Female student wins 10 billion scholarship with essay about sofa photo

The essay recounts the change in perception through a photo of a sofa that helped Cat Nhi get admitted to the University of Chicago, USA, with a scholarship of nearly 10 billion VND.

Tran Cat Nhi, a 12th grader specializing in English at Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted, was mentally prepared to fail the University of Chicago (UChicago). But in mid-December 2023, when   Receiving the school's notification email, the female student from Da Nang was "shocked" and had to ask her mentor to check again.

"After 30 minutes, I realized I passed and received a full scholarship, worth more than 400,000 USD (nearly 10 billion VND) for 4 years," Nhi recalled.

This year, Nhi plans to apply to 20 schools in the US. After being accepted to UChicago in the mandatory early admission round, she had to withdraw all applications from the schools she had submitted.

The student said she liked UChicago because the school has a general education program, which gives her a year to get acquainted and determine whether she really wants to pursue the Economics major she has applied for. UChicago also has an open academic environment and is ranked 11th in the world, according to QS 2024 .

Cat Nhi, a student at Le Quy Don High School for the Gifted, Da Nang. Photo: Provided by the character

Nhi's biggest challenge when applying to UChicago was how to clearly express her message in her essay. The school asked for a creative essay that described the student's best qualities as a writer, thinker, visionary, social critic, philosopher, or global citizen.

UChicago has no word limit, which confused me. The essay started with the saying: "Seeing is believing, hearing is believing." Nhi did not really agree because, in her opinion, even if you hear and touch it, it cannot be considered accurate. The truth must be understood from many different perspectives.

At first, Nhi intended to use the image of a whale and a tuna as an example. Both have quite similar external shapes but are very different inside because one is a mammal and the other is a fish. If you only look at the outside, people will misunderstand. However, realizing that the article was not convincing, Nhi changed direction. The female student decided to tell about a picture of a sofa, thereby talking about her cognitive development.

Nhi once used his phone to take a picture of the sofa in the house. When she zoomed in all the way, she stopped and saw only small green and red squares. She thought the sofa was made of these squares. Nhi later understood that the image was made of pixels, and the sofa was made of molecules in the atomic world.

Nhi realized that her initial perception was not wrong, it was just that things exist from many perspectives. Nhi's essay shows her passion for discovery, constant learning, modesty with her knowledge, open-mindedness, and willingness to accept multi-dimensional perspectives.

In her second essay, Nhi talked about her reasons for applying to the school. She said she wanted to become an environmental economist, researching ways for Vietnam to develop a sustainable economy and minimize environmental damage. She wanted to come to UChicago because of the good training programs, research projects, and job opportunities related to this field of study.

"The two essays were 700-800 words long, had to be revised many times and took a month to complete," Nhi said.

In addition, the female student also sent UChicago a short video, further demonstrating her personality and passion for the school.

Nhi dreamed of studying abroad since middle school, started building her profile, participating in extracurricular activities and preparing for the certificate exam since grade 10. The female student set a goal of maintaining an average score of 9.4 over the years. She also took the IELTS test and got 8.5, SAT 1590/1600. To make her profile more competitive and have a foundation of knowledge in economics, Nhi self-studied three AP subjects (advanced subjects in the US) including Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Statistics, and achieved the maximum score of 5/5.

The student also participated in the CoronaNet project on economic policies during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, a collaboration between professors from Yale University, New York University and the Technical University of Munich. Her task was to collect and analyze information on economic policies. In addition, Nhi also participated in a survey on social enterprises with a doctoral student at Peking University.

In addition to academics, the female student signed up for clubs at school to gain experience, but focused most on the environmental club because it was related to sustainable economic development - the field she wanted to pursue. Nhi has organized many activities to promote, provide knowledge, and collect batteries and paper.

Cat Nhi and her friends at Le Quy Dong High School for the Gifted, Da Nang. Photo: Provided by the character

As Nhi’s advisor, Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, a student at Minerva University, was impressed by Nhi’s diligence, intelligence and self-discipline. Tuyet commented that Nhi’s strong profile was the harmony between outstanding academic achievements and extracurricular activities related to her passion, making social contributions and demonstrating high leadership ability.

Upon hearing that Nhi had won the scholarship, Ms. Le Thi Anh Tuyen was proud of her student. Ms. Tuyen is Nhi's 11th grade homeroom teacher and also the person who wrote her letter of recommendation.

According to Ms. Tuyen, Nhi is always at the top of her class in terms of academic achievement, good at English and natural sciences. She won first prize in the city's excellent student competition in Physics, and twice won third prize in English at the Olympic competition in the coastal and northern delta regions. Recently, she won first prize in the city in English.

"Nhi is a person with a plan, knows clearly what to do to achieve her goals. She is very deserving," said Ms. Tuyen.

Nhi will go to the US to study next August. From her experience, Nhi believes that if you decide to study abroad, you need to be proactive in everything, study for the SAT as soon as possible, take AP courses and possibly take the IELTS exam at the end of grade 11.

Dawn

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