After many of his family members traveled to the United States at one time or another to pursue education interests, Sultan Alkusayer made the decision to do the same thing.  “I’m Sultan Tawfik Alkusayer.  I come from Saudi Arabia and I decided to come to the United States probably because most of my family, my father, my mother, most of my other relatives came and pursue their studies in the United States and of course the education system over here is considered excellent compared to other countries.”

Sultan is nineteen years old and Villanova University, located in Villanova Philadelphia, is the place for him due to its high ranking and community environment.  “Right now I go to Villanova University, I have chosen Villanova and I am in the Business school Villanova’s Business program since they have been ranked number twelve in the nation.  One of the good things about Villanova in the pass few years it’s ranking has gone up and in the coming years by the time I graduate it is going to better and higher,” he says.  “By its ranking and by the place it is great.” 

“One of the great things about Villanova is its community.  The staff members, the students I like how they were very welcoming and relaxed.  The first day when I came on campus I really felt it through the students and through the staff members that helped me and through the professors. The professors were really kind and I got lots of extra help and assistance.”

As an international student, Sultan says there are a good number of other international students there.  As a freshman, one transition for him was the language; however living on campus helped him adjust to being a college student there. “It is great so far.  One of the first difficulties you could have is about the language, in Saudi Arabia it is Arabic and over here is English so with certain subjects you could have a lot of problems of course with writing essays and other things,” he says.  “You could also have some difficulties and some limits.”

“One of the good things about living on campus is it helps a person socialize better than being a commuter.  I see some international students who choose to be a commuter they don’t seem to be more into the school life especially socializing in the community.  They seem to be a little to far from the community, so I think I made a good choice by living on campus.”

Finance and marketing are the subjects Sultan is planning to major in.  He says his interest in those fields’ stems from early on in his life.  “Since I was in Saudi Arabia I was thinking about pursuing and taking a careering either in Engineering or in the Business world and I ended up choosing the Business.  When I graduated from high school I took one year off and I worked at a financial firm and that by itself made me see myself in the business world and helped me choose this as a career for the future.”

Sultan has several more years before he will graduate in 2011 from Villanova University.  His advice to other students interested in going to college there or any other university is.... Even my friends in Philadelphia I highly recommended that they try and apply to Villanova.  Some of them in other neighboring colleges, but I think it is a real good choice especially if you want to pursue a career in Business and cultural wise I think anyone can get use to any new culture and culture differences.”