2. Academic performance and 3. Curriculum activities

As continued from previous posts, here are some notes about Academic performance and Curriculum activities to prepare for scholarship or studying abroad.

2. Academic performance

You will always need a good record whether you intend to apply for undergraduate or graduate program. If not, nothing can verify your academic performance, and hence, your ability to study WELL in an advanced educating environment. Therefore, try to get good score as many as possible. You may fail some courses, or get bad scores in come tangential but compulsory subjects (for example, philosophy or psychology) but please keep in mind that the GPA must be balanced eventually. In fact, you must reach good scores in your targeted subjects (A, A+ or 9/10) so as to have final GPA at about 8/10 or above. And with that GPA, you are able to apply for opportunities to study abroad.

During my chemistry undergraduate program, I'd never failed but had some low scores due to my lack of interest and my carelessness. For instances, I got really low score in Philosophy (Communism-Maxism-Leninsism) because this course didn't create any attractive points to gain my focus. But it galvanized my creativity: I drew so many emoticons to reflect student's feelings towards the subject. And as a result, I still passed but got low score (6/10) and due to its number of credits, it caused a significant decrease in my GPA. Another low-score course of mine was Analytical chemistry I, and it was an example of inadvertent calculations leading unhappy consequence. In the end, my GPA was above 8/10, because low scores were counteracted by high scores of chemistry subjects. How fortuitous I was! ^^

But what if you have tried all of your efforts but your GPA is still below than requirements? Uhmmm... in that case, you're still able to fulfill your dream, but you will need other supporting information to do so. And it is Certificate of curriculum activities.

3. Curriculum activities

Curriculum activities are things you do besides your study, in other words, it means social works. A questions is "Why they are so essential for your application?". And my empirical response is "They are dictums of your personality."

If you intend to apply for scholarship in Liberal Arts programs, these certificates are extremely cardinal, because they will tell how active you are. Your participation as one of organizers of an activity proves your leadership skill; Your participation in a voluntary work is an evidence that you're always willing to help people in the living community; Your cultural exchanges or internships say that you are well-adapted to new environments, and so on. 

For applications to Science programs, we also need certificates of science-related activities, such as scientific camp, competitions, professional internships or exchanges, and publications. And they are the strongest documents that prove your interest and future orientation in science. If your GPA is lower than required, then these activities, especially scientific publications, will help you to show your research ability.

When writing these words, I did not mean that we only take part in activities that provide certificates in the end. Myself in fact joined in many works that did not have any certifications, but I had photos that proved my contribution to those events. I also had a list that contained all works I had done and to make them valid, I asked organizers of these activities to verify my participation. What I want to say from my experience is that there's always a mean to state what you did, except that you did not carry out any effort. Therefore, besides studying well, don't hesitate to join in some curriculum activities with your possitive attitude and interest, to ameliorate your background and show your best in the application to university. 

My certificates received during 4-year undergraduate program in HCMUS.
There are also other no-certificate activities but not listed here.