Hi, my husband (we've been together, including dating, for 4 years now)joined the Marines last year. He is stationed in O'ahu. As of right now, I'm at the end of my 2nd year of nursing school, and I've decided I just can't stand nursing anymore. I'm good at it and I love the patients, I just don't see myself enjoying the other aspects of it for the rest of my career. Since I'm still a spring chicken, and still have some trasferable credits to use, I've been looking into moving to Hawaii to live with him and hopefully continue my education while there. I'm currently in Maine and my school I am enrolled in right now is really only good for nursing. Otherwise I'll be paying a ton of money for a school that is not worth any other major. So I would definitely be transfering elsewhere regardless. We were originally going to be apart while I finished the next 2 years of my BSN degree because it is such a good school for nursing but since I would REALLY like to switch majors, being apart seems rather pointless at the moment if there's a decent school to attend where he is.

I've been looking at the universities/colleges around the base but I'm having a really hard time discerning if they are worth the time and effort. I've heard horror stories about HPU. I know of a friend who transfered to University of Hawaii Manoa who told me it was decent, however I don't want to base this on one person's opinion. And I'm definitely having a hard time finding opinions on these places, likely because I'm so far away.

Any and all help is appreciated! Now that I've kind of been thrown into military life, I really admire all you girls for sticking through it and being so strong/riding the waves of life, so to speak. It's definitely inspiration for someone like me who's new to it all.

point one: Hawai'i is EXPENSIVE.


2: can you afford to move there all on your own dime? you will get no help from the military. unless he is able to get his orders changed to accompaneid..and after being there a year this may or may not be possible plus you have to pass the overseas screening.

as for quality of schools.. well that I cannot help you with. I got my degree online.

Sorry, when I said he joined last year, I mean that includes boot/SOI. And by a year I mean approximately since last August. So he's actually just arriving there now. Sorry, should have clarified!

And I've seen the prices around Hawaii... I've been doing some research and holy smokes. Everything really is expensive. I really am going to try to avoid needing to buy anything outside of what I need to there.

I know that housing can take a really long time to process so we're definitely not holding our breath. I've heard of it taking 18 months for one person I knew to get it. On the other hand, I know it's only fair because there are families with kids and such waiting for housing, so I don't mind waiting my turn when it's just me and him.

As for moving there... to be honest, I have almost no possessions to my name to speak of. I mean I have some, but in the way of heavy-duty moving I would have no furniture, appliances, big items. Just me, clothing, and personal items. I'm hoping *cross fingers* that that will make it easier.

As for the overseas screening, I have an idea of what it is (I believe it's health screening, correct?), but who would I contact to get it done? Like, would I need to go through military personnel to have it done, or do they want written documentation from my doc? I don't have any health problems whatsoever, and god knows I've been immunized/tested for everything under the sun for nursing school.

Thanks for the insight!

Not only is Hawai'i expensive but tuition for out of state residents is currently $5,784 per semester. University of Phoenix is only slighter cheaper at $5,250.

If you are at a state school in Maine, you may want to check on distance learning through your current institution as that would probably be cheaper.

quote:

Originally posted by mturnb:
Not only is Hawai'i expensive but tuition for out of state residents is currently $5,784 per semester. University of Phoenix is only slighter cheaper at $5,250.

Most schools consider dependents as in-state residents for tuition purposes.

That said, for the same amount as above you could go to Penn-State online(the only on-line school to offer an ABET accredited actual Engineering Masters Degree program-guess where I'm going for my masters?)

lol Yeah, according to the University of Manoa website, they do count military dependents as resident-status.

And even paying non-resident tuition WITH housing (which I wouldn't be) it would be far less than I'm paying now at a private institution.

I won't get into how much I'm paying here but let me put it this way, way too much if I'm not in nursing lol

So $2000 - $4000 is pretty cheap to me... and whole lot less than I'm currently paying. It's actually less expensive for me to attend school in Hawaii for 4 years than to attend my current school for one (and I am given a large scholarship/financial aid)

I'm mostly concerned about whether it's a school worth investing time into, since the amount seems pretty low to me.

