Hawaii 2010 Forum

[mim]

IN!!! got my call yesterday! i think it only took them two days to process my app (LOR held up my app until this past monday)

Congrats!

Mango -- unless they've changed it within the past few years, no you can't qualify for residency by going to school FULL time. I think that maybe if you're attending part time you'd be able to make it work if you were simultaneously working/paying rent, etc.

[william wallace]

I have a question. I have looked for this on the forum but can't seem to find it. I have applied to UH and I applied for both FT and PT. I don't believe I have a good chance of landing a spot in the FT program with my 3.3 and 154. I was hoping to get a PT spot. That way I could work at the same time and not go so far into debt. I have decided that Hawai'i is the place I want to spend a long portion of my life. That being said, it is imperative that I be accepted, even part-time.

My question is, should I get in touch with the admissions department and tell them to change my application from Both to just Part-time? My original thinking was "If they reject me for FT, then they will consider me for PT." However, this may not be the case. They may just give WL applicants a seat in the PT program. So, if I'm rejected (once again: 3.28, 154, non-URM, non-resident), they may not even look at me for a PT spot. Does anyone know how to find more information on this or have you had any similar experiences?

I may need to change it to only PT. Any help/information on this would be greatly appreciated. I hope all is well with you all and good luck with your acceptances!

[bleepfm]

We are in a similar situation. I had originally applied to the full-time program but I contacted admissions and asked to be changed to Both because I want the best chance of admission. If it means anything you probably have a better chance than I do. I hope we both get in at least.

Oh wait! I do have some useful information. I asked about how much time I'd have to submit a deposit if I'm accepted after April 1st and was told that they expect to have notified most applicants by the end of March. The message that said most responses are sent in April was put the website because they did not know how the electronic application system would work for them but according to the email I received it seems to be working pretty well. So that might be good news for all of us.

[mango26]

just got rejected via email (3.3, 163, non-URM, out of state)

[william wallace]

Mango, sorry to hear that. That doesn't make me feel very positive with my numbers. If rejected, maybe I'll move there and apply next cycle.


If UH is really my #1 school, should I email them to let know this? Don't think it could hurt.

[bschroeder]

I was accepted to Richardson yesterday (Friday, 3/19).

Mainlander here (Seattle), white male

[MURPH]

Mainlander here (Seattle), white male

You'd better learn to run home from school before tha last day of class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Haole_Day
(Just kidding. )

[toastpbj]

Mainlander here (Seattle), white male

You'd better learn to run home from school before tha last day of class.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kill_Haole_Day
(Just kidding. )

A few months ago I was helping my cousin's daughter with her homework (5th grade english, she's at a hawaiian immersion school) and it was a proper nouns exercise where she had to list a proper noun that correlated with the given common noun. The given common noun was "war" and so she asked me what that meant and I explained and asked her if she'd learned about any historic wars in history like WWII or Vietnam... she chose to write down "hawaiians vs haoles"

So, for the people who have been accepted, are any of you planning on going? I'm sort of worried about house hunting since honolulu is so expensive...

[MURPH]

Mainlanders,
I am thinking about renting out my 3 bedroom condo in Aiea, HI. We have a two car garage and one of them is converted to a study room/ play room. the other is a library/gym. There are two parking spots in the driveway. We have a pool, back yard, 2 1/2 baths, washer and dryer, good neighbors who like to drink beer and barbeque. Looking for 2 K per month. If you want to rent it for 9 months/yr while in school that is fine too.

All this depends on the 95% probability that I will be going to the mainland for law school. But it is something to think about if you have a family or want to get a couple of students together to split the rent.

[toastpbj]

Mainlanders,
I am thinking about renting out my 3 bedroom condo in Aiea, HI. We have a two car garage and one of them is converted to a study room/ play room. the other is a library/gym. There are two parking spots in the driveway. We have a pool, back yard, 2 1/2 baths, washer and dryer, good neighbors who like to drink beer and barbeque. Looking for 2 K per month. If you want to rent it for 9 months/yr while in school that is fine too.

