Hawaii Pacific University

Date: Aug 30 2014
Major: Psychology (This Major's Salary over time)
I should've toured the campus before coming here, but being an out of state student and coming from a middle class family, I could not afford to spend 1,000 dollars for a flight to Hawai'i and back. If you are like me, please take my review into serious consideration. Hawai'i Pacific University is a good quality school. Teachers were bright, I made friends easily just within orientation. However, the university is very inconvenient in terms of location and security, and I would not recommend this school to anyone. As you probably know, the university has two main campuses, downtown and on the windward side. Downtown is the reason I left this institution. I have nothing against the homeless, however they are extremely aggressive and ill. They all inconveniently crowd around fort street mall (downtown campus) and threaten/gang up on students. They will steal your food, bully, and scream at you, while security does nothing. I did not at all feel safe here. The university even has little safety shops where you can hide from the homeless and chill out there if one is on your tail. I don't think anyone's college experience should be spent hiding out and feeling unsafe. It is also very difficult to get around campus. Since it is downtown, parking is impossible unless you want to spend nine dollars a day. You have to take a bus, which takes an hour to two due to all of the stops in the city. You practically have no social life here. There are no parties, and if you want to hang out with someone you will most likely have to take an hour ride on a bus because many people live off campus. As a freshman, I withdrew from this university and now am a semester to a year behind the class of 2018. I cannot enroll in another university until the spring (only for some institutions) or summer. HPU has a problem keeping students, as many transfer due to the lack of social life and lack of safety. Because of that, almost everyone I met had a scholarship from HPU. Clearly they are having trouble recruiting and keeping students. If you are interested in this school, please please please tour the campus first. For some students, HPU is a great fit despite its inconvenience. As a warning, the homelessness has dramatically increased on the downtown campus due to University of Hawai'i at Manoa forcing the homeless off of their campus and the homeless moving to HPU's campus. I miss the friends I made very much and Hawai'i is an amazing place to live, but is not a place for education.