My dh graduated from HPU and several friends are going there now online. Never had any problems at all. They offer courses on base at a reduced rate which are done in 10 weeks instead of 12.

yes Hawaii is expensive but the sales tax is less than 5% and so it can work out to be the same cost or even less for some things. And it isnt that much more or even more at compared to other locations. We paid just as much if not more for things when we lived in San Diego. Using the commissary and exchange can help out a lot. The COLA definitely makes up for it. We ate out all the time as a family of 4 for under $30 when we lived there by going to the small ma/pa restaurants.

For overseas screening it depends on the branch and where he is going out of to Hawaii that says whether you need one or not. We went there twice on orders from teh West Coast and didn't need one. But friends went from the East coast and did. So it does vary.

Housing varies from branch to branch. All is PPV now in Hawaii. Yes there can be a wait because of them redoing old housing (trust me it was ghetto housing before and now it is nice). But if it is just the two of you, you can live out in town on BAH. If you are going to UH or HPU then look in areas like Salt Lake, Aiea, Pearl City, Mililani or even Windward side. so that way you are part of the way there. Don't live in Iroquois Point or Ewa Beach as it is a nightmare getting out of there with traffic. The Bus system is excellent there, really cheap, good routes, etc.. so you can use that.

You can't judge the qualify of a school by the cost of tuition, especially when trying to compare a private institution to a public institution. For example, two schools in my home state are The University of Texas - Austin and Baylor University. Baylor is the more expensive of the two but, in 2007, it was ranked 81 in the nation whereas UT was ranked 47.

University of Hawaii has some good ranking schools. Their IB program and MBA program are both top 25 in the country. I found a website for arwu.org (Academy Ranking of World Universities) for 2008 which ranks UH as tied at 101 (with 48 other schools) in world ranking and tied at 55 (with 15 other schools) in U.S. ranking.

there was a national survey done years ago with companies on hiring. one question they were asked was if they had to choose between hiring an employee between candidates that had the same experience, same GPA, etc... and they came from major US colleges who would they pick.... UH graduates had a better chance of being hired, they were the #1 choice for lots of companies. The reasoning behind this? Because they were used to being with a diverse ethnic background. There is students at UH from around the world and it is very interesting.

Just remember to go with an open attitude and you should be fine. We never ever had any problems in Hawaii by locals. In fact we had lots of good friends who were locals and still talk to them all the time.

Thanks for the thoughful replies!

I'd love to see that survey, I hadn't known that. I knew it had a very diverse student body, though. I was honestly kind of excited about that, I'd love to meet some new people from a different culture than mine. (Maine is not very diverse at all in terms of educational institutions.)

Also, thanks for letting me know of good places inbetween. I've heard a lot of people say that it's better to live on-base, is there any reason for that? I know that housing is quite expensive, but are there any reasons besides that?

Thanks for all the help, it is GREATLY appreciated.

I actually enjoyed living off base when I was in Hawaii. I lived in Salt Lake, Waikiki and just off the Ala Wai canal. All of these were nice areas and less than 30 minutes from Ford Island (Salt Lake is about 10 minutes). I had a roommate and the two of us made money after BAH, COLA, OHA and BAS. Our base pay was purely for having a good time as the allowances covered rent and food.

The old "base" housing, that was actually off base, was stereotypical government housing. Since it's been 35 years since I was there (gee I miss it), I imagine that housing has been replaced.

We lived off base for the 1st year on E5 pay. Back then BAH was only $900 a month, now it is a lot more than that. I worked for a Temp agency and went all over the island for jobs so I used the bus. We moved into housing because where we lived we were spending way to much money on gas so it was cheaper then to get housing for us. But if you find the right place off the bat you shouldn't have a problem. The suggestions that mturnb and I gave you should help you out. The BAH should be enough to cover the rent and part if not all the utilities. Shop at the commissaries (if in Aiea/Salt Lake area, Hickam/PH commissary 10 minutes, Schofield or KBay 20 minutes away so right in the middle), use coupons and brand store brand if necessary.

PS - They just opened Target there in the Salt Lake area, quite nice apparently.


PSS - yes all that housing is now gone, Navy went from having the worse housing to having the best. We lived in some of the old housing, friends lived in the ghetto/condemned housing it was bad.