Surf Colleges

[zaGaffer]

If money is no object and you can get in, University of Hawaii wins no contest. If money is a concern, you want good waves and you still want to get into an excellent University; attend either San Diego City Community College or Mesa Community College for two years. Everbody gets in, excellent teachers (my favorite instructor ever, a C++ professor probably still teaches at City) and one of the best community college systems in the country. Keep your grades up and you get preferred admission to any Cal State or UC School. You can attend classes at City, Palomar, Mesa, Mira Costa and a couple of other campuses all in the same semester. I've never known anyone who had good grades to have any trouble transferring to either SDSU or UCSD. Worked for me.

~Oh yeah, this worked so well, that I did it on my own dime, grants & scholarships and walked with 0 debt, just FYI.

[surf05]

I am currently attending the University of Hawaii at Manoa this fall 2012 semester as an incoming freshman. Im an 18 year old surf addict from Long Island, New York and believe me, I am 100% stoked on this school choice. I figured focusing on school and surfing was the best way to go. Schools in California are very hard to get into, especially for out of staters. I applied to San Diego State and didn't get in. If you have average grades, You will have no problem getting in to UH Manoa since they want more out of state students. UH Manoa is an excellent school academically speaking offering over 200 degrees in Bachelor's, Master's, and Doctoral major fields. Not to mention the North Shores a 45 minute car ride away from the campus....you cant beat it dude. Its the perfect place to go to college if surfing is a priority for you. Ill post UH Manoa's website below, it's got a lot of info you'll need if your considering this school. Hope I helped and maybe ill see you out there!

http://manoa.hawaii.edu/

cool thanks for the advice. i think i'm definitely becoming much more serious about UH. i'll probably do more research about it over the summer then try to visit sometime this year if possible. surfing is definitely one of my main priorities and i can't think of a better place than hawaii to do that.

I live in Wilmington and UNCW is cool and all, but there is something different about California. I would advise checking out the left coast a little bit more. I made the mistake by staying on the east coast and regretted it after my freshman year - I spent my whole sophomore year trying to transfer to University of Southern California. California is way more than waves.

yeah i get that. did you end up transferring? i was just thinking uncw if i for whatever reason decided i should stay on the east coast.

I just noticed that you were "considering" Alaskan schools. The Denali area has a lot of really cool spots, including Yakutat Beach - my favorite, when it is not quadruple overhead. Make sure to take AK's "light" situation into consideration. Also, I would go to UA Anchorage over UA Fairbanks, simply because Fairbanks is straight ghetto.

i'm trying to get an idea of which part of alaska you can actually surf in and it looks like yakutat is a bit away from denali? google maps says denali's land locked lol. about how far of a drive would the closest school be to good surf? anchorage looks like its the closest to the coast but can you even find waves there? and the light situation is no problem for me because my sleep schedule is already screwed up as is.

Have you decided on what you will try to major in?

no not really. i'm interested in things like marine biology, oceanography, forecasting, and stuff like that related to the ocean and nature. psychology and business also interest me, as well as law but i don't know if i'm academically eligible for that.

If money is no object and you can get in, University of Hawaii wins no contest. If money is a concern, you want good waves and you still want to get into an excellent University; attend either San Diego City Community College or Mesa Community College for two years. Everbody gets in, excellent teachers (my favorite instructor ever, a C++ professor probably still teaches at City) and one of the best community college systems in the country. Keep your grades up and you get preferred admission to any Cal State or UC School. You can attend classes at City, Palomar, Mesa, Mira Costa and a couple of other campuses all in the same semester. I've never known anyone who had good grades to have any trouble transferring to either SDSU or UCSD. Worked for me.

~Oh yeah, this worked so well, that I did it on my own dime, grants & scholarships and walked with 0 debt, just FYI.

what are the financial benefits of attending a community college there first? i was wondering how that whole system works

[funkyspec]

The UH system, like most state higher ed systems, has different rates for in-state and out-of-state students. Once you've been on island for a year, you can become a Hawaii resident and qualify for in-state rates.

The UH system includes 4-year undergraduate/graduate institutions like UH Manoa, but also includes 2-year community colleges like Kapiolani Community College and Honolulu Community College. The per credit-hour cost for the community colleges is much cheaper than the 4-year schools, so you could go to community college for a couple of years and then transfer to a 4-year school to get your bachelor's.

You may also want to check out UH West Oahu.

