HPU Named Among America's Best Colleges

Hawaii Pacific University has recently been named among America's Best Colleges in U.S. News. HPU came in ranked at number 57 among western regional universities offering a full range of master's and undergraduate programs.

I could safely say that I am a satisfied customer of HPU, as I am a firm believer of private education over public education. I received both my MBA and my MA in Human Resources from HPU in 2003. I am currently enrolled in the MA in Organizational Change program to do more advance scholarly research in the field of human resources, and prepare for entering a doctoral program.

The Organizational Change program at HPU involves a multidisciplinary perspective and uses concepts and methods from such fields as management, business, sociology, applied anthropology, organizational development, psychology, and economics. Upon completing this degree, I should be well prepared to take this Human Resources Consultancy to a new level to help small business deal with the challenges in their organizations.

With distance learning technology these days, HPU is offering an increasing number of graduate courses in online format. That means you do not have to be physically in the classroom to meet the course requirements. However, you still have to login every week for online class discussions, and complete the weekly assignments.

The best part of it all is that the tuition is still the same as students that take the traditional format. That's the flat rate tuition. There is no difference on whether you take it online or in the classroom, nor is there a difference for whether you are a state or non-state resident. When compared to mainland schools, the flat rate tuition and the high quality of instruction is one of the main factors that make HPU unique.

Here is an example to give you an idea of how much it costs to attend HPU. Undergraduate tuition is $225 per credit hour or $675 per course. So a full-time course load of 12 credits is $2,700 for the semester. Graduate students, like myself pay $490 per credit hour, or $1,470 per course. Full-time course load for a graduate student is 9 nine credits and costs $4,410. This is not including your books and housing.

The treatment of all the staff and faculty of HPU treat the students as customers. It is the student that pay the tuition so it only makes good business sense to provide them with great customer service. You will not find customer service in a public university; instead you will treated as the last four digits of social security number.

The cost that you spend on your education is an investment in yourself. The affordable tuition and quality of education that you will not get at other public schools on the mainland yields a higher return on your investment for you.