Hawaii Pacific University

Date: May 31 2013
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
DISCLAIMER: I am a military campus student at HPU. I do not attend either the Hawaii-Loa campus or downtown campus, although I live a 10 minute walk from the downtown campus and I have spent some time there to visit the library and the administrative offices.

On a positive note, before I attended HPU, I went to a very large public state university in the mainland. I will say that the quality of instructors/professors at HPU is a huge step-up from a lot of state schools. Why? Because at state schools, you normally get taught by graduate students or TA's. At HPU, even in freshman and sophomore level classes, I had professors with doctorates in the field and/or an instructor with a ton of experience in their field. The quality of learning went way up for me in that way. I do not feel like I am just "paying" for a degree, although HPU does accept almost everyone. I really do feel challenged in my upper levels. Those that just "got in because they had money for their application fee" tend to drop out within the first semester, as you can tell by their retention rate. This is kind of a good thing if you are someone who wants a quality education. They don't "dumb down" their military campus program or adult program classes.

My classes are interesting and I feel like the workload is appropriate. If you are military or mil-affiliated, HPU is a great option. The credit hour rate is $250 flat for all classes and they accept TA and GI bill and they offer Yellow Ribbon if you want to go to class on-campus. Off-campus, they offer classes at almost all the bases on the island as well as online classes. They are wonderfully accommodating for military students and have a plethora of resources available to them.

So, the negatives. Remember those people who

got in because they paid their admission fee

? Well, those people do exist here and it is really annoying. For the most part, they will end up dropping out within the first semester because they fail their classes and can't get TA anymore, but in the meantime, they are still in your class and you might be assigned to group projects with them and/or have to reply to their awful discussion postings, etc. HPU needs to be a little more selective, I believe.

If you are wanting the traditional college experience, HPU is not for you. The downtown campus is strangely and awkwardly laid out along a street in the middle of the city, sharing its classrooms with office buildings and financial businesses. Outside, there are tons of crazy, wild bums and really scary alleys. The Loa campus is kind of nice, but it's really far from everything and it is very small. If I paid the actual tuition rate to go here, I would be really upset at the lack of college atmosphere.

Bottom line: If you are a military-affiliated student, then HPU is a great option-much better than UH. If you are an adult student and need night classes, weekend classes, and online classes (that aren't of they buy-your-degree variety), then HPU is a great option. If you are 18 and want to get out and have a wild college time and be on a campus full of life and resources, consider going elsewhere.