By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 3, 2026
Six Hawaii colleges with pre-med programs, what they cost, and the SAT scores of the students they admit.
Hawaii has one medical school, it admits approximately 3% of applicants, and it states plainly that it has no preference about where an applicant did his undergraduate degree. That last point is covered after the table and it should take some pressure off the decision.
Scores are given by section rather than as a single total, because a student at 680 Reading & Writing and 590 Math is in a different position from a student at 590 and 680.
Table of Contents
- Hawaii Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
- Hawaii’s Only Medical School Says Your Undergraduate College Doesn’t Matter
- What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Hawaii Pre-Med Colleges by SAT Score
| College | Reading & Writing | Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Hawaii at Manoa | 548 to 653 | 533 to 640 | $26,433 | 15,029 | 87% |
| Hawaii Pacific University | 510 to 610 | 488 to 590 | $50,674 | 2,392 | 86% |
| Chaminade University of Honolulu | 490 to 625 | 480 to 625 | $45,798 | 1,672 | 91% |
| University of Hawaii at Hilo | 490 to 610 | 455 to 565 | $21,173 | 2,160 | 61% |
| Brigham Young University Hawaii | 480 to 620 | 480 to 570 | $25,098 | 2,889 | 47% |
| University of Hawaii West Oahu | 473 to 575 | 458 to 528 | $18,410 | 2,519 | 95% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted scores. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks.
Two patterns in that table are worth naming, and both are unusual.
Getting in is not the hard part. Four of these six colleges admit more than 85% of applicants. For most Hawaii students, admission to a Hawaii college is not what the SAT is for. Cost, programme fit and whether you stay in the state are the real decisions.
The private universities cost roughly twice the public ones. Hawaii Pacific is $50,674 and Chaminade is $45,798, against UH West Oahu at $18,410 and UH Hilo at $21,173. Brigham Young University Hawaii is the exception among the private schools, with tuition at $6,630 for all students, which is the lowest figure on this page.
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University of Hawaii at Manoa
The University of Hawaii at Manoa is the state flagship, in Honolulu, with 15,029 undergraduates. It is five times the size of any other school on this page and it is the university the John A. Burns School of Medicine belongs to.
Reading & Writing 548 to 653, Math 533 to 640. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 653 and 640. Cost of attendance $26,433, with tuition and fees at $12,186 in-state and $34,218 out-of-state. 15,029 undergraduates, 87% admitted.
Hawaii Pacific University
Hawaii Pacific University is a private university in downtown Honolulu with 2,392 undergraduates and the highest cost of attendance on this page.
Reading & Writing 510 to 610, Math 488 to 590. The top quarter scored at or above 610 and 590. Cost of attendance $50,674, with tuition and fees at $34,392. 2,392 undergraduates, 86% admitted.
Chaminade University of Honolulu
Chaminade University of Honolulu is a private Catholic university with 1,672 undergraduates, the smallest school on this page, and it has a long-standing biology and health sciences presence.
Reading & Writing 490 to 625, Math 480 to 625. The top quarter scored at or above 625 in both sections. Cost of attendance $45,798, with tuition and fees at $30,874. 1,672 undergraduates, 91% admitted.
University of Hawaii at Hilo
The University of Hawaii at Hilo is on the Big Island with 2,160 undergraduates, and it admits a smaller share of applicants than any public university on this page.
Reading & Writing 490 to 610, Math 455 to 565. The top quarter scored at or above 610 and 565. Cost of attendance $21,173, with tuition and fees at $7,838 in-state and $20,798 out-of-state. 2,160 undergraduates, 61% admitted.
Brigham Young University Hawaii
Brigham Young University Hawaii is a private university in Laie with 2,889 undergraduates, and it is both the most selective school on this page and the cheapest by tuition.
Reading & Writing 480 to 620, Math 480 to 570. The top quarter scored at or above 620 and 570. Cost of attendance $25,098, with tuition and fees at $6,630 for all students. 2,889 undergraduates, 47% admitted.
Its tuition is approximately half that of the public universities and approximately a fifth of Hawaii Pacific’s, which is worth understanding before dismissing a private university on price.
University of Hawaii West Oahu
The University of Hawaii West Oahu is in Kapolei with 2,519 undergraduates and the lowest cost of attendance on this page.
