Born and raised in Tanzania, Zahir Poonawala had been in the United States about six years when he began his higher education at Brookhaven College in Farmer’s Branch. Today, after a brief stop at the University of Houston, he majors in business administration, with a concentration in management information systems, at The University of Texas at Dallas; he’ll graduate in May 2010. For him, community college made the most sense financially, because he understood the Texas core curriculum would transfer to any Texas public university. He was correct, and says that his organizational skills and advance research enabled him to transfer without a hitch. Indeed, when Tau Sigma National Honor Society for transfer students formed a UT Dallas chapter, Poonawala was one of 93 to win membership with a first-semester grade-point average of at least 3.5.
His smartest tactic, he believes, was visiting UT Dallas — not once, but several times — before applying to transfer. “I would encourage students to do campus visits during which they should see the campus, visit a classroom, spend time with a counselor and make new friends,” he says. “These aspects are not visible on any school’s Web site!” Such visits enabled him to question other students about the best classes and professors, as well as to look into career-related organizations he could join. (He settled on SAP Users Group, in which he’s currently an officer.) By the time he actually enrolled, he had a very clear picture of what he’d be doing the next two years.
Filed under Success By Degrees