All this depends on the 95% probability that I will be going to the mainland for law school. But it is something to think about if you have a family or want to get a couple of students together to split the rent.

I am so wishing that your house wasn't in Aiea since it sounds great but Aiea is too far to travel to Manoa with traffic, at least for me.

[MURPH]

Yeah, the drive can be rough at rush hour. My house is two blocks up the hill from from Pearl Ridge Mall. It is 11.1 miles to the law library and 45 minutes to an hour by TheBus.

[toastpbj]

Yeah, the drive can be rough at rush hour. My house is two blocks up the hill from from Pearl Ridge Mall. It is 11.1 miles to the law library and 45 minutes to an hour by TheBus.

Really only 11.1 miles? My grandparents live up in Aiea so I am familiar with the drive/thebus route to an extent, although have never gone Aiea-Manoa directly. Honolulu traffic is just... rough. And so unpredictable sometimes.

[MURPH]

it is not unpredictable. It just sucks. University of Hawaii is the cause of the traffic problem. It would take me 25 minutes in rush hour this week but 45-60 minutes in rush hour next week because UH is on spring break now. Once you get to UH you either have to pay or drive around Manoa scavenging for a spot. (Law students have their own parking lot BTW.)
Seriously, you are right the street grid of Oahu looks like someone spilled a bowl of spaghetti across a map and said "Let's make the roads look like that!" There are on ramps immediately preceding off ramps (rather than vice verse, as anyone with any sense would design it), downtown has multiple one way streets going in the same direction immediately parallel to each other instead of alternating. Not to mention that street names change for no apparent reason. You can drive down Ala Moana Blvd, not make a single turn and end up on either Paki Ave. Diamond Head or Nimitz Hwy.
That being said, at least people do drive with aloha. People rarely give you the finger or give you an angry beep.

[bschroeder]

I am definitely thinking of moving to Hawaii for law school. I hadn't seriously considered the the idea, but after being accepted, the prospect has become much more attractive.

On another note, I am not a stickler on law school rankings, but I was surprised to see that Richardson fell in the rankings from #82 to a tier 3 in a matter of a year or two. Does anyone have any insight into this or if any of the school's programs are seriously lacking? At any rate, I'd likely stay in Hawaii after law school anyway, so I am not too concerned with trying to break into a legal market elsewhere after completing a JD at Richardson.

[mim]

I am definitely thinking of moving to Hawaii for law school. I hadn't seriously considered the the idea, but after being accepted, the prospect has become much more attractive.

On another note, I am not a stickler on law school rankings, but I was surprised to see that Richardson fell in the rankings from #82 to a tier 3 in a matter of a year or two. Does anyone have any insight into this or if any of the school's programs are seriously lacking? At any rate, I'd likely stay in Hawaii after law school anyway, so I am not too concerned with trying to break into a legal market elsewhere after completing a JD at Richardson.

They added a part time program and those numbers are much lower than full time. I think they still count in the rankings though, and that's why it dropped so substantially.

Murph-- It's not just UH traffic, all the private high schools in Manoa have the same spring break (punahou, mid pac, etc) thus making traffic this week glorious/non-existent.

[toastpbj]

About the changing street names... could not agree with you more. Yeah, Honolulu street plans are ridiculous, maybe it was the European influence?

Also I find the bus system really subpar simply because along certain streets downtown it stops every 20 feet like it's some sort of crime to force people to walk that distance.

Aren't they planning for some sort of public rail system? Wonder if that would help...

[toastpbj]

I am definitely thinking of moving to Hawaii for law school. I hadn't seriously considered the the idea, but after being accepted, the prospect has become much more attractive.

On another note, I am not a stickler on law school rankings, but I was surprised to see that Richardson fell in the rankings from #82 to a tier 3 in a matter of a year or two. Does anyone have any insight into this or if any of the school's programs are seriously lacking? At any rate, I'd likely stay in Hawaii after law school anyway, so I am not too concerned with trying to break into a legal market elsewhere after completing a JD at Richardson.

