In this blog, I’ll write about:
- My journey to Germany: I got rejected by DAAD, then get rejected again and again before I got accepted to a Master in Convergent Journalism in Berlin, but I ended up with the MBA program at the University of Leipzig.
- How I got “my own scholarship.”
Update on Dec 13, 2022: I officially finished my Master Degree at Leipzig University with a “Very Good” (in German: Sehr gut) degree.
Four years ago I started to plan my study in Germany. I scanned through all the programs that could be a good fit for me. With my limited financial resources, I put all of my focus only on the programs sponsored by DAAD with the hope that I could get into one of them with a scholarship. In September 2019, I sent my application to the MBA SEPT International Program at the University of Leipzig. For this program, you can apply a bit later but for those who want to apply for the scholarship, the deadline is usually the end of September.
On the first of January 2020 at 6:30pm (Vietnam time), I received a rejection email. It was the first day of the new year. I didn’t get the scholarship. From my guess, one of the reasons is that my career path has little to do with either internationalization of firms or innovation which are the two main focuses of the program. I was extremely sad because my only hope was gone. The door was closed. Just to give you more background information about studying in Germany, schools only accept you to a Master program if your Bachelor degree is in the same field. For example, if I want to study business, I must have a Bachelor degree in business or economics. Me? I have a BA in Linguistics and only this ONE specific program in the whole of Germany accepts students from different backgrounds and I GOT REJECTED.
One might ask why didn’t I apply for a Master in Linguistics? I did. I applied to MA Multilingualism program at the University of Konstanz. But another rejection. Again my guess…one of the reasons could be that I did not write my thesis in my Bachelor…. and instead, I was working on a cultural project. And doing a thesis seems to be a very important part to acquire higher education in Germany. Of course, more than ten years ago when I was still doing my Bachelor, I did not know about it.
I was sad and desperate.
Let’s go back to the journey of preparation for my application. Even though it was a failed attempt, I still want to share about it. Back then I was working in a Tour Operator in Vietnam as a Marketing and Product Supervisor. Everyday started at 7:00am and ended at 11:00pm (earliest): me riding my scooter to work, finishing the work at 6:30pm, heading to german class (every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) or business administration class (every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday), arriving home at 9.30pm, dinner + doing homework and learning Python on Coursera, then going to bed. This is “my everyday life” for more than one year. When I had my free evenings during weekends or holidays, I worked as a Vespa foodie guide to get extra income. For a “normal” Vietnamese to study abroad, I have to say it is not easy. I had to plan everything (academic and financial) really really carefully.
I know that my background in Linguistics might make it extra difficult for me to get into a business program. Therefore, I took extra classes in business after work to improve my knowledge. Despite having more than five years of working in Marketing and Business Development, I still need a certificate to prove my actual knowledge. Moreover, being Vietnamese, I need to have APS (Akademische Prüfstelle) certificate to apply for a school in Germany. The purpose of this certificate is to check “the authenticity of educational biographies and the corresponding educational certificates, and issues certificates if the result is positive” (https://www.uni-assist.de). To make this point more interesting, only candidates from two countries in the whole world need to submit this certificate during their applications: China and Vietnam. It is not very challenging if you prepare it well but IT IS VERY VERY COSTLY.
So, to make sure I pass the exams of APS, I had to review all of my courses in my Bachelor program again. The year I took the APS test was 2019 and the year of my graduation was 2013. The gap is six years – not too long to forget everything but not too short to remember random facts to answer all possible questions; especially since graduation, I had been working only in the Business field – not Linguistics. I asked myself “do you want to get the scholarship?” “Yes” so I worked for it and I got the certificate with the highest ranking of “Sehr gut.”
Together with APS, I also got my IELTS 7.5 (with a reading score of 9.0 and just a little bit more of 0.5 in any skill that could bring me to the band of 8.0 which was my goal back then), my certificate in Marketing, Business Administration, and Python (of course for beginners). And I took a GMAT test but I didn’t get the score I expected due to a short amount of time for preparation.
Back to the moment when I received the result of being rejected by DAAD, I was sad but I did not give up. I was prepared to accept the fact that without a scholarship, I would have to pay school fees and living costs by myself. But if there is one thing that I would never hesitate to make an investment in, it is my education.
