Expert: Todd Johnson - 8/15/2008

Question
Hi Mr. Johnson,

I'm Eric, and I'm graduating from community college in a year.  I live in Pennsylvania.  At first I wanted to apply to Penn State, for obvious reasons, but now I'm having second thoughts.  I'd like to study publishing and literature.  

Searching the web, I've run across the University of Hawaii at Manoa.  My friends think I'm crazy for thinking about applying to a Hawaiian school, and maybe I am.  But I don't know anything about the Hawaiian school system, or about U of H at Manoa apart from what the internet tells me.

Can you tell me anything about applying to Hawaiian schools, which schools are "best" in Hawaii (Manoa seems to be the flagship school), and so on.  I'm not finding much about UH rankings, but maybe I'm not looking in the right place.  Are any of these schools "good" for English, publishing, literature, etc?  I'm not so concerned with cost--that's fine.  

If not UH, I'm thinking about the University of Oregon at Eugene, do you know anything about U of O?  Again, I only know what their website tells me, which isn't much.  And can you offer me some information about these schools' grad programs?  Somebody told me that U of O has a 2-year waiting list for the English grad program, is that true?  And this same person told me UH has a one-year waiting list for undergrad, is that also true?

Thanks so much for helping me out.  It's really important I figure this stuff out before decision time comes.  Thank you.

Best,

Eric

Answer
Eric,

Thanks for writing. I don't generally comment on particular colleges because I don't know enough about you and what might be appropriate. The colleges in Hawaii are basically no different that colleges on the mainland. UH Manoa is a relatively easy college to gain admission and no there is no one year waiting list. If you are seeking in state tuition you might have to wait before you qualify for instate tuition but otherwise they are accepting students each year just like every college.

If you have questions about the application process at a particular school your best bet is to contact that college directly with your questions. I would not worry about grad school programs at this time. Deal with the undergraduate program and then worry about grad schools.

As to what each school is like, call the admissions office and ask if they can give you the names of some students to actually talk with. While these students will generally be positive about the college you can still gain some valuable information. Ask what they dislike about the college the most. No college is perfect and if they say there is nothing wrong, then I would question much of what they say and ask to talk to another student.

I hope that helps.