From Hanoi gifted school rejection to Ivy League: Vietnamese student aces 10 APs to reach Cornell

When Ivy League universities released their admissions results in late March, Nguyen Quang Anh, a student at St. Paul American School Hanoi, sat nervously in front of his computer screen. Having applied to five Ivy League institutions, he had already received rejection notices from four.

Thinking his chances were over, Anh was stunned when he opened the final letter from Cornell University and saw the word “Congratulations.”

“I was overwhelmed,” he recalled.

Cornell, a private Ivy League research university based in New York, is ranked 12th in the 2026 Best National Universities rankings and has an acceptance rate of 8%. In addition to Cornell, Anh was admitted to the University of Southern California and the University of California, San Diego.

Having planned to study abroad since middle school, Anh initially aimed to enter the English-specialized class at Hanoi-Amsterdam High School for the Gifted, but failed the entrance exam.Although disappointed by the setback, he did not dwell on it for long. Instead, he enrolled at St. Paul American School Hanoi and adjusted his academic path.

He went on to take 10 AP courses, which are university-level classes developed by the U.S.-based College Board for high school students.

Focusing primarily on natural sciences such as calculus, environmental science, biology, physics, and chemistry, he earned perfect scores of 5 in four subjects and 4s in the remainder. He also achieved an SAT score of 1540 out of 1600 and an IELTS score of 8.0 while in 11th grade.

Anh said the AP curriculum helped him gain early exposure to university-level coursework and made him realize he was not interested in mechanical engineering, as he had originally planned. Instead, he developed a passion for environmental engineering, a field that applies science to address sustainable development challenges.

Once he identified his intended major, he became more focused on his extracurricular activities rather than spreading himself too thin.

One of the projects he is most proud of involved building a drone to measure air pollution in collaboration with lecturers and students from Thuy Loi (Irrigation & Water Resources) University in mid-2025.

He learned how to assemble drones, study sensors, and program systems to collect environmental data. The experience showed him how drones could be applied to solve practical problems in environmental projects.

“I didn’t join just for the sake of participation. I genuinely wanted to understand solutions for environmental protection and sustainable development,” he said.

Nguyen Quang Anh (L) building a drone to measure air pollution in collaboration with lecturers and students from Thuy Loi University in 2025. Photo courtesy of Anh

Those real-world experiences later became the foundation of his main college admission essay.

Anh recalled opening the essay with a familiar scene in Hanoi: skies blurred by fine dust particles.

From there, he expressed his ambition to study environmental engineering to develop solutions that protect public health while supporting sustainable development goals.

The period leading up to application deadlines was the most stressful, he said, as he had to juggle academics, extracurricular activities, and essay writing, all of which felt urgent.

To cope, he broke tasks into smaller priorities and focused on completing them one at a time. On some days, he devoted himself entirely to essay writing without doing anything else.

Reflecting on his application, Anh believes one of its strongest points was its clear narrative. His essays and activities consistently demonstrated his academic direction and long-term goals in the U.S. He also ensured four of his AP courses were directly related to environmental engineering to better prepare for his university studies.

Gus Marantos, college counselor and AP program coordinator at St. Paul, described Anh as one of the school’s top students because of his curiosity and discipline.

“U.S. universities value students who challenge themselves. Quang Anh proved he could perform at university level even before graduating from high school,” he said.

Anh admitted that failing the gifted school entrance exam was not a failure, but rather an important turning point in his journey.

“As long as you don’t give up, there will always be another path toward your goals,” he said.

After graduating in the U.S., he plans to return to Vietnam and work on sustainable development projects.