University of Kansas Top Questions

Leadership experience and intellectual developpement.

My college experience has taught me responsibility and discipline. By the completion of my Bachelor's degree, I will have spent a total of seven years completing classes in the undergraduate curriculum. This is mostly due to the fact that I changed majors once, but I also transferred schools. This is also partly due to a couple semesters that I felt school was not that important to me. Now, I realize how valuable my education is and I sincerely regret my lack of ambition during those semesters. I am on track to complete my degree by the Spring of 2012 and it is getting harder and harder to make sure I have enough money complete this goal. Graduating from college is now my number one priority and I take it very seriously. If not for the demand of performance from my professors, I would have taken this education for granted. I cannot express how thankful I am to have learned these lessons now while it is not too late for me to succeed in the classroom, and in my life after graduation.

I'm happy now. It's a new thing for me.

My college has helped me fullfill my dreams of beieng able to do what I love to perfection of working on cars. I never thought I would be someone to attend college because I have always hated school. Now I love waking up every morning to go to school and do what I've always wanted to do!

KU has always been my dream. Now I'm here and it's amazing. I'm surrounded by amazing people, a beautiful campus, and I know I'm getting the best education. I've made real connections here and it's now my home. I've been able to find myself and express myself the way I want. KU is a great place to be you, everyone gets along and everyone is treated like the best.

I have learned to push myself hard for the academic goals I want. I have been given a great foundation for research and my studies through the facility at KU. This is valuable to me because this education is what I need to get me to the career and life I want to live, which is a career as a professor at a university just like the one I attend. Here at KU, I am able to study classes and material in and out of class that interests me and fulfills my desire for knowledge. I have always had an extreme passion for learning and going to college here has helped fulfill that passion.

I believe it has been valuable to attend The University of Kansas not only because it has allowed me to be achieving a degree at one of the best universities in my opinion, it has allowed me to learn more about myself and venture away from the help of my parents. I have learned a lot about myself and have met so many new and wonderful people here. My college experience so far has been a lot about life lessons and learning to grow as a person, which I believe is very important. I am excited to learn many more things and become more and more independent each and every day. Without attending a 4-year university, I don't believe I would have learned these vauluable first-year lessons that I have learned so far by attending The University of Kansas. I am grateful for these lessons that I am learning each and every day no matter how challenging they may be.

My college experience has been just average so far. I have been stressed financially to go to a 4 year university, so I have been staying at home and going to a community college. I do have to say, it has been a great learning experience, the classes have been challenging and rewarding and I have been learning a lot. It is just not the same as being away from home. I think that going to a community college has been good because although I have been stuck at home with my family, I still attend my home church. I was fortunate enough to have the time to fundraise through my church and go on a month long mission trip to Belize. It was a great eye-opening experience. I was put into a culture completely different from my own and was able to grow as a person. I gained long-lasting memories and relationships. So although community college hasn't given me the whole social aspect of a university it did give me time to do some traveling and mission work. That is valuable in itself. However, with this money it will help me pursue my goals further.

During my college experience I have discovered myself. KU has allowed me to get involved in activites that help the community and give me life experiences I could not have received anywhere else. I have gained independence and have met many wonderful individuals through college activities and classes. My courses have allowed me to work to my potential and achieve my academic goals. The information that I learn in my courses is relevant, valuable and hands on. I get great in the field experience at KU and I get to be involved in community as well. I have been able to get a great education and life skills that I will have forever. The activities and experiences that I have gotten from KU have shaped who I am and have made me a better person. Without KU, I would not be the person I am today, nor would I have the same experience and knowledge.

College is a nice wall of reality. You slam into it pretty hard, but it's at a slant, helping you to get back up on your feet. I was a student that didn't need to study in high school. I had moved so much throughout grade school that my friendships, for the most part, were short lived. College has helped to not only improve myself as a student, but my social competence as well. It has been a difficult adjustment, though well worth the difficult work. Long nights in front of a paper and textbooks are more and more common as I struggel to define the mechanism of an organic reaction or the pathway of expression for an allele. Add in a part-time job and it becomes a massive juggling act. I now also have more than my family to care about. I work to memorize birthdays and schedules so I can congragulate my friends with a present or after a difficult test. It's a bit more work than I was accustomed to growing up, but I love the trust , support and confidence we give eachother through these early college years.

Attending university made me realize that time was a key component of success. Using time wisely and limiting distractions is what the University of Kansas has taught me, and has made me a better student.

