Amar Hajj-Ahmad had always dreamed of going to UT, so much so that she moved from Lebanon to attend. Although she began her college career as a UGS student, her main goal was to transfer into the mechanical engineering program. During her first semester, she visited the Cockrell School’s advising office to get a better understanding of the transfer process; it was there that she experienced her first major challenge as an undergraduate.

After supplying an advisor with her test scores and high school transcript, Hajj-Ahmad was told to consider applying to a different institution due to the incredibly competitive nature of the mechanical engineering program. “I was devastated,” she said. “Did I make a mistake moving all the way here?” Instead of giving up on her goals, Hajj-Ahmad doubled down on her studies, pointing to the encouragement of her UGS advisor as a major motivation. “She really cared that I was working towards my goals, but at the same time kept reminding me to enjoy my time in college.”

She transferred into UT’s mechanical engineering program after two years as a UGS student. After graduating from UT, she began pursuing her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in the fall of 2018 and views her time as a UGS student as incredibly formative: “It’s definitely a little scary when . . . you don’t even know what you want to do. There’s a lot of uncertainty, but once you realize all of the opportunities that are available, you see there is so much you can do.”