University of Kansas | Student Reviews | Best College

Student Profile

Surya

Class: Sophomore
Major: Engineering
Gender: F

High School: Olathe South High School
Transfer Student: N

Big Picture

When I tell people I go to KU, they either say "Oh! okay!" and start telling me about their sibling/offspring/parent/second cousin once removed who goes/went here. If they're K-State fans, it's more of a sigh of resignation. If you ever question KU's overall school pride, go to a home football or men's basketball game. Even if you go to an away game, there's always huge turnout, lots of noise. Alumni come to visit and go to games all the time. There's no question of our school pride. When I got here I was kind of apathetic about it all, the cheers were weird, etc. But if you're surrounded by people who "get" the KU pride thing, then you really get into it quickly. Coolest experience? Seeing Sasha Kaun all over the engineering building. As an engineering student, I think it's awesome that he can maintain a tough schedule while playing basketball. And he's tall. Student complaints... well, the dining hall food does get a little old after a while. Mrs. E's is great, but sometimes, you just want something else... and then there are plenty of places to eat off campus that are cheap and cater to the poor, destitute college student. Still, Thanksgiving dinner at the dining hall is pretty good. If I could change a few things, I might make the engineering building a little prettier, not quite so brickish. KU is great size wise for me. It's huge, but it's really easy to make friends because of it. At the same time, once you get going in your major, you keep seeing the same people over and over again, especially if you're in a professional school. Those people are your support system, so be nice to them. I spend a ton of time in Anschutz library. My freshman year, I took a fairly heavy courseload, so I need that time and space to finish all my work. The strange thing is, more than half the people I know I met in Anschutz. We're all library junkies, so it work out for us. It's weird, but we take a certain amount of pride in it.

Academic Life

The main thing to remember is that there are a lot of choices at KU. If you decide to take large, 200-300 person classes, and you don't go to see your professor, most of them won't know your name. You have to make an effort. Honors classes are smaller, allowing the profs. to get to know you better. Just like any other place, you'll find a few profs who don't care, a few TAs who don't care, but a lot of people here will do whatever they need to to help you out, you just have to ask. Students can have intellectual discussions outside of class, definitely... it depends on who you hang out with though. Recently, my roommate and a few friends went on a Jane Austen movie binge. The same group of us were having discussions on evolution, religion, politics, things like that. It all depends on what you want out of your experience. Miscellaneous academia: some students, like my impromptu library club study a lot. Some students don't care at all and never study, but most are in between. Some participate in class, some don't... you can tell how interesting a class is by how much people talk in it and about it. There's a spectrum of competitive and non-competitive students. Chemical Engineering: I've made friends in my class, of course. After the first or second semester, you realize that you'll be spend A LOT of time with these folks, especially your senior year. You won't be able to get away from them, so learn to like them. Professional schools tend to push internships and career fairs, but a lot of classes are there for learning/interest. The work load is dependent on your decisions: as a pre-med chemical engineering major, it gets pretty hairy. Friends that are music majors are constantly in rehearsal, but other choose not to participate as much. A lot of this comes down to your own decision.

Student Body

There are people from all over the place here, from all walks of life, with different experiences. There are lots of international students, and with that comes all of the ethnic student organizations, which are really quite awesome. Beware, some student orgs are not as organized as others. If you look, you'll find something worth participating in. Lots of Christian groups on campus, as far as I can tell. It's asking me what students wear to class... er... clothing, generally. As opposed to barrels. Jeans, tshirts, hoodies (90% of which have a Ku label on them) but no one really cares... I've seen people wears suits to class, and some wear the pajamas they woke up in. Most students are from Kansas, lots from the eastern half. There are tons of international students though, so if you want to connect with them, it's quite easy. The campus is primarily white, which is to be expected, living in Kansas, but there's tons of Indians and East Asians (go look in the library and the engineering building). Most students are somewhere in the middle class financially speaking. Students were pretty politically active during the presidential primaries this year. Again, those who want to participate can, and those who are apathetic, or don't have time, don't have to.