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.