Reading & Writing 473 to 575, Math 458 to 528. The top quarter scored at or above 575 and 528. Cost of attendance $18,410, with tuition and fees at $7,584 in-state and $20,544 out-of-state. 2,519 undergraduates, 95% admitted.
Hawaii's Only Medical School Says Your Undergraduate College Doesn't Matter
The John A. Burns School of Medicine states on its own admissions FAQ that it has no preference as to the major, degree or undergraduate college, as long as the applicant fulfills the minimum admissions requirements and the science prerequisites. The choice of major, degree or college is left to the applicant.
That is worth reading twice if you’ve been agonising over the six schools above.
A student choosing between Manoa and Chaminade does not need to work out which one a medical school admissions committee would prefer. According to the school itself, the committee is reading the prerequisites and the record rather than the name at the top of the transcript.
One qualification. That’s one medical school’s stated policy, not a universal rule. It happens to be the policy of the only medical school in Hawaii, which is the one most Hawaii students apply to, so for this page it’s the relevant one. A student applying widely to mainland schools should check each school’s own statements.
Seventy-Seven Places, Most of Them for Residents
The scale is the other thing a Hawaii student should know before planning around it.
| Applications | 2,369 |
| Invited to interview | approximately 286 |
| Enrolled | 77 |
| Acceptance rate | approximately 3.25% |
| Hawaii residents among matriculants | approximately 79% |
Seventy-seven places, most of them for residents, out of nearly 2,400 applications.
JABSOM states that its first priority is to admit resident applicants with strong ties to Hawaii, and that all applicants go through a residency screen. That’s an advantage for a Hawaii student, and it’s worth being clear about what kind. It doesn’t make the process easy. It means a Hawaii resident is competing for the majority share of a very small number of places rather than against the full national field.
The school also gives consideration in its screening to applicants from Wyoming and Montana, states without medical schools of their own, certified through the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education.
Check the current figures and policies at JABSOM’s admissions pages before planning around any of this. Application numbers move year to year and the figures above come from a compilation rather than from the school directly.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
Being below a school’s published range doesn’t disqualify anyone. A quarter of the students admitted to every school on this list scored below its lower number.
Hawaii is a special case here, and it’s worth being direct about it. With four of the six colleges admitting more than 85% of applicants, your SAT score is doing less work for in-state admission than it would almost anywhere else in the country.
Where it does ordinary work is on a mainland application, and mainland applications are common for Hawaii students. It also matters for merit scholarships, which use scores at most institutions.
So the honest answer depends on your list. If you’re applying only within Hawaii, the score is not what stands between you and a place. If the mainland is in the picture, it works the way it works everywhere.
The number worth aiming for is the upper end of a school’s range, the one the top quarter cleared, rather than the middle. The reasoning behind that is on what SAT score you need for college.
The gap is measurable and so is the work to close it. A 70 to 130 point improvement takes approximately 40 hours of effective studying, based on the students we’ve worked with since 2008, and a 130 to 250 point improvement takes approximately 80.
How to improve your SAT score covers the method, including how to work out which topics are actually costing you points. If you don’t have a recent score to compare against, a free diagnostic SAT gives you one, broken down by section and by topic.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted scores. The lower number is the 25th percentile and the upper number is the 75th, which means a quarter of admitted students scored at or above it.
Because most colleges are now test-optional, these ranges describe only the students who chose to submit. Students with strong scores submit and students with weak ones don’t, so a published range sits higher than the range for everyone who was actually admitted. More on test-optional colleges.
That effect is worth keeping in mind at schools admitting close to 90% of applicants. A range from a school that takes almost everyone is describing its submitters, not its students.
Pre-Med Programs in Nearby States
Hawaii has no neighbouring states, so the choice to leave is a bigger one here than a state line crossing elsewhere.
The real costs are travel, distance from family, and out-of-state tuition at most public universities. Flights home at holidays add up over four years in a way that doesn’t show in any cost of attendance figure.
One thing that does not change if you leave. Going to the mainland for an undergraduate degree does not forfeit your standing with JABSOM. Its screen turns on residency and ties to Hawaii, not on where you took your degree. The assumption usually runs the other way, and it’s worth correcting before it narrows anyone’s list.
See pre-med colleges in California, pre-med colleges in Washington, and pre-med colleges in Oregon.
Pre-Med Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for pre-med programs in every state.
See pre-med colleges by state for the full list.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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