HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — To take the most important test of her life, Le Thi Hoai Thuong, 18, traveled 38 hours by bus with her father, a rice and corn farmer who doesn't want his daughter to become a rice and corn farmer.
To fund the journey, the family sold a cow for $730. During the ride, with the air conditioning broken, Thuong's father fanned her with a rolled-up newspaper. When they arrived in Ho Chi Minh City, Thuong saw for the first time the place where she hoped to go to college.
She also got a glimpse of the obstacles facing the growing number of Vietnamese students with aspirations like hers.
This month, 1.9 million high school seniors in Vietnam took a college admission test. Reflecting the country's rapid modernization, a generation of teenagers now views college education as a fundamental requirement.
The problem is, the college education system hasn't grown, or improved, at a rate commensurate with demand. Vietnam, with 89 million people, has fewer than 400 colleges and universities. The United States, with 310 million people, has more than 4,400.
Even below-average schools in Vietnam have Ivy League-like acceptance rates. Although Vietnam has transformed since the war, reducing its deep poverty with a booming export economy, a potential roadblock looms for efforts to develop skilled labor, cater to foreign investors and keep pace with the region.
Vietnam's proportion of college students is half that of Thailand and a third that of South Korea. According to Vietnam's leaders and development organizations, the country faces a choice: Either the education system improves, or the improvement stalls.
Within the past few years, the push for college acceptance has turned exam season in July into a bottleneck. Rural students such as Thuong, who had never been more than 125 miles from home before the exam, flock to the big-city testing centers. Hotels offer discounts.
The nationwide train system reduces fares by 10 percent.
Last week, Thuong arrived at the District 9 testing center with 700 others for back-to-back 180-minute tests. She viewed the moment as pivotal — for her and maybe, she said, for her future children.
"I'm not nervous," Thuong said. "Going to college will help me with a better job, a better career. . . . I've seen from my parents and grandparents, farming is really hard."
Several students taking the test — Thuong included — hoped for acceptance into the Ho Chi Minh City Industry and Trade College, a de facto community college. Acceptance rates vary based on intended major, but last year, the school accepted 7.1 percent of business administration candidates and 6.2 percent of its finance and banking candidates.
This year, Harvard accepted 6.9 percent of its applicants, the most selective rate in its history.
Minutes after the test, Thuong met her father outside the testing center. They planned to head to the bus terminal for the two-night trip back to Thanh Hoa province, near the north-central coast.
Do said that he'd be "a little sad" if his daughter left for college but that he'd also be proud. If Thuong gets into college, he said, he plans to take out a loan and raise several extra pigs.
"She will stop the tradition of being a farmer," he said.
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