Experience at small startups once made Ho Dang Kha Tu doubt herself, but it ultimately helped her win scholarships for a Master of Business Administration (MBA) at top business schools like Cornell and UCLA.

Tu, 29, received admission offers to several MBA programs at the end of last year, each offering scholarships ranging from $60,000 to $80,000.

Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, ranked second for MBA programs in the U.S. by U.S. Newsdid not offer her a scholarship but admitted her into its dual-degree program in Business Administration and Design Innovation.

“I was really surprised because I used to worry that my story wasn’t impressive enough,” Tu said.

Due to financial constraints, Tu said she could not attend Kellogg.

She also passed on MBA programs at Cornell, UCLA, and Carnegie Mellon, ultimately choosing the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. She received an $80,000 scholarship for the two-year program, covering about half of the tuition. Tu will need an additional $42,000 per year for living expenses.

Tu was born in Hue City where her mother teaches Physics and her older brother specializes in the same subject. She followed the family tradition and gained admission to the prestigious Quoc Hoc High School for the Gifted.

A turning point came during her senior year. Torn between following her family’s path or trying something new, Tu attended a university admissions fair. She spoke with students studying business administration at the Foreign Trade University.

Although she “didn’t quite understand what the field was about,” she was drawn to their energy. This inspired her to learn more and eventually apply. She was accepted.

During her early days at the university in Ho Chi Minh City, Tu felt overwhelmed. Beyond academics, students spent a lot of time on extracurricular activities. Overcoming her initial shyness, Tu participated in projects supporting autistic individuals, helped farmers sell stockpiled agricultural products, and joined several business idea competitions.

In 2017, she participated in Hult Prize Vietnam, the national round of a global startup competition sponsored by the U.N., former U.S. President Bill Clinton, and Hult International Business School in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. With a proposal for a mobile maternity clinic, Tu led product research and development, and her team won first prize.

“Using business knowledge to solve social problems made me proud, and that sparked my entrepreneurial spirit,” Tu said.

This passion led her to work at startups after graduation. In mid-2018, she began in a marketing role at a brand consulting firm, where she discovered and became interested in product development and management. She later joined a tech logistics startup, working on business-to-business logistics and enterprise resource planning systems. A year later, she moved to a fintech company that applied AI to solve accounting challenges.

After several job changes, Tu entered the education field in late 2021. Her main responsibility was developing online learning products for students during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, her long-term plan to stay in education was cut short. Investors withdrew support from the education projects she was working on because they could not wait for profitability. Her team disbanded, but reunited last year to develop an AI-powered English learning app.

At the same time, Tu worked as a product manager at Chotot, a startup operating as an online marketplace in Vietnam to connect buyers and sellers for various goods and services.

Tu incorporated this entire journey into her MBA application essays, emphasizing education and entrepreneurship. She wrote about how her parents moved to the city to provide better educational opportunities for their children, even though it meant commuting 20 km to work every day. Grateful for their sacrifice, Tu always found ways to “become an educator” by sharing knowledge and skills in business, startups, and technology. Though she faced challenges and moments of burnout, her curiosity, passion, and perseverance kept her going.

In addition to the main essay, each school required around three supplemental essays, IELTS and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT) scores, and interviews.

Tu said preparing for the GMAT, a standardized exam used by business schools worldwide to assess candidates for graduate management programs, was the toughest part as she had not studied in a long time and found it much more difficult to focus on studying as she had before. After multiple failed attempts, she took one last shot a month before the application deadline and hit her target score.

Another worry was how her work experience would be viewed. Connecting with fellow applicants online, Tu realized many had worked at large multinational corporations, whereas her résumé featured mostly local startups, some of which no longer existed.

Even so, Tu not only passed the initial application round but was also questioned extensively by admissions committees about her work experience. At some schools, the interviewers were alumni from the Business Administration program who paid close attention to emerging startup markets like Vietnam. She realized they were not just looking for excellence in candidates, but also for diversity in fields, experience, and startup potential.

As for scholarships, UC Berkeley Haas initially awarded Tu $60,000. Finding the remaining costs unaffordable, she emailed to request more support. Thanks to her strong entrepreneurial spirit and performance in a follow-up interview, her scholarship was increased by another $20,000. Cornell, UCLA, and Carnegie Mellon also offered similar packages.

Tran Nguyen Hoang Uyen, Tu’s team leader at Chotot, described her as “confident, proactive, and someone who follows through.”

Tu herself feels she has grown more disciplined and resilient through the process.

“I’ve learned to let myself set ambitious goals and create discipline to reach them,” she said.