Hawaii Pacific University

Date: Feb 06 2005
Major: Business - Management and Administration (This Major's Salary over time)
I attended HPU as a freshman and all in all i'm glad i did it. As much as you can complain about the school, you are in Hawaii, and yes it is different when you actually live there but its still nice. Plus, I think every school is going to have its downfalls and people are more eager to point out its faults.

I guess i got lucky with my professors because i had challenging classes though i've heard many people had tougher work in high school. (i recommend checking out www.ratemyprofessor.com before registering for classes)My professors were great, and i learned a lot.

One problem I had with the school and hawaii in general is cost of living, however, because tuition is so low you spend less going here than you would going to any other private school. FYI dont go through Cadmus housing, its a total rip off. Most people i've talked to dont like living at the dorms either.

There is no school pride for students at HPU. If you are into cheering on your sports teams go to University of Hawaii. Also, intramurals are a joke, they are at windward campus and its a long bus ride from waikiki. not really worth the trip. Oh yeah and not much for PE either which some people may not mind but i gained more than my freshman fifteen and would have liked to have a place to play sports.

Yes the campus is full of homeless people and yes they sometimes approach you for food and money. Living in Hawaii you'll get this everywhere so you're going to have to get used to it anyway, just ignore them. The downtown campus is pretty small so its easy to go from class to class. Plus, there are restaurants and stores all around so if you need to kill some time you'll easily find something to do. You can take classes at the windward campus but if you dont live in the dorms its not really worth the long trip. I was there for a year and went to the windward campus maybe three times.

My biggest gripe about living in hawaii was riding the bus. It wasnt so bad if the busses were running on time and they weren't packed but when you spend an hour waiting for the bus after a trip to walmart you want to kill yourself. Or standing for an hour on a crowded, hot, smelly bus can suck. If you live in Waikiki or Ala Moana you can walk most places but not to school.

Something I really liked about HPU was definitely the diversity. I now have friends from all over the world which is awesome.

first thing to do when you get to school is find a local friend, (hopefully one with a car) that can show you around. get to know the area cuz there is tons to do even if you end up hating the school.

If you are only interested in coming to school in Hawaii, keep in mind that you have other options. (UH, Chaminade, BYU-Hawaii)