Hawaii Pacific University

Date: Oct 16 2004
Major: Other (This Major's Salary over time)
While HPU is a okay school, its not for everyone. I've been here for almost 4 years and let me tell you, the above mentioned reviews are pretty much on the dot.

First of all, if you are a prospective student, do not be fooled by what the HPU recruiters and their video tapes show you. They use the Windward campus as the center of their promotion campaign, but unless you are a theater, nursing, or marine biology major you probably won't see much of this campus, unless you live in the god awful dorms. The downtown campus is where most of the classes are held and downtown Honolulu is not a very safe place to hang out. There are homeless people, drug addicts, lunatics, prostitutes, mahoos (Hawaiian transvestites), and drug dealers. There is also a mental hospital/treatment center right next to the campus(which explains all the crazies in the area). The downtown campus is also old and dirty. This is a part of the campus they don't show much in videos and the fact is that HPU loses most of it's prospective students due to the condition of the downtown area.

If you are a theater major and plan on coming to HPU . . .don't. The theater program is run by an award winning director and she rarely uses student actors in her plays. Most of her actors are professionals in the Hawaii theater community. She practicly uses the theater program as her own playhouse and theater majors get all their training and experience in class, not on the stage in front of live audiences like it should be. Like I said, I have been here almost 4 years and during that time I know of only 4 or 5 students during that time that have been on stage, and they held minor roles. It amazes me that HPU allows her to continue this practice. If you want to come to Hawaii and study theater, go to UH. They have a great Theater program that really benefits the student theater majors.

This school also has a horrible library. Most of the reference materials are non existant. One semester my class had to do a research project and we all ended up going to the UH library because HPU's didn't have any of the research material we needed.

The Office of Student Life is a huge plus. The events hosted by this office make HPU life more tolerable. Although most of the workers in this office are rude the director and her immediate staff are very friendly and helpful.

This school's security is a joke. One time I saw a security guard asleep in a doorway on the downtown campus. The Windward Campus is apparently protecting some rare artifact or other item of extreme interest as it is hard for non HPU students and visitors to access this side. The security here is tighter than Fort Knox. The security guards here can eat pennies and shit copper wire. I used to have a non HPU friend who used to pick me up here at night and it became easier and less time consuming for him to pick me up at the nearby bus stop where I nearly got hit by a car once.

This school is also very money hungry. Tuition is close to $5,000 a semester for full time students. Faculty are poorly paid and facilties are poorly maintained. I've seen pictures of third world bathrooms that look nicer than the bathrooms at this school. The bathrooms at the downtown campus library look like someone's failed attempt at a science project. I've also talked to a lot of staff and faculty and from what I hear, HPU is not a happy place to work. The school has a big student body (can't remember the exact numbers)yet very little money seems to be going into improvement.

Overall, I don't regret the time I spent here. There are moments where I ask myself about the quality of education I receive here. If you're determined to come to Hawaii to study, I suggest you check out UH first.