University of Kansas Top Questions

What are the academics like at University of Kansas?

Karen

The most unique class I've taken was Prehistoric Life: DNA to Dinosaurs taught by Dr. Bruce Lieberman. It was the perfect class to satisfy my childhood dinosaur nerdiness. Each class period started out with a dinosaur of day short lecture where interesting facts and history of a certain dinosaur would be given. The semester lecture of evolution would then continue after that. One day after class, I approached my professor and began asking the questions I've always wondered about dinosaurs growing up. After that class peroid and for the rest of the semester, Prof. Lieberman, Curtis the TA, and I would walk up the hill to Geology building and I would bombard the both of them with my questions. I felt a bit like Timmy off of Jurassic Park. Professor Lieberman convinced me to check out the Geology Department and here I am, a geology student working in the soils lab! I highly recommend taking that class.

Andy

This semester, I don't have a single class with more than 20 people in it. And only one of them is taught by a TA--Spanish 111. But then, I was smart, and decided to take advantage of the honors program here at KU. Most favorite class is Econ 145, taught by a short Egyptian with a sense of humor like none other. He makes macro interesting and relevant--not the easiest thing to do in an entry-level class, where the only prerequisite is having passed an idiot's guide to calculus (Math 115). Least favorite would have been my Linguistics class last semester. I loved the topic, but it was a 8 a.m. class, so I only actually made it there a quarter of the time. Still got an A though--thank God for blackboard. OK, enough with the questions. I like the academics, otherwise I wouldn't have had KU as my first choice. I'm in the J department, got accepted as a freshman because of my wonderful ACT scores. I don't keep track of my professors outside of class, but that's mainly because I take full advantage of them in class, since most have an open discussion period. The requirements seem fair, although I don't see the point of letting freshman into the J school early and then not letting them take higher-up j classes right away. We were smart enough to get in, then we should be smart enough to take some of the classes a little early.

Doug

Most of my professors know my name. The best class taught here is Honors Western Civiliation (I and II). It is an amazing oportunity to understand our past, and why we are the way we are today. Some students never stop studying here. The school will keep you busy. In most classes you are graded on your participation. KU students continually have intellectual conversations outside of class. On my way back from class today I talked about Rousseou, Locke, and Marx with another KU student. Students are competitive in many regards, sports and positions, but academically each student does his or her best. The most unique class I have taken was a class on ACL injuries. We studied the leg, we disected a pigs leg, even helped with research on cadaviers. We also developed hypothesis on why ACL injuries are so much more common in women, and we developed possible experiments to run. I feel that KU does a good job of requiring a broad education, but I feel that engineers, architects, and fine arts majors should be less focused on their curriculum and also take more unrelated courses as well. (I was an engineering major last semester) I feel that engineering is all about getting a job, but I feel that in the School of liberal arts and sciences we are learning to discover more about ourselves and humanity.