So I continued applying to one more school in Berlin for the major of Convergent Journalism. It was in June 2020. Besides common documents I had to submit, they asked for a writing portfolio. I submitted my essay on Social Media. If you are interested in reading it, it is here. I guess they liked my portfolio, so I got an invitation for the second round – doing an interview with the head of the faculty. There was one part of the interview where I had to answer different questions as soon as they were finished by the dean. I would say it was very challenging and vast as it was about journalism history, the works of many well-known journalists, and also the history of Europe. I could not answer them all but somehow I managed to show the other sides of me to convince him. I GOT ACCEPTED. I had some time (around two months) to decide if I should go ahead with this program. Part of me was very happy but also part of me was extremely stressed. Then…
I hope you still remember the MBA SEPT Program at the University of Leipzig that I got rejected early. After saying that I was not qualified to get the scholarship, they asked if I wanted to do the program as a self-financed student. I said YES. Months later in June 2020, they replied saying that due to the huge amount of applications that year, they could not offer me a study placement. But I was not as sad as the time I knew that I didn’t get the scholarship. Partly because I was busy thinking about my “Journalism” future. I love writing and telling stories but there was something in my heart saying that I need to think more about it…
In August 2020, one week before I had to answer the school of Journalism, I got an email from the MBA program saying that after consideration, they wanted to talk to me – more like an interview. To be honest, I thought it was mainly because someone from Vietnam whom they accepted early could not come to Germany due to COVID-19 (yes, 2020 was the worst year of COVID-19) so I was their second choice. I do not want to sugarcoat things, if I am the second choice, I will just state it out loud…like this hahahaha. Yes, another background information, this International MBA program usually selects only one candidate from one country so if the selected candidate in Vietnam for some reason could not come to Leipzig for the study, they might pick the second one on the list and it was…me.
The interview went well so the next day, they sent me the acceptance letter stating that I would become an official Master student in October 2020 at the University of Leipzig. From my experience, it seems like most of the time people would like me a bit more when they really talk to me rather than just read my CV in which I was brutally honest about everything and I guess people sometimes find it “not impressive” enough hahaha. So… if you want to know me more, talk to me 😉
Then I had to make a very difficult decision: Berlin or Leipzig? You know… what is your first choice is always something dear to your heart. I do not say your first choice will be the RIGHT CHOICE but usually, it has some meaning with it. So I went to Leipzig as a self-financed student.
Being rejected by DAAD “offered” me a chance to have a scholarship of my own. I got this thanks to a miracle and it happened almost overnight after I finished one of my part-time jobs back in 2018. It was just a normal day working for me but as every other day when I work, I put my heart into it. Maybe someone noticed it 😉 And it is a loooooong story for this special day so I will not write everything here. In short, that day I met my mentor who has changed my life in so many ways.
I have heard so many other stories about a random encounter in life that changes everything afterward. So my advice is that always work with your heart, be kind, never stop learning, and be a good listener so that you will always be ready for opportunities that come…sometimes unexpectedly. I know that not everyone is as lucky as I am to find a mentor for her/himself but…. never stop looking. The universe listens. I remember when I was in high school, I took part in several academic competitions and the highest prize I could get was a bronze medal… even though most of the time my teachers saw me as a strong candidate. When I was in college and had a random talk with my Maths teacher in high school, he told me that I was a bright student, I was determined, and had a very good capacity to accomplish things but back then I did not have anyone to guide me. He wanted to be that one by offering me free extra classes but for some reason, I did not accept the offer. I was alone discovering things by myself. Self-learning was good but it took time to master. From that moment, I know the importance of having a mentor and I kept looking for one. It took years and years and years but I found him in the end.
I would like to send a HUGE thank you to my mentor (if you’re reading it, this 💖 is for you):
“Being your mentee is the most amazing thing that has happened to me; it is almost a miracle. You made it possible for me to achieve this superior educational opportunity and explore Europe to the fullest. You have shown me what unconditional love really means and how beautiful the world is. Thanks to you, I have had a life of a true traveller where I have learned about empathy and cultural diversity and never lost my faith in my career in hospitality and tourism. You are my inspiration and my second family.”
The door to the DAAD scholarship was closed, but many other doors were opened for me at the same time. These doors gave me more freedom to continue my lifelong learning and inspire more and more people who come from a normal background like me to continue dreaming and making their dreams come true. What does it mean when I say a “normal” background like me? I grew up with my grandparents in a small village and I am the first one in the family to get to university. I grew up with difficulties but I was happy most of the time as I had the best grandparents I could ask for. I would like to write a short message to them. They might read it now in heaven.
“I am very thankful to be born as your granddaughter and to have grown up with you. You gave me the most valuable lessons about being independent, hard-working, and striving for excellence. Thanks to you, a little girl from a small village could learn different foreign languages at a very young age, which later opens for her several opportunities to discover the world. You taught me to be disciplined and kind and always do things with care and responsibility. Because of you, I could go this far and live a life that I have nothing to regret.”
My study in Germany would have been impossible without the support and encouragement of many important individuals in my life. If I have to write all the stories about them, it would take me forever. Every single person is a gift.
During the preparation and my journey in Germany, I was also thankful for the support from my colleagues at work, who helped me unconditionally. My boss… despite knowing my plan of studying in Germany, still gave me a chance to do a business trip to London in 2019, from which I learned a bunch. In the most difficult times of the company during COVID-19, I still have my job. Sometimes I complain and ask myself why it seems like I am not lucky in getting any scholarship, but now I do realize that scholarships can be created through everyday’s activities.
And as my friend said, “sometimes we forgot miracles and kindness of life”, so remind yourself often that they do exist. If I can get it, you can get it too!
Hi, I'm Dai and I'm from Vietnam 