There are also some private colleges on Oahu, Hawaii Pacific University and BYU-Hawaii (which is on the North Shore) come to mind.

You'll get year-round surf on Oahu and never need a wet suit. One of my friends lived a few blocks from the UH Campus on Dole St. and he rode his bike with surf rack to Waikiki and Diamond Head breaks. As zagaffer pointed out, you'll need a car to get to the North Shore, West Side, Windward Side, and East Oahu spots with a surfboard. The Bus goes all over the island, but you can only bring a bodyboard.

You'd be surprised how many local kids don't surf. (I taught for 7 years at Waianae High School and there were many of my students who grew up a 1/4 mile from the ocean and couldn't even swim.) But the ones who do rip and know the spots. Be nice, be humble, respect the local culture (not only Native Hawaiian culture, but the local culture in general - don't embarrass yourself by trying to speak pidgin), and some of your surfing classmates will befriend you and show the haole kid from mainland the local breaks.

[aka pumpmaster]

where do you live now? if you live on the EC you had better think travel back and forth for holidays etc. that's a lot of loot out of your pocket.

[zaGaffer]

what are the financial benefits of attending a community college there first? i was wondering how that whole system works

Here try this link:
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=san+diego+city+community+college

[Erock]

http://www.clarkhoward.com/categories/education/

Lots of info on how to do it as cheap as possible here too.

[TM79]

I graduated from UNCW 10 years ago (wow) . I didn't choose that college for surfing but ended up learning once I got down there. Don't mean to sound like a parent, but you also may want to choose a college based on what you'd like to do for the rest of your life (besides surfing). Don't end up like me with two degrees that you don't use and thousands of dollars in student loans that you'll be paying off for a long time. Surfing is a great thing, but it won't put a roof over your head and food on the table. The four (maybe five or six) years that you're in college will FLY by. Then you have this thing called work for the rest of your life...

Sorry, rant over. I'd shoot for the West Coast if I were you. You'll get way more time in the water than you would on the East Coast. I wouldn't recommend Hawaii. Everything is insanely expensive there and you are WAAAAYYYYYYY far away from home if you have a family emergency. Hope this helps. Good luck.

[dlrouen]

i'm trying to get an idea of which part of alaska you can actually surf in and it looks like yakutat is a bit away from denali? google maps says denali's land locked lol. about how far of a drive would the closest school be to good surf? anchorage looks like its the closest to the coast but can you even find waves there? and the light situation is no problem for me because my sleep schedule is already screwed up as is.

Denali is landlocked. I meant to say Denali Parkway - I believe that is the highway I took from Anchorage to Yakutat. It connects mainland to the southern regions/beaches. Ideally, Juneau is the closest "city" to Yakutat, but UAA is the best university in AK. There are a few Alaskans on this forum, hopefully, they will chime in. I was only there for a week and a half.

In order to transfer to USC, they wanted me to attend their summer school program, for placement purposes. I signed up for it, only to get a call a week later that they did not have any dorms open and that I would have to rent a place off campus. I ended up staying in Virginia.

Surfing may be your passion, but remember to look at the school's majors and networks, for post-graduation. Your collegiate surfing career will only last 4 years (hopefully) and then you come face to face with the real world, that will last a lifetime. A great job will open the doors to surf some of the world's best spots. Choose wisely.

[Stranded in Smithfield]

have you considered Old Dominion University?

Just kidding Virginia Beach blows... Hey I did live in Southern NC with the intentions of going to UNCW Grad school full time before I had move... can't speak for the school itself but chicks ...Yup. Atmosphere... Yup. Surf ...sometimes. It is EC conditions and someone will likely ***** about there being no surf but I did keep track of days surfed religiously for a few years and when I lived just north of there and I was averaging 3.5-4 days a week in the water. Downside of that stat is I traveled that stretch of AB to the SC border a lot to get mine as far as waves. You will be not welcomed some places (some surly locals very protective of their knee high waves) and have to scrap with the masses in others... o and I've heard that beach access has changed the last few years in Wrightsville but that's my 2 cents. If you've got the means go west... seems we all wind up back here eventually enjoy it while you can.

[kidrock]

unless someone is paying your way, I would highly recommend checking out the community college system in California like ZaGaffer stated. Considerably less expensive, all schools are located relatively close to the coast, schedules are flexible, curriculums are varied, and transferring to a major State University after receiving your AA is a virtual lock, and makes things financially viable.

If someone besides yourself is paying your way, then the sky's the limit, baby. Go for what you REALLY want.