Top Vietnamese student bound for Korea's KAIST on AI aspirations

One of Vietnam's top performers on this year's national high school graduation exam has chosen to study at Korea's top engineering university.

Vietnamese news outlet VnExpress reported on Saturday that Hoang Huong Giang, a 12th-grade student at the High School for Gifted Students under Hanoi National University of Education, has decided to pursue computer science at the Daejeon-based university with a Samsung-sponsored full scholarship.

According to the outlet, Hoang said she chose the field because she sees the vast potential of AI and hopes to contribute to future advances in the rapidly evolving technology.

Hoang topped the A01 subject group — mathematics, physics and English — in this year's graduation exam. In Vietnam, students take compulsory exams in mathematics and literature, along with two elective subjects. University admissions are based on the combined scores of three subjects, depending on each program's requirements.

In addition to earning one of the country's highest exam scores, Hoang achieved a perfect score of 1,600 on the SAT and an overall band score of 8.0 on the International English Language Testing System.

According to Vietnamese newspaper Lao Dong, she recorded a combined score of 29.75 out of 30 in the A01 subject group, placing among the nation's top candidates.

Hoang also reportedly received a full scholarship offer from Seoul National University but ultimately chose KAIST.

Based in Daejeon, KAIST is widely regarded as one of Korea's top science and engineering universities. It ranked second among Korean institutions in the 2026 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO   [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]