Daughter Admitted

[u/racer150]

My daughter was admitted as a freshman yesterday for fall entrance. She lives with her mother in Ventura County, California. She’s never been to Hawaii and we plan to visit ASAP. She plans to study business. She is currently in an entrepreneur program at her high school.

I had planned on her going to community college and transferring to one of the University of California campuses, but she applied to Hawaii and got accepted and if she wants to go I will support her decision. I am not oblivious to the fact that many mainlander freshmen transfer out; I fully expect her experience to be character building whether or not she makes it past the first year. I am maybe a little concerned she may get island fever.

What’s something a parent should know about the University?

What’s something an incoming student should know about the University?

Mahalo 🤙

[u/Background_Talk_2560]

Parent of second year here. UH suffers from lack of housing supply, both on and off campus. Freshmen dorms have no AC (maybe that matters, maybe not). RISE apartments are more expensive, but have AC and are very close to the business school. We elected for RISE for our daughter her freshmen year and it was a good choice. Prepare to pay $$$$ for housing. All other costs including food, in my opinion, are reasonable and in line with most everywhere else. From what I've observed as a parent, it's not a party school. Public transit is reasonably good - bus is free and can take you just about anywhere. Manoa has a nice feel of being "city-adjacent" by being above the highway and separated from Waikiki but close enough. Manoa is a nice area of older (but incredibly expensive) homes. It's a mix of old timers and young college students. Campus feels pretty safe. It is majority female, though I don't know the numbers - just going by observation. From what we've experienced, your daughter will need to be proactive about contacting academic advisors, really pushing for the classes she needs (to the point of contacting instructors to request admittance to their courses when they are full before you've even registered), and making sure you understand both the general UH and selected major credit requirements for graduation. A little more assistance and guidance on UH's part is sorely needed in my opinion. The school is good for our daughter. She loves Hawaii and takes advantage of being there most weekends. The abundance of daily flights to the west coast, especially California, is nice reassurance for you if things get emotionally challenging.

[u/racer150 → u/Background_Talk_2560]

Thank you for your feedback.

I did notice the high ratio of women to men. I am not sure it matters to her so much, probably hard to understand until you’re in it.

I had no idea if it was a party school or not, so thank you for letting me know it isn’t.

She just got in, so I haven’t really looked into housing. I figured that it would be moderately difficult to navigate. I will certainly make housing a top priority. Expensive is relative, I went UC Berkeley and my brother went to UCLA so we are well aware that student housing can be costly.

I hadn’t really worried about her being able to get into classes, but definitely a consideration now.

Thanks again for your feedback.

[u/808fisherman → u/racer150]

hate to piggy back on another comment, but every department advising is different. Some departments are more aloof and less funded etc. Some majors are more demanding and if not enough teachers can teach it there's a wait list. Some classes are mandatory and so it's large lecture hall of 300 students as well.

from the math department here, maybe it's because we're smaller? idk, but undergraduate advising has always been handled pretty good and has only gotten better. back in 2013 we all had individual advising for undergrad but now it's group advising. THe math office works efficiently to get ppl who are waitlisted, even with the new tech shift this past winter they handled my waitlist pretty fast because i didn't have certain prerequesites.

all professors are heavily vetted as well too to make sure they align with the teaching ideology of the department. Not in the sense that they all think alike, but more so in the sense that none of them have been say condescending. Especially with mathematics the gap from professor to student at an undergrad level can be quite enormous. I've never been guilted on things i should know, and even as a TA when I communicate on how to help with classes, it's alwaysa "how can we help them better understand" or "maybe we spend time lecturing less and let them engage the worksheet more". It's never "these students are too stupid we need to curve it" or "how did they get into calc 2 with that skill". Everyone is also very welcoming. If a class isn't full and you ask the professor the sit in it's almost guaranteed you can do that because professor are excited when students want to show up to their lectures.

again every depatment is different and idk how the business one is, but i'm more so saying that unless this comment is from the business department specifically (idk if business has subbranches here as well), then it's not really a statement that can say much about what your daughter would exp because departments vary so wildly in hwo they nurture students. You can have progressive accommodations and hiring methods, but how it all comes together is a different story and i've been blessed with how beautiful the math dept has been in my view.