Contents
We’re here with Mohammed Zakaria, a freshman, Finance and Economics student at UT Dallas. Zak will answer a few questions on his background, point out some positives of his life as a Comet and finally, he will tell us how he found the best business school for him.
Hi there! My name is Mohammed Zakaria, but most people here call me Zak. I’m an international student at UT Dallas, studying Finance and Economics. I’m Egyptian, but I came here after living in Saudi Arabia my whole life.
What made you want to come to the U.S.?
Ever since sixth grade, when I heard that my older friends were going to schools in Canada and the U.S., I had known that I had to come to the U.S. for my education. Of course, I had some of my backups in Egypt, but I had made studying here my main objective. So by the end of 10th grade, even before I took my SAT, I finalized my list of the top five schools and knew that I wanted to become a Finance and Economics major.
Why did you pick UT Dallas over other schools?
Most of the schools in the U.S. don’t provide a double major in Finance and Economics, so I would have had to settle for Finance only or a very lengthy double degree. Funnily enough, my first four options, including Ohio State and UT, were all football and party schools. Among my other choices, the only one that stood up for being “nerdy” was UT Dallas. I would soon find out that the reason some people are not used to UTD’s environment is that we really care about careers, and that builds an environment of like-minded, goal-oriented students.
UT Dallas Jindal School rose to the top of the list when I found that they provided the exact degree plan I wanted: a double major in Finance and Economics. I couldn’t find the same degree plan in any other school in the country other than the Jindal School at UT Dallas. After being here for a semester, I am not surprised to find JSOM at the top of national rankings.
How did you hear about UT Dallas?
Being in a high school that was very far away from the university I was interested in made it hard to get information, so I owe it to the employees at the UTD Office of Admissions and Enrollment and the UTD Subreddit for answering all my questions and feeding my curiosity.
Were you scared to move so far from home?
Unfortunately, Texas carries stigma related to racism and gun violence outside internationally due to how it’s represented in the news and other media. That was something that I found was completely false, and I work every day to make sure that people back home know how kind the people of Texas are. I am proud to call Texas my second home.
