Five international high schools in Hanoi worked together to bring 150 universities from 19 different countries together. On Monday our Grades 11 and 12 students attended workshops and met with university reps at Olympia High School in order to learn firsthand what opportunities are available to them. 

Students learned about co-op programmes in Canada and that the quality of education at most Canadian universities will be similar. Students who met with European business schools discovered that there is a 95% employment rate post-graduation.

For those students who attended sessions focused on the application process, they left understanding that for the UK the essay should be largely 75-85% academic, whereas for the US they are more interested in their authentic voice and learning about who they are as a person.

As one student said, “ It’s important to make the essay personal and show your duality rather than take it as another opportunity to list your grades.”  Another student commented, “I find it interesting that most US universities are flexible in changing the majors after the first year, which gave me a better understanding of the process and made me not so worried about picking the right major now.”

It was especially exciting to hear from the art students who now understand how important the portfolio is and how universities will focus more on the process they took to create the art, even more so than the final product. For some students, they had an opportunity to actually create a new product, thus better understanding the design process.