Female college entrance students have the world’s top ‘match rate’ with no essay resumes

Thuc Quyen (SN 2004) was very surprised when she received the announcement of her acceptance, because according to Quyen, the female student signed up just because of “random”. Before that, Quyen knew that the school had a very low pass rate, even lower than the top universities in the US such as Harvard, Stanford…

In addition to Minerva University, Thuc Quyen also won scholarships to SP Jain (Australia), Coe College, Gettysburg College and Augustana College (USA).

“Rekindling” the dream of studying abroad from a young age

Quyen shared, from a young age, Quyen loved to explore, love to experience, and wanted to go here and there to learn new things and cultures of people on the other side of the globe.

“At first it was just a pretty far-fetched picture in my head, but then I started to work hard day by day to get closer to those goals. When I entered Quoc Hoc Hue High School for the Gifted, I felt that everything gradually became clear, and opportunities gradually opened up for me”, Quyen shared.

In the summer of 11th grade, Quyen began to prepare applications for scholarships to several American universities. Despite having a GPA of 9.0/10 and an impressive IELTS score of 8.0, due to the family’s unsatisfactory financial conditions, Quyen’s application was repeatedly put on the “waiting list”.

4 days of exam preparation and 10 days of rushing to prepare documents

While waiting for the results of other universities, Quyen “randomly” applied for admission to Minerva University.

“Because Minerva University’s admission method is completely different from that of American universities, I hardly did a lot of pre-review, only spent about 4 days studying. At that time, there were only 10 days left until the application deadline for that examination, so I had to prepare in a hurry.”

Just completed the Minerva application and the application to other universities in the RD admission (the usual application deadline for US universities), while studying for the semester exam at school. Therefore, female students feel quite pressured.

“I had to take a break from school to prepare my application. Living in a dorm, sharing a room with 8 other friends, so I can’t really concentrate. You have to choose when you go to school, or when you sleep around one or two in the morning to study for the exam. After submitting the application, I was hospitalized for two days,” the female student recalled.

Although there were only 10 days left, Quyen allocated her time reasonably and prepared everything very carefully.

Unlike the admission method of other universities, Minerva does not require results of standardized tests (such as SAT, ACT or AP) or foreign language certificates (such as IELTS, TOEFL,…). Instead, the school will organize a computer-based competition, consisting of 3 parts and 6 challenges, a comprehensive test from IQ to EQ, to assess the candidate’s ability comprehensively and most honest. 6 challenges focus on assessing the candidate’s thinking through the tests: Understanding, Math, Creativity, Reasoning, Writing, Expression question).

Although the exam sections are not too difficult, the female student considers this form of admission an opportunity for her to show all aspects of herself. The Expression exam made Quyen most excited. In this contest, Quyen showed her optimism and positive energy by sharing her past life experiences as well as future plans.

Besides, extracurricular activities are also an extremely important factor to help “beautify” the profile. Quyen believes that she really has “scored” in the eyes of the admissions officers because of her rich and outstanding series of extra-curricular activities: Vietnamese Ambassador of Global Playground, Vice President of Humans of Quoc Hoc, Head of the committee. Media at Quoc Hoc Model United Nations, member of Bulb organization, … participating in many big clubs in the school; won many awards: Bronze medal in essay contest “The Queen’s Commonwealth”, first prize in “Provincial Science and Engineering Fair”, second prize in English speaking contest “English in Provincial Merit”,…

“When participating in extracurricular activities, each person should have at least 2 activities that they can wholeheartedly engage in, for a long time, because admissions officers will pay more attention to quality than quantity. . You should focus on developing your personal projects, and when you have accumulated a lot of experience, you should “hunt” for activities of great international influence because of Small actions don’t really help much.”

Quyen also added: “However, at first, we should also try ourselves with many different extracurricular activities, because thanks to that, we will know what we are really suitable for, to come up with new ideas. better choice”.

As a student at a special school, studying in school is also quite heavy, so Quyen also has many difficulties in balancing between studying and participating in extracurricular activities. According to Quyen, having a specific plan for each of her steps is always the most important thing. Quyen often uses Bullet Journal and Notion apps to take notes, plan and track activities and goals closely.

The female student also receives the support of family, friends, and teachers. Quyen shared: “I still remember that night, when there was only about 1 hour left to submit the financial documents, my sisters still tried to stay up late to fill out with me, even though I was not good at English.”

Quyen feels grateful to her parents for always supporting her decision, even though the learning model at Minerva is still quite new: “I know many friends who have a dream to study abroad but their parents don’t agree. I feel extremely fortunate that my parents have given me the freedom to choose my future path.”

Thuc Quyen has registered to study dual majors of Business (Business) and Computer Science (Computer Science).

Mai Tra Giang

Photo: NVCC