In September 2018, Fulbright University Vietnam launched the admission application for the inaugural class of 2019-2023. Since then, Fulbright’s team embarked on the second school tour across Vietnam to introduce the undergraduate program, recruit students, and help them start their admissions applications.
Following the previous year, during the admission recruitment period, Fulbright embarked on a school tour across Vietnam to visit high school students in the country.
We are able to meet students and learn from their perspectives. During the school tour, we found many students with strong potential, diamonds in the rough, and learned about their dreams. These are things that no school reports, certifications, or awards can convey.
And more importantly, this school tour is not a one-way street. This is also a chance for the students to understand more about Fulbright before making their decision: Is this really a suitable university for me? This is the chance for the students to listen to their innermost aspirations and follow their dreams instead of their parents’ dreams, or the current trend.
“Right now I am still unsure of what I want to do in the future but I wish I have the chance to try and explore as many things as possible to find out what I really want,” said Bich, a 12th grader majoring in English at Lao Cai’s Gifted High School. In fact, many students Fulbright met during the school tour shared the same concern: Who am I? What do I really want to do in life? Should I make sure that I am guaranteed a job in the future or should I pursue my life-long dream?
Ms. Nguyen Thi Van Khanh, an English teacher at Lao Cai’s Gifted High School, still remembers a remarkable young student. He loved the arts, but under the pressure of his parents, he chose to study a major that he did not like at a popular university. Whenever Ms. Khanh and this student meet, he tells her he still regrets the decision he made.
“If only there was a university like Fulbright back in those days, where students could have the chance to explore different things before committing to one specific major, it would have been better,” Ms. Khanh shared.
Le Nguyen Thien Huong, a Senior Admissions Associate at Fulbright shared, “Those days that we visited the schools are the hardest days but they are the most meaningful during Fulbright’s admission period.”
Through these visits, we meet many different students from various provinces of the country; we listened to unique stories from students with unique backgrounds. These are moments that I look forward to the most during the admissions period because only these students could bring diversity to the Fulbright community.”
After two months, Fulbright visited almost 50 high schools in more than 40 provinces and cities in Vietnam, from the northern mountainous provinces like Lao Cai and Lang Son, to the Red river Delta, to the South East region and the Mekong Delta.
In addition to the school tours, Fulbright conducted eight big Fulbright Fairs in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, Vinh, Hue and Can Tho for admission and outreach. These Fulbright Fairs were organized with different themes and all featured demo classes. Demo classes are a signature aspect of Fulbright University Vietnam’s outreach events. Led by our undergraduate faculty, classes are in English and open to students who are curious about Fulbright’s academics.