It is difficult to sum up and put into so few words the tremendous value I place on the experiences I've had while attending a short year and a half at the University of Kansas. I am from Colorado and was terrified to move from Denver- a large metropolitan area just a short distance from the mountains I'd grown up around; to Lawrence- a small college town surrounded by farms; where "downtown" consists of one single road called "Mass St.," often occupied by hippies and the homeless. To my surprise, I developed an immediate love for this place through the presence of others. Whether it was during athletics, in my classes, or just walking through campus, everyone I met when I first came here had such an enthusiastic, welcoming spirit. Jayhawk pride was always undeniable. The dorm experience introduced me to friendships I know I'll have forever. I've found a degree I'm excited to pursue and unlike high school, I actually enjoy what I'm learning. It's cliché but I've never been as happy as I am at KU and I'm excited for the future this education is going to provide.

Upon transferring to the University of Kansas from a local community college, I was exposed to a very different world. Suddenly I became aware of the vibrancy and diversity of Kansas life. The staff and faculty are open-minded and progressive. They welcome new students with open arms and do everything possible to help them to adjust to the unique KU atmosphere. I have also learned valuable study habits from my peers. As a premed student I was able to find others with similar goals and given a chance to fit into my own niche within the community. The emphasis placed on outreach and involvement made it simple to find a volunteer organization tailored to my goals and interests. Finally, the culture of the University of Kansas itself sets it apart from other schools. While the student body is diverse, there is an unrivaled level of school spirit. I truly believe that most Jayhawks would agree that there is nothing like singing the alma mater or hearing the chimes of the campanile bells. Becoming a student of KU has instilled within me a desire to give back to my community and find my own place to grow. Rock Chalk!

A lot of my experiences started to culminate my senior year of high school. I am now in the first semester of my sophomore year in college, and my experiences are still culminateing to explain and teach me. I imagine they always will. One thing I have recently learned of myself pertains to my belief system. It was something I picked up and tweaked from a Kevin Smith movie, "Dogma," from which I saw from my search of wisdom and truth through comedy. The basic idea I pulled away from the movie was to not hold beliefs but to hold ideas, as an idea is easy to change and work with as opposed to a belief. I took this idea and with help from quotes I have read and morphed it to fit me and I found that once one believes something it is almost impossible to see past the darkness you have created. This may seem like a silly experience to you but my attendance of the University of Kansas and a few of its professors have helped to shape my views, or lack of; whereas in my hometown ignorance would have taken over.

While I may be a few years away from attaining my degree, my return to school has been accompanied by a passion that I lacked in my youth. I am not here because someone told me I had to be, or thought I should be. I am here for me and only myself. I have long anticipated the opportunity to return to school, and I plan to make the most of it. I cannot change the past, but I can make the future much brighter. My degree will certainly be my torch to light my path into the career I have dreamt of for the better part of my life.

So far I have learned the value of applying ones self to achieving a goal, and to not give up. That is incredibly crucial to every person looking to better their lives and the lives of those around them. This place can offer you the opportunity to test your true potencial.

My college experience has been very beneficial to my life so far. I now know that I want to major in business, open up my own company, and build upon that. The college I am attending, Harrisburg Area Community College, has been very supportive in helping me with financial aid, determining a major, and finding classes that would work with my schedule as well as having the capability to transfer those credits if I decide to go to a university later on. College taught me responsibility, to think for myself, and how to become a better person so I can have the future I desire.

During my college experience so far, I have learned a great deal about the interactions between people. Thanks to a majority of my Psychology classes, I have a much better understanding of the way the human mind works and how people interact. I have also been fortunate enough to take classes from professors that are at the fore front of their fields. We are able to see and interpret Psychological studies in class just days after they have been completed. The knowledge that I have gained from my 3 years here has been invaluable and I would not trade the whole experience for anything else.

The most valuable thing I have received from my college experience thus far is how to study. I went to a very good high school, but even so I never knew how to really study. I would memorize the information for a short term, just so I could do well on the test, and then I would forget it. However, in college I love what I am learning. Because of that, I really want to learn and remember the information. I spend a lot more time reading material, making notecards, and studying with friends.

My education matters a great deal to me. Education is a catalyst for forward progress, and college is the best place to obtain an education. College opens up countless opportunities for one’s future, including better job options and chances for personal growth. A college education is fundamentally different from secondary education. In college, you are in charge of your education. Students are expected to think for themselves, ask questions of experts they now have access to, and explore courses and degrees that didn’t exist in high school. As Albert Einstein said, “Information is not knowledge.” A high school education teaches students how to pass tests and memorize information. A college education teaches students how to learn. University life exposes students to new subjects, people, and ideas. Its influence in my life has been extraordinary. The counselors, professors, and other undergraduates I have met helped me discover what particular disciplines I most enjoy, make the connections that will support me the rest of my life, and construct a plan to follow the dreams that give me hope. Education matters to me, as it should matter to anyone wishing to make a difference in this world.