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| Average | It really depends on your major, unless you do a engineering major or another tech major, but for the most part academics are about average. I'll admit, at first glance Lawrence doesn't look like much, but once you start exploring it, one realizes that it has a lot to offer. Just don't go west past K-State. But great bar and college life, all sorts of small stores that love having college students around. | Starting Job: Intelligence Officer, Preparedness: -, Reputation: B |  | |
| | Feb 23 2010 | Alumnus Male --
Class 2000 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Bright |
Lawrence is a racist town. On multiple occasions people have yelled racial slurs at me from afar on the street downtown. Once, they threw in "we don't want your type here!" for good measure before running away. Other incidents have been more serious, and required wait staff to call 911 on them.
Others will manifest such sentiments in more subtle ways. Even those who aren't driven by hate are so ignorant and sheltered that they inadvertently say demeaning and insulting things.
This obviously doesn't apply to every single person/student at KU but don't be fooled- it is an ignorant and prejudiced place. | Starting Job: Intelligence Officer, Preparedness: -, Reputation: B | | | |
| | Feb 16 2010 | 3rd Year Female --
Class 2013 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Quite Bright |
Don't go here if you're out of state, and don't go anywhere near here if you're an international student who attended an international or English speaking school.
Only go here if you're from Kansas or the KC Metro, and have friends and family in the area. But if that is the case, KU is a money saving option with a built in social network so none of what I say really applies.
The town sucks. If you have ever lived in a good city, you will be suffocated. There is only one street that is pedestrianized. The rest of the town is just badly maintained roads, and generic box outlet streets. If you don't have a car, you won't be able to buy groceries, go to a movie theater, go shopping, go to most of the fast food places, etc. Dining options, car or not, are largely limited to pizza, Chinese, Mexican and fast food. There are good foreign cuisine places, but the few that exist are too expensive to eat at on a regular basis. You won't find much variety, and if anything is good it is likely to be expensive.
You will find the 5-10 decent bars and clubs here fun your first semester, but again, if you're well travelled, you'll soon find you've done all of it and none of them are special.
Campus life is pathetic- the dorms hold something like 5% of the student population, who only live there for the first year, which means there is no long lasting community to speak of. It doesn't help that half the freshman class fails out every year, and given that there is no attempt at any kind of infrastructure for upperclassmen, living in the dorms doesn't expose you to many people at all. The dorms themselves have more rules and regulations than most others in the country, and most of them are completely dead and quiet, although one (McCollum) is infamous for its fire alarms and drunken vandalism. Keep in mind that since this place will admit anyone who has graduated any high school anywhere, you're going to be surrounded by people who aren't intelligent or ambitious. This aspect of the environment manifests itself constantly- the inane student paper, the conversations you'll overhear on campus, the gum under every desk in Wescoe Hall, a giant chalk drawn sign exclaiming "IT'S 420 SMOKE WEED" that hasn't been cleaned off for a year, and the general level of competition you face (and hence your motivation to push yourself)
The worst thing about KU is that it only exists for the convenience of locals, and is no place for anyone who didn't go to high school here. People tend to be artificial and while it's easy to find people to get drunk with, 90% of people who come here come with their friends, and therefore no one is trying to meet new people and treat interactions with you accordingly- as just a momentary diversion. All the regular ways of meeting people when you're new in town tend to be weaker here- most campus groups are for Christian denominations, and not much else.
Also, when pretty much the entirety of the student population come from KC or a handful of small towns in a landlocked state, you'll feel out of place if you've seen much of the world, or even if you're used to living in a slightly diverse place.
If it isn't obvious yet, the social scene is nonexistent- your options are your pre-existing friends (and friends of those) or join a frat/church. Most international students only hang out with others from their country, and these groups do not speak English when they socialize, so unless you are comfortable with that, it's not an option either.
Around town, you'll find wayward part time art students ("local artists") and other locals who failed out of school or have worthless lib arts degrees and just hang out trying to generate hype for a quaint local business or some other inconsequential project. In other words, picture a bunch of failed musicians, acid dropping painters and 6th year philosophy students hanging out in a dingy coffee shop and you have the Lawrence scene.
The problem is that Kansas is such a derelict and backward state that the residents of Lawrence consider themselves special. The rest of Kansas being the way it is gives them the ground to stand on. The sad thing is that most intelligent and talented people go far, far away from this place, so nothing's going to change in that respect.
I haven't talked about the academics much because they are decent- they are more or less what you'd expect from a diploma mill state school. You'll find some classes really easy and some extremely easy professors as well as tough ones. Most of my professors have been decent, a few may have bad attitudes or difficulties with English but this is the case at any state school. In terms of academics you get what you're paying for, but outside of the midwest where people are aware of this school, the name Kansas carries a stigma that many other states don't, and employers in the area who do know about KU expect a higher GPA than they would from other schools.
Again, if you're from the area, this really can be great school to go to, given how much money you save, and the fact that you have a built in network of friends and will always be running into people you know.
But if you're not from here there's no reason to go. It won't be entirely unpleasant, but it's not going to be a great college experience to look back on. I wish someone would have explained all of this to me before I went, but they paint a really different picture because they're desperate for out of state students. I hope I can help others avoid making the same mistake I did. | Campus Aesthetics: A+, Education Quality: F | | | |
| | Dec 17 2009 | 4th Year Male --
Class 2010 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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| Average | This is a fairly good school to be at if you're into major sporting scene. People seem to have nothing much to do but flooding the stadium or field house during sporting seasons. Bus services are horrible and not on time. It's true that you will meet lots of spoilt brats around and extracurricular activities are mostly, at least more than 80% dominated by cliques and greek societies. I had few failure attempts when I tried to join some clubs, they would make you feel welcomed on the first meeting but eventually forcing you out. International student association is pathetic, often failed to recognize people from country unheard by them. They made no effort to bring people together. Enrollment system is worse, advisors are totally unnecessary and they just wish to get on to the next student whenever you are having appointment with them. Lecturers are almost unapproachable, I have 1 200 level and 1 400 level science classes with more than 300 students. It's nearly impossible to meet professors during normal time like say, before 5pm. Some of them will be free only after 7.30pm. This is crazy. And one of my 400 level classes is taught by a Chinese professor half way through that can't seem to pronounce English very well. I am an international student who do not have a car and so my life is hard as rock on the campus. Everything is so far away apart even the campus dorm itself. On campus job for international students are hard to get except for dining services, which you may be lucky if some of the old staffs happen to leave their posts. This may seem to be a very nice Uni to attend on the brochure because their marketing department is good at their jobs. College apparels are ridiculously expensive and horrendous looking but you'd buy it if you're big fans of Jayhawks. I think they've been spending a lot on their athletic teams than academic quality. I wish they would just build more classes. Overall, this is a pretty self absorbed place, people are not readily prepared to accept new things other than those that they aready knew. If you're into sports and nothing else, come here by all means but if you're into quality education, this is not the best place. I am transferring to a smaller Uni with smaller student-faculty ratio. KU is around 1:21. | Campus Aesthetics: A, Extracurricular Activities: D | | | |
| | Nov 18 2009 | 1st Year Male --
Class 2012 | | Blog it!Blog about this comment from your webpage or Blog, or MySpace account:
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