Uni in the USA: A British Guide to American Universities and Colleges > All New: Colleges and Universities Added in 2009 > The University of Kansas (KU) (new review!)
Lawrence, Kansas
Undergrads: 20,300
Grads: 9,000
How many KU students does it take to change a light bulb?
Just one, and if you shine it from the top of the Fraser Building you can see it from the other side of Kansas.
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So you think you know all about Kansas. Tornados, endless fields of wheat, schools that don’t teach evolution and innocent little girls with plaits, right? Think again. While it may be true that the Dorothy State is a big, hot, empty rectangle of flatness, Kansas University is about as similar to its surroundings as a cowardly lion to a talking scarecrow. For a start, it’s on a hill. In fact, it occupies the second highest point in the whole state, the highest being part of a large mound that is mostly in Colorado. Then there’s the liberal, activist politics, the teacher who got fired for his class on intelligent design, the famous scientific breakthroughs, and of course, the town of Lawrence, which rivals Berkeley as the weirdest student community in the country. You can hardly tell you’re in the centre-most American state.
The Campus
KU has a hulking great campus, spread lavishly across a prominence in the Midwestern plain, previously known as “Hogsback Ridge” but now named “Mt. Oread” to sound more prestigious. Because there’s not really any ambiguity about it, most KU students call it simply, “the hill”. The official reason for the university’s location is that the founders wanted to make the “higher” education metaphor a bit more literal, but the truer story is that, being the only unfarmable land in the entire state, it was the sole patch that the governor was willing to donate for a public university. Whatever the reason, be prepared for some climbing on your walk to class, good sledding opportunities in the winter, and some great views of most of the rest of the Midwest.
The buildings are mostly modern, bricky and occasionally ugly and concrete, though there are a few nice sandstone ones too. Facilities are superb, including a library with so many books that at one point they had to put up shelves in the toilets to accommodate them all, and a massive Rec Centre complete with climbing wall and virtual golf simulator. The student union has its own bowling alley along with the usual range of eateries and performance venues.
Though there is ample student housing throughout the town, most freshmen and quite a few sophomores live in the on-campus dorms, most of which are newly-renovated and high-quality. They are also arranged into interesting groups, such as the “community service” block or the “creative arts” block. There are fun, thriving communities in these blocks, but also worth considering are the “skol halls”; cheap, exciting housing for fifty-or-so residents originally intended as scholarship students but actually available to anyone who’s doing fairly well with their studies.
The Jayhawk
Students at KU are a mixed but universally pleasant bunch. Expect plenty of folk from the Midwest: if you’ve ever wanted to meet people who grew up in towns which consist of one street and a liquor store, then this is where you’ll find them. That’s not to suggest that KU folks are slow-paced, backward or right-wing – in fact they are the exact opposite.
KU led the way in student demonstrations during the 60s and 70s, at the forefront of the liberal wave that fought against things like Vietnam and racial injustices. The place is still full of left-wing “kooks”, as non-Lawrence Kansans sometimes call them. It is very easy to get in touch with your eccentric side at KU, and many of the people you’ll meet are downright mad. This lends a certain passion to many of the goings on – and a strong intensity of focus on one’s interests.
The liberal atmosphere also means that despite other indications (over 80% Caucasian, lots of Greek life) KU is a very accepting place, where you’ll encounter many different and bizarre types of people and find it very easy to get on with them all.
Hitting the Books
Professors are a well-picked bunch; students feel that their teachers have their best interests at heart and are more than well-qualified enough to impart an excellent level of education. While you might not be having beers with them after class, professors do make an effort to be available and maintain a good contact with their students.
You may find that class sizes can be a problem in some of the introductory or popular courses, though by state university standards it’s really not too bad. Besides, students tell us that the big lectures are often taught by the best professors, and they try especially hard to keep the students occupied and paying attention, so that the big classes can sometimes be the best!
Classes are normally well-taught and interesting – especially in certain standout courses (ask around to find out about the best of what’s on offer) – and big name speakers are not infrequent (the likes of Bill Clinton and Madeleine Albright visited recently). The only complaint we heard is that courses can occasionally lack rigour. Expect plenty of multiple-choice tests.
This is not to say students at KU are not as clever or hardworking as their counterparts at similar universities. While they certainly leave time for other interests and socialising, there is a healthy work culture, and you’ll find almost no one slacking when finals come around. One benefit of attending a big research university like KU (where helium was first isolated and the man who discovered Pluto did his experiments), is that there are lots of brilliant research opportunities available to undergraduates, who “commonly” get to take part in really interesting graduate-level work across a big range of fields.
If you’re interested in studying in a different country, or just escaping temporarily to somewhere within 1,000 miles of an ocean, then you’re in luck, because KU has one of the best study-abroad programs in the country, with about a third of the students participating.
Social Life
KU’s social life is fairly inseparable from the town around it. There’s all the usual stuff going on on campus (student groups, sports, protests), but most students are just as likely to take the 10-15 minute walk down the hill to Massachusetts Ave. (if someone asks you if you want to head “down to Mass” it doesn’t mean they’re trying to convert you to Catholicism) as they are to visit the uber-well-equipped Rec Centre, one of the campus cafes, or the lake. In town, you’ll find heaps of trendy joints, alternative culture outlets, party clubs, parks and of course student housing, with enough of interest to keep most kids entertained for years.
KU, like every state school worth its salt, is extremely competitive when it comes to sports, especially basketball. Game days are a huge event, and expect to see (if not be inside) hundreds of tents in the queue to get tickets. School spirit is obligatory, and one of the first things you’ll learn is the famous “rock chalk jayhawk” chant, used to intimidate opposition athletes.
It may interest some prospective applicants that KU has one of the most successful debating teams in the country, having won the National Debating Championships five times (fourth best record of any university), including the most recent championship in 2009. The debating society is open to everyone and affords excellent public speaking practice.
Getting In
Financially, KU is a bargain, charging considerably less than similar level schools, even for international students. It doesn’t offer much by way of need-based aid, but there are a few scholarships knocking about for international students to take a peak at.
KU has a fairly basic admissions process, which focuses mainly on your secondary school record and test scores – good A levels will be impressive.
Famous Grads
Kathleen Sibelius – Previous governor of Kansas and member of the Obama cabinet
Bob Dole – Republican Presidential nominee and Majority Leader of the US Senate
Mandy Patinkin – actor, most famously Inigo Montoya in The Princess Bride