If you want to stay in Hawaii then Richardson would make sense... the general impression I get from Richardson is that it's a good school but suffers in the rankings because of it's unique position of being the only law school in Hawaii. Because it favors Native Hawaiians/Locals in admissions, the school accepts applicants with lower test scores and GPA who have those connections vs mainlanders with good LSAT GPA combinations, therefore causing lower rankings.

Have you stayed in Hawaii/Oahu for a lengthy period of time at all? I definitely think it's important to make sure Hawaii is where you wanna be, I don't think it's for everybody.

Were you planning on going to the admitted students day?

[bschroeder]

I can understand the sudden drop in ranking due to the creation of a part time program where the numbers are lower, however, GPA's/LSAT's are not the sole determinants of a school's ranking. So, there must be other factors at play that contributed to the school's decline in national rankings.

I have been to Oahu several times and was an exchange student in Japan during high school/college and I really appreciate the culture in both places.

Yes, I am planning to attend admitted students day on 4/22.

[giacamo]

Hi! I am usually a lurker here, but my cousin works at UH and she mentioned this to me. Apparently a reporting error resulted in the drop.

"Two law schools made errors in how they reported the information used to calculate the percentage of their 2007 graduating class that was employed nine months after graduation, which affected the new law school rankings. Both of these law schools would have ranked higher if these data had been used in the rankings. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's corrected rate of 2007 law graduates employed nine months after graduation is 96.2 percent. The correct rate for the University of Hawaii (Richardson) is 100 percent."
[url]http://www.usnews.com/blogs/college-ran ... -data.html [/url]

Hope this helps. Happy decision-making!

[toastpbj]

Hi! I am usually a lurker here, but my cousin works at UH and she mentioned this to me. Apparently a reporting error resulted in the drop.

"Two law schools made errors in how they reported the information used to calculate the percentage of their 2007 graduating class that was employed nine months after graduation, which affected the new law school rankings. Both of these law schools would have ranked higher if these data had been used in the rankings. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln's corrected rate of 2007 law graduates employed nine months after graduation is 96.2 percent. The correct rate for the University of Hawaii (Richardson) is 100 percent."
http://www.usnews.com/blogs/college-ran ... -data.html

Hope this helps. Happy decision-making!

100%? I'm surprised... seeing as in 2008 it's listed as "81% of our graduating class of 2008 were employed upon graduation. 90% live in Hawai‘i." on their website

Looking forward to meeting you all on admitted students day!

[william wallace]

He's referring to the percent of students employed 9 months after graduation.

[toastpbj]

You're right, I completely misread that. 100% still seems high though.

[phenomenon]

I've applied to UH too. I'm still waiting to hear from them. Not sure if I'll get in though. It has been a rough application cycle this year for me. The only school I've been accepted to is the Univeristy of Idaho.

[william wallace]

Rejected today with 154, 3.28, mainland, non-URM.

Had some ties to Hawai'i but it wasn't enough to overcome the numbers. Hard to predict who will get into UH. Best of luck everyone

[MURPH]

I am renting out my 3 bedroom condo in Aiea, HI. There are two parking spots in the driveway. We have a pool, back yard, 2 1/2 baths, washer and dryer, air conditioners, good neighbors who like to drink beer and barbeque on the weekends. We are two bolcks from Pearl Ridge Mall and access to the freeway is nearby. Looking for 2 K per month. Cable, electric and water are included. If you want to rent it for 9 months/yr while in school that is fine too. Dogs are OK too.

I will be going to the mainland for law school. It is something to think about if you have a family or want to get a couple of students together to split the rent.
We are 11.1 miles from the law library. The drive is 25 minutes in no traffic but 45 minutes on most mornings.

Bump
I'll be at UCLA for three years. I though it would be good to rent it out to a fellow law student so that in three years when I graduate, you will be getting ready to move on at the same time. If you want to rent for all three years of law school or just for Sept - May that is cool.