The Ups and Downs of living on the Hill...

Introduction
The University of Kansas is your basic university. With over 25,000 students there is something for everyone to get involved in and plenty of major choices. The location kind of sucks considering it is in Kansas, but the campus is beautiful and Kansas City is only 30 minutes away. Lawrence is an awesome town known for its music scene and the fabulous bars! Sporting events are a major thing here and most students will attend football and basketball games, even if they don't give a crap about our teams. I chose KU because the program I am interested in has a national reputation and the campus is very homey, despite being located on a ridiculously large hill, especially for Kansas! KU really has something for everyone, and most people find a place to fit in. Lawrence is a very liberal town but there are large conservative groups on campus. The Greek system plays a large role in the community but won't determine your future at KU. If that is your style you will find a great Chapter for you; if it's not then you will also find a new place to call home.

Campus Life and Social Life
Mass. St. is the busiest street in Lawrence and is considered downtown. There are numerous bars and restaurants along with some pretty kickass shopping. The coffee shops on Mass are the best and there will always be live music at one of the venues. Basically everyone in Lawrence lives for the weekends, and for good reason. The night scene here is suprising lively, especially for a smaller town like Lawrence. Three local bars dominate the rest and chances are you will find a friendly face at Bullwinkles, The Hawk, or The Wheel on a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night. Like I said earlier, sports are pretty big on campus. There are hundreds of clubs for all different things. You can play intramural sports to keep in shape as well. The only problem with the social life is that Lawrence is limited. Once you have done it all there really isn't much more excitement. However, the town is constantly growing. Topeka is about 30 minutes west and Kansas City is about 30 minutes east. KC has some great hot spots as well so if you get bored with Lawrence, it is only a short drive away! Advertisement
Academics
The University of Kansas is an excellent school when it comes to being compared nationally. It has some of the best programs out there, but also suffers in some other areas. The schools of Journalism, Education, and Business have been consistently recognized as being awesome. Our foreign language department could use some work and our film program is not the best. When compared to other schools in the midwest, the workload is much higher. KU is a hard school and that comes with a lot of work and tests. The Professors are awesome for the most part and the TA's really know what they are doing. They check up on them frequently so they are guaranteed to do the job well.

Student Body
There really is no way to describe the typical student. You will walk down Jayhawk Boulevard and see a girl dressed in a polo, pearls, jeans and uggs with those huge sunglasses on then bump into someone dressed as a ninja. No seriously, that has happened to me. It is a very artistic school so you will find a lot of people like that but in general it is pretty diverse. The majority of KU students are from Wichita, Topeka, Kansas City, and Omaha/Lincoln Nebraska. However, you will find quite a few people from Texas, the Chicago area, St. Louis and Colorado.

In Closing...
For the most part I enjoy going to school at KU and living in Lawrence. There are always set backs and I mean school is school, so how good can it be? But Lawrence is basically the ultimate college town! If you ever stop by, make sure to hit up the bars!