University of Kansas

Admission to the University of Kansas is relatively accessible, with the university accepting the vast majority of its applicant pool. In the 2027 U.S. News Best Colleges ranking, the institution placed 148th, down from 115th in 2018. For 2025, the overall admit rate was 93.5%, higher than all peer schools in a comparison group of 30 similarly ranked public research universities. This high acceptance rate indicates that gaining