University of Kansas

The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest in the U.S. state of Kansas. K.U. branch campuses are located in the towns of Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, Salina, and Kansas City, Kansas, with the main campus located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest location in Lawrence. Founded March 21st, 1865, the university was opened in 1866, under a charter granted by the Kansas State Legislature in 1864 following enabling legislation passed in 1863 under the Kansas State Constitution, adopted two years after the 1861 admission of the former Kansas Territory as the 34th state into the Union following a very famous bloody internal civil war known as "Bleeding Kansas" during the 1850s.The university's Medical Center and University Hospital are located in Kansas City, Kansas. The Edwards Campus is in Overland Park, Kansas, in the Kansas City metropolitan area. There are also educational and research sites in Parsons and Topeka, and branches of the University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita and Salina. The university is one of the 62 members of the Association of American Universities.Enrollment at the Lawrence and Edwards campuses was 23,597 students in fall 2014; an additional 3,371 students were enrolled at the KU Medical Center for a total enrollment of 26,968 students across the three campuses. The university overall employed 2,663 faculty members in fall 2012.On February 20, 1863, Kansas Governor Thomas Carney signed into law a bill creating the state university in Lawrence. The law was conditioned upon a gift from Lawrence of a $15,000 endowment fund and a site for the university, in or near the town, of not less than forty acres  of land. If Lawrence failed to meet these conditions, Emporia instead of Lawrence would get the university.The site selected for the university was a hill known as Mount Oread, which was owned by former Kansas Governor Charles L. Robinson. Robinson and his wife Sara bestowed the 40-acre  site to the State of Kansas in exchange for land elsewhere. The philanthropist Amos Adams Lawrence donated $10,000 of the necessary endowment fund, and the citizens of Lawrence raised the remaining cash by issuing notes backed by Governor Carney On November 2, 1863, Governor Carney announced that Lawrence had met the conditions to get the state university, and the following year the university was officially organized. The school's Board of Regents held its first meeting in March 1865, which is the event that KU dates its founding from. Work on the first college building began later that year. The university opened for classes on September 12, 1866, and the first class graduated in 1873.During World War II, Kansas was one of 131 colleges and universities nationally that took part in the V-12 Navy College Training Program which offered students a path to a Navy commission.The 2014 U.S. News & World Report rankings listed KU as 101st in the category "national universities" and 47th among public universities. The U.S. News & World Report "Americas Best Graduate Schools" rankings have ranked 49 KU programs since 2008, 35 of which are ranked in the top 40 among public university programs.The University of Kansas is a large, state-sponsored university, with five campuses. KU features the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences, which includes the School of the Arts and the School of Public Affairs & Administration; and the schools of Architecture, Design & Planning; Business; Education; Engineering; Health Professions; Journalism & Mass Communications; Law; Medicine; Music; Nursing; Pharmacy; and Social Welfare. The university offers more than 345 degree programs.In its 2015 list, U.S. News & World Report ranked KU as tied for 106th place among National Universities and 50th place among public universitiesWorld War II Memorial Campanile
The city management and urban policy program and the special education program are ranked first in the nation by U.S. News & World Report's "America's Best Graduate Schools" among public university programs. It also recognized several programs for ranking in the top 25 among public universities.The KU School of Engineering is an ABET accredited, public engineering school located on the main campus. The School of Engineering was officially founded in 1891, although engineering degrees were awarded as early as 1873.In the U.S. News & World Report’s America’s Best Colleges, 2014 issue, KU’s School of Engineering was ranked 45th among public schools nationwide. National rankings for individual programs included Petroleum Engineering at ninth and Aerospace Engineering at 33rd. Automotive programs such as the Jayhawk Motorsports and the KU Ecohawks are popular design teams operating for years on campus.Notable alumni include: Alan Mulally (BS/MS), President and CEO of Ford Motor Company, Lou Montulli, co-founder of Netscape and author of the Lynx web browser, Brian McClendon , VP of Engineering at Google, Charles E. Spahr (1934), former CEO of Standard Oil of Ohio.Tuition at KU is 13 percent below the national average, according to the College Board, and the University remains a best buy in the region.Beginning in the 2007–2008 academic year, first-time freshman at KU pay a fixed tuition rate for 48 months according to the Four-Year Tuition Compact passed by the Kansas Board of Regents. For the 2014–15 academic year, tuition was $318 per credit hour for in-state freshman and $828 for out-of-state freshmen. For transfer students, who do not take part in the compact, 2014–15 per-credit-hour tuition was $295 for in-state undergraduates and $785 for out-of-state undergraduates; subject to annual increases. Students enrolled in 6 or more credit hours also paid an annual required campus fee of $888. The schools of architecture, music, arts, business, education, engineering, journalism, law, pharmacy, and social welfare charge additional fees.