Admitted to 12 schools in the US, Nguyen Thao Anh chose the only school that did not offer scholarships but helped her satisfy her passion for art.
Thao Anh, a former 12th grade student of English 1 at Hanoi - Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, completed her university application in early May. She was accepted to 17 schools in the UK, US and Japan.
In the US alone, 11 schools offered him scholarships, the highest being $46,500 (nearly 1.1 billion VND) a year, granted for 5 years, from Tufts University - ranked 32nd in the US News 's American university rankings.
However, Thao Anh decided to study at Rhode Island School of Design - RISD. This is the third school in the world for Art and Design training, and also the number 1 art school in the US, according to QS 2023.
"If I studied at other schools, I would study design and then work mainly according to customer requirements. But what I want is the freedom to create and practice art, so I chose RISD," Thao Anh shared.
With this choice, her family will have to pay more than 80,000 USD (1.8 billion VND) in tuition and living expenses per year. This school does not offer scholarships to international students.
Thao Anh in a yearbook photo featuring the red background of Hanoi - Amsterdam students. Photo: Provided by the character
Thao Anh was sent by her mother to study many art subjects from a young age and soon showed her talent for drawing. At the end of junior high school, her art teacher suggested that she paint for an exhibition to raise funds for charity. Since then, Thao Anh has wanted to study abroad and pursue art at university. From the second semester of grade 11 at Hanoi - Amsterdam school, she has focused on this goal.
Because she applied to schools in many countries, Thao Anh had to do a lot of research because the requirements were different in each place. Among them, the requirements of American universities were usually the highest.
In addition to certificates, letters of recommendation, extracurricular activities, and essays like all students applying for other majors, Thao Anh must prepare an additional art portfolio.
Thao Anh's art portfolio includes 21 works on many topics, from expressing the personality of an introvert, thinking a lot, having difficulty making decisions; to social paintings, introducing the traditional beauty of Vietnam.
"I invested a lot in my art portfolio because it is definitely the deciding factor in whether I get accepted or not," Thao Anh said.
Before starting, Thao Anh spent months watching videos on YouTube for reference. Because she often draws with pencils, crayons, or watercolors, she spent last summer taking classes in pottery, silk painting, lacquer, oil painting, printmaking, and installation art to create paintings from various materials, helping her score points in the eyes of admissions officers.
Learning more things means Thao Anh has to spend a lot of time and effort to learn and practice. For example, when learning lacquer painting, she sat every day in a workshop with a corrugated iron roof, no air conditioning and a strong smell of paint in the lacquer craft village of Ha Thai, Thuong Tin district.
For a girl who grew up in the heart of the capital, these tasks are somewhat difficult. However, the hardest thing for Thao Anh is finding new ideas and finding ways to make her work bring emotions to viewers. For a silk painting, it takes her more than 100 hours to complete.
"When I first watched it on Youtube, I thought that creating beautiful paintings was enough. But the more I watched, the more I realized that putting ideas and stories into the paintings was more important," Thao Anh said, recognizing that American art schools place great importance on ideas. They also believe that the logic of thinking, stories, and experiences of each student are things that can or cannot be trained, different from knowledge or techniques.
Silk painting in Thao Anh's art portfolio. Video: Character provided
In the art portfolio, in addition to new works with diverse materials, Thao Anh includes some paintings drawn in late 2021 and early 2022.
Based on the suggestion of her art teacher in middle school, Thao Anh and a friend organized a fundraising exhibition to support disadvantaged children in the Northwest region. She and her friend spent a year preparing for this event, from going to Lao Cai to get a real perspective, to having painting ideas and materials to build a fanpage, to creating works and organizing events.
The exhibition with 21 works revolving around people and the lives of ethnic minorities held in April last year attracted many viewers.
Despite the pressure of having a lot of work and worrying that no one would come, Thao Anh overcame it. The exhibition sold out all the paintings and raised nearly 350 million VND. Last summer, the female student and her friends made a charity trip to Lao Cai. With the remaining money from selling the paintings, she is planning to support some children with special difficulties in the form of monthly donations.
The exhibition, which originated from personal desire, helped strengthen the study abroad application. "It is an extracurricular activity that shows the recruiter that you have passion, leadership ability, problem-solving ability and are willing to help the community," Thao Anh commented.
Ms. Hong Vu, who guided Thao Anh in preparing her study abroad application, assessed the female student as diligent, meticulous and always wanting perfection. When writing an essay revolving around the custom of worshipping wandering souls, Thao Anh spent a month attending talk shows, performances, and listening to foreigners talk about this topic to get a multi-dimensional view.
"Combining her artistic ability and existing knowledge, Thao Anh completed a 4-page essay on this issue in English, which is extremely complete and profound," said Ms. Hong.
Coming to the US in August, Thao Anh plans to gain more interdisciplinary knowledge, in addition to developing her art.
"An artist told me that artists are like social activists, needing to know a lot of knowledge about society, history, and philosophy to be able to do well. I also want to become an artist who has a positive influence on the community," Thao Anh said.
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