hoai Huong