Hai Thi Huynh

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

HAI THI HUYNH

Nationality: VIETNAM

Admission Year: 2016

3rd Year PhD Student

National Tsing Hua University/ Molecular Science and Technology (MST) Program, TIGP, Taiwan

Advisor: Prof. Jer-Lai Kuo

During two and a half year studying and working at Institute of Atomic and Molecular Sciences (IAMS), I have trained to be an independent researcher in the future. Sometimes I feel bad and stressful because of troubles in my weird results and exams.Once the problems are solved, my feeling gets better. Sometimes, these two states of feelings are mixed together. To be able to overcome your difficulties during your Ph.D. time you need to learn some important skills involving time-management, asking questions, discussing with your mentor, advisor and lab-mates for their suggestions.

WHAT IS YOUR LEARNING EXPERIENCE HERE AT THE TIGP-MST PROGRAM?

General Topics

Taiwan International Graduate Program (TIGP)

The TIGP is Ph.D. fellowship which is supported by Academia Sinica which is the most prestigious research institution in Taiwan. TIGP has 12 programs including and each program has its own collaboration universities. For example, MST program collaborates with National Taiwan University (NTU), National Tsing Hua University (NTHU) and National Central University (NCU). Hence, the students can not only choose their interesting program but also choose their partner universities.

How to apply for Taiwan International Graduate Program (TIGP)

For more information, you can refer to the following link: http://tigp.sinica.edu.tw

General requirements

§   Bachelor and/ or Master of Science degree

§   English Proficiency:

TOEFL 550 paper-based or 79-80 Internet-based TOEFL (TOEFL-iBT)

IELTS: from 5.5 to 6.0 depending on each program.

Applicants can submit their English certificate after the deadline of application (after January 31st).

• • Academic transcript

  • Three recommendation letters from your supervisor or lecturers from your university or your institute

  • Statement of purpose

§   No application fee is required

§   Applicants can apply online or by post

§   Deadline: 31st January, 2019

Academics

Choosing an Advisor

You are free to choose your advisor either from Academia Sinica or your partner university. For the first year, we have a lab-rotation course which help students to find a lab that they are interested in and seek for your suitable advisor. First semester you can choose one or two labs to visit and stay in each lab from 1 to 2 months. You can also continue to do lab-rotation in the second semester. At the end of the second semester of your first academic year, you have to decide who your advisor will be. This course is to help students to be familiar with a lab before they can join and also have better choice for their future work.

Exam

For the exam, we have two types which are writing and multiple-choice questions. Before the exam, we don’t have breaking time as in my university in Vietnam. Which requires the students should spend time to focus on courses after class. Unlike in my university, we will be failed in the exam if our score is lower than 5.0 (maximum is 10). Here the maximum of score is 100. If you get the score which is lower than 70, you are failed. 

Ph.D. Qualifying Exam

The deadline and rule of this exam depends on your chosen program. Normally, we need to finish it in the second year or third year of your Ph.D. program. If you pass this exam, you will be considered as a Ph.D. candidate. If you are failed in this exam, you will be dismissed from the program.

Graduation

The requirement depends on your program. To graduate, you need to finish your courses, publish enough the number of papers with required impact factor. Normally, students take five years for their Ph.D. but some excellent students can graduate within four years. In some cases, students take seven years or even nine years for their Ph.D.

Personal Experience

Stipend

The stipend is around 34000 NTD per month excluding tuition and credit fees. Academia Sinica will cover the stipend for the first two years. From the third year and beyond, it is paid by your advisor and the stipend can be fluctuated depending on your performance. For tuition and credit fees in total are around 34000 NTD per semester.

Accommodation

First-year student can register to stay in TIGP dorm with the rental of 5500 NTD/month which is cheaper and more convenient than a room for rent outside (6500~9000 NTD/month).  Moreover, many foreigner students stay in TIGP dorm, hence you can have a great chance to know about their culture, language, religion, food and so on.  From the second year, you need to move out and find a room for rent.

Communication

We use English every day in our lab and classes because TIGP students come from various countries in the world such as Malaysia, Philippines, India, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Germany, Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, etc. Moreover, all of TIGP courses are provided in English.

Most of Taiwanese citizens who you meet outside the campus use Chinese (Mandarin); hence, you also need to learn Chinese to communicate with them. TIGP also provides an elementary Chinese course for two semesters of the first year. After this course, students are able to speak some simple Chinese sentences for eating at restaurant, going shopping, renting a room or asking road as traveling, etc. This course mainly focusses on speaking skill which is reasonable in the short time. If you prefer to learn more about writing, you can learn by yourself or register a course at a language center. If you are Vietnamese, it should be easier to study Chinese compare to other countries because the pronunciation is quite similar and some words we borrowed from Chinese making us easier to remember.

Living expense

For rental is around 6500 to 9000 NTD/month in Taipei.

For food is around 100 NTD/meal in Taipei

Taiwanese people, culture and foods

Taiwanese people are very friendly, polite and kind. They are willing to help if you need their assistance.

Taiwanese culture is very similar to ours, hence we are easy to adapt. We can go back to our hometown to visit our family during Lunar new year because they share the same Tet holiday as in Vietnam.

Taiwanese foods are also abundant. Specially, there are many night markets in Taipei, we can enjoy different foods. In generally, Taiwanese foods are more oily but less salty than ours. What makes I like most in Taiwan is bubble milk tea, which is originated from Taiwan.

WHAT ARE THE PROS AND CONS OF STUDYING HERE IN TAIWAN?

Pros

n  Research is much more investigated from Taiwanese government compare to our country

n  High stipend for Ph.D. students

n  Almost PIs are graduated from various famous universities in the world, they are very excellent in their research

n  We can expand our academic relations through many workshops and conferences hold frequently here

n  Regular meeting and discussion help us to promote our progress

n  It is located nearby our country hence it should be more convenient to go back our hometown with cheaper air fight and in shorter time (~3 hours)

n  Culture and climate are quite similar to our country making us be easier to adapt

Cons

n  As study in other countries such as Korea, Japan, etc., study in Taiwan is also stressful

n  Time of graduation is still quite long

WHAT ADVICE WILL YOU GIVE TO STUDENTS WHO ARE INTERESTED IN STUDYING HERE?

n  You must love research career before you apply for your Ph.D. study, otherwise you may be easy to give up as facing with difficulties.

n  Need to keep in your mind that doing Ph.D. is very different from undergraduate student. You need to be more independent and find out the answer without any previous explanation.

n  It may take longer time than your expectation. You can also consider between finding a job or doing Ph.D. before your application.

n  Prepare some important skills such as time-management, asking question for your interested topics or how to explain your ideas to other people.

n  Taiwanese students, lab-mates and postdocs are very kind and friendly, you can ask for their help whenever you have any difficulty.