University of Hawaii at Manoa advice/reviews?

Hi, I'm currently looking into grad schools and I'd like to be somewhere I can also continue diving. I went to the University of Iowa for my undergrad and I may go there for graduate school but I want to at least look into other schools out there. So, what can anyone tell me about (1) going to school at the U of Hawaii at Manoa, (2) diving in Hawaii, or (3) living in Hawaii?

I currently live in Saipan, of the Northern Marianas Islands, and I love the weather here and the diving. But they only have a community college. I've compared some of the academic and financial numbers with the University of Iowa and I think the U of Hawaii seems to stack up pretty closely. One reason I also am considering it is because I was told that residents of Saipan actually get 'in-state' tuition in Hawaii. That makes it a lot nicer. Otherwise, I still have official residency in Iowa also. But Iowa has long, cold winters and the diving there sucks. Sorry fellow Iowans...but it does.

I'd appreciate any tips whatsoever.

Thanks,
Brad

Depends on the graduate degree you're after. During 20 years on Oahu, I took some classes at UH in economics and math and later taught at Honolulu Community College for a year. I did not have the patience to deal with illiterate, unmotivatable morons, so this did not last. I made my money diving, defense work, and then computers.
Your profile sez "English teacher" so an offhand guess is that you're looking for an MA in that unless you're opting for a career change. I lived on Oahu for 20 years and loved it. Now that I've left, I'll most likely never go back either. As bad as the community college environment was, it was LIGHT YEARS ahead of teaching in a local high school, but if you're in the Chomorro school system, you already have an inkling of what's ahead for you. I had a friend who left Hawaii to teach at Tinian HS. It sounded a lot like Oahu - just without all the violence. It also sounds a lot like a lot of high schools in Broward county where my wife is an English teacher.
Private schools are another world - a lot more hours, lots of demanding parents, and lots of politics. Parents on Oahu who want something better for their kids and can't pop for Punahou or Iolani or meet the Hawaiian requirement for Kamehameha will take out additional mortgages to send their kids to a Catholic (pronounced Kat-lick) high school. This is why the Dioecesis Honoluluensis is such a large employer on Oahu.
The diving is not as good as in Hawaii as in the CNMI. ALl you need to do is just find one of the Spanish galleons that went down in your neck of the woods, maybe towards Rota a little, and all this becomes moot.
Good luck with all that.

Never went to U.H. so I can't comment on that, probably has more to do with your degree program than anything else - see which school is better suited for that. I'd venture a guess that our diving will be a lot better than Iowa however

Have fun deciding and let us all know.

Aloha, Tim

Aloha Brad,

Don't forget we also have Hawai'i Pacific University and Brigham Young University-Hawaii. I've met a lot of families who come here on "vacation" to check out U of H, but had never heard of HPU or BYUH. Check them out too. It will give you other options.

Chris

All I can say about the UH Grad system is to be careful and don't expect much. I'm currently finishing up my doctorate in the CMB program. If it wasn't for the opportunity to benefit from the stellar reputation of Ryuzo Yanagimachi and his Institute for Biogenesis Research my wife and I would not have come here. The every grad department seems to suffer from unmotivated professors and a lack of organization. There are master's students that have been "working" on their projects for over 7 years now. While the current administration is trying to change things to make the University for competitive they have a long uphill battle ahead of them and face a lot of opposition from the old guard. If you decide to come out here, I would advise you to pick an advisor that is a fairly recent transplant to the island, as they will hopefully still be on mainland time.

Matt

Sorry to dissapoint you, but if you have official residency in Iowa, then you are not technically a resident of Saipan, although you are currently living there. UH is very tough on the residency issue.

Aloha Brad,

Depends which is more a priority, the right degree or diving. (Take your time in answering that).
I am from Hawaii and went to Undergrad in Seattle, then my Masters in Animal Psychology at UH- researching whales off of Maui. Now I am an English Teacher in Tokyo. If you can get Residency that would be great.

HPU was ranked one of the top Univ. in America...but the tuition is a lot higher.

Aloha, Rod in Tokyo