Best College Value in Hawaii: Top ROI Schools (2026)

Hawaii has one of the smallest college markets in the country. We score six four-year institutions in the entire state, and three of them are campuses of the University of Hawaii.

That scarcity shapes everything. A family on Oahu weighing colleges is really choosing between the UH system, two private options, and leaving the islands. Here is what the numbers say about each.

The Top Value Schools in Hawaii

1. University of Hawaii at Manoa - ROI 72. Net price $15,664, median earnings $57,624, 64% completion, 87% admit rate. The flagship, and the best all-around value in the state. It has the strongest completion rate of any Hawaii school we score, which matters more here than in most places because the alternatives are thin.

1. University of Hawaii-West Oahu - ROI 67. Net price $10,327, median earnings $52,075, median debt $14,500, 50% completion. The cheapest four-year option in the state, in Kapolei. Graduates earn about $5,549 less than Manoa's and pay about $5,337 less per year to get there, close to a wash financially and a clear win for anyone who can live at home on the leeward side.

1. Brigham Young University-Hawaii - ROI 62. Net price $16,774, median earnings $52,064, and the lowest median debt in the state by a wide margin at $9,413, with a 47% admit rate. The debt figure is the story: BYU-Hawaii graduates leave with roughly half the debt of their UH counterparts. The religious affiliation and honor code are central to the experience, so this is not a neutral choice, but for students it fits, the financial outcome is strong.

1. Hawaii Pacific University - ROI 48. Net price $29,657, median earnings $59,593, 35% completion. Highest earnings, highest price, and by far the lowest completion rate in the state. See below.

1. University of Hawaii at Hilo - ROI 47. Net price $11,856, median earnings $47,856, 48% completion, 61% admit rate. The Big Island campus: cheap, small, and the most selective of the UH campuses on paper, with the lowest earnings of the UH options.

1. Chaminade University of Honolulu - ROI 31. Net price $28,856, median earnings $52,343, 55% completion. A small Catholic university in Honolulu charging near-HPU prices for lower earnings.

The Completion Rate That Changes the Ranking

Hawaii Pacific University deserves a careful look, because on a naive reading it looks like the smart pick: its graduates earn more than anyone else's in the state.

Then you see the completion rate: 35%.

Here is what that means in practice. Roughly two out of every three students who enroll at HPU do not graduate from HPU. The $59,593 earnings figure describes the third who did. It tells you nothing about the majority who left, except that many of them left carrying debt without a degree.

We are not saying nobody should attend HPU. Transfer students, international students, and working adults all pass through schools like this, and completion rates undercount students who finish elsewhere. But if you are comparing a $29,657-a-year school with a 35% completion rate against a $15,664-a-year school with a 64% completion rate, an earnings gap of about $1,969 a year does not come close to covering the difference in both cost and risk.

That is the single most important tradeoff in Hawaii's college market, and the prestige rankings will never show it to you.

The Cost-of-Living Asterisk

Every earnings number on this page needs an asterisk we cannot put inside the score itself.

Hawaii has among the highest costs of living in the United States, driven overwhelmingly by housing. A median income of $57,624 in Honolulu is a materially different life than $57,624 in Columbus or Kansas City. Our ROI model measures what graduates earn against what the degree cost, consistently across all fifty states. It does not adjust for where the graduate ends up living.

So the practical question for a Hawaii family is one the data cannot answer for you: does your student intend to stay?

If yes, a UH degree with in-state pricing and local employer relationships is a rational, well-priced choice, and you should weight the local network heavily.

If your student is likely to work on the mainland, then these earnings figures look considerably better than they do in context, and the case for paying a premium at a private school gets even harder to make.

Schools To Think Twice About

Chaminade University of Honolulu scores 31, the lowest in our Hawaii set. It charges $28,856 net, nearly twice UH-Manoa, and its graduates earn $52,343, about $5,281 less than Manoa's. In our view the small-campus Catholic experience is a real thing to want, and on these numbers it is the only thing you would be paying for.

Hawaii Pacific University, discussed above, is the other one to weigh carefully rather than avoid outright. The earnings are genuinely strong. The odds of reaching them are not.

Cost vs Earnings by Major

Hawaii's economy is dominated by tourism and hospitality, healthcare, the military and federal government, and a modest professional and construction sector.

• Nursing and health professions - The best-paying reliable path in the islands. UH-Manoa and Hawaii Pacific both feed it; Manoa does it for roughly half the price.
• Business and hospitality management - Ubiquitous, and earnings depend heavily on whether the graduate stays in tourism or moves into corporate roles.
• Engineering and computer science - UH-Manoa is effectively the only serious option, and graduates often leave the state, which raises their earnings and removes them from the local economy.
• Marine science and environmental studies - UH-Manoa and UH-Hilo have genuine research strength. Earnings tend to be modest.
• Education - UH-West Oahu and UH-Manoa. Public teaching salaries set the ceiling.

The Bottom Line

For most Hawaii families, the answer is the University of Hawaii at Manoa: best-completing, best-earning, reasonably priced, and the state's real network.

If cost is the binding constraint and you live on the leeward side, UH-West Oahu at $10,327 a year is the cheapest degree in the islands and gives up surprisingly little.

If your student is a good fit for its community and honor code, BYU-Hawaii produces graduates with less than half the debt of anyone else in the state, and that is a real, durable advantage.

Before paying nearly double for Hawaii Pacific, look hard at the 35% completion rate and ask honestly which side of it your student lands on.

And if your student is likely to build a career on the mainland, run the numbers again with mainland salaries and mainland costs. The answer may be that the best Hawaii option is a mainland school.

Data sources: College Scorecard, IPEDS, as of 2024. Net price is the average across aided students; your number will differ. Median earnings are measured ten years after entry and are not adjusted for local cost of living.