Advice for going to University of Hawaii?

Question

I am a psychology major and want to transfer to University of Hawaii. The probelm is I didn't go to school for the past two years and I don't know if that's going to hurt me as far as getting accepted and my eligibility for scholarships or financial aid. The non residency tuition is high and I read if you can obtain a job working for the University full time you can pay resident tutition. Did anyone on here go that route and how did it work out. What advice can you give someone wishing to attend UH?

Answer 1

You don't know unless you try.  Call UH and find out what the requirements are for your situation.  UH is very expensive as is Hawaii in general for food, gas, apartments, everything.  I hear the traffic is horrible and jobs are not easy to find there at the present time, except for minimum wage jobs.  Unless you have a huge money tree and funding for your tuition, it's going to be rough.  Times are not good for the folks on Oahu right now.  

Answer 2

Ah, in getting a job in the University of Hawaii system, who you know is what it's all about. If you read a job description that seems oddly specific, it probably is oddly specific to the person they've already decided they want for the job. And I know that as someone who has been hired by the UH system a few times.  

You'll note that most of the jobs at the site I've linked below require a college degree already. And if you think you have some kind of competitive advantage over a local kid for a working class job slinging fried rice in the cafeteria or scrubbing toilets, I don't know where you get that notion.

As someone who has taught undergraduates at UH, I wouldn't send my own kids there as undergraduates if I could talk them out of it. And I'd feel much better about sending them to school in a place where the vast majority of students didn't worry so much about paying the bills.