Why I Ended Up at VISTEC

My priority wasn’t VISTEC; it was simply a country. I was shopping for permanent residency, weighing borders and bureaucracy long before I could even think about the research itself. I didn’t have the luxury of picking a dream university or a perfect program.

At first, I applied to two universities in Canada to test the water. I was trying my luck, though I knew that in this game, luck rarely plays a role. It was all pure talent, origin, and the arbitrary alignment of my profile with a professor’s current needs. As you might have guessed, I wasn’t accepted by either. It was a blunt reminder that while talent is universal, opportunity is often trapped within rigid, bureaucratic boxes.

During the long, exhausting wait for those rejections, I started looking at options back in Thailand. VISTEC was one of them. I don’t even remember how I stumbled across it; while the other schools I looked at were names I’d known for years, VISTEC was a late arrival—an option I only discovered just before the application deadline closed.

I joined their open house, but I remained on the fence. I had no real interest; I applied mostly because the application was free and the scholarship was full. I figured I had nothing to lose. I remember the first interview with the faculty—the mental pressure was indescribable. I walked away from it convinced I’d failed.

Four days later, I sat down for an online interview with a potential advisor to discuss research directions and expectations. He was refreshingly direct and calm—the exact type of person I knew I could work well with.

For the first time in this entire exhausting journey, I wasn’t just chasing a visa or a permanent residency card. I wasn’t gaming the system to secure a “promised future.” I stopped looking at the borders and started looking at the work itself. I finally began to ask what it was that I actually wanted to do—and for the first time, it felt like the answer might be found right here, in a place I’d almost overlooked.

Of course, I was still being pragmatic. A full scholarship was a non-negotiable requirement for me. Even as I started building rapport with my advisor at VISTEC, I kept my other doors open. I continued discussing potential research and funding opportunities with professors at Mahidol and reached out to my former advisor at AIT for guidance. I was balancing the “what if” of VISTEC against the reality of my financial needs and the counsel of people I trusted.

Leading up to the announcement, I wasn’t even nervous—I had other options ready. But the moment the results went live, everything changed. I realized I wanted this—not as a backup, but as a path. I remember frantically scrolling through the first page of the announcement, my heart sinking when I didn’t see my name. Then, a sudden realization: that was just the list for another department. I scrolled to the last page, and there it was. When I finally saw my name, the relief hit me like a rush of adrenaline. I was thrilled.

VISTEC isn’t where I intended to go when I started, but it became exactly where I needed to be. If you’re curious about how I ended up at this point in my life, you can read more about my initial decision to start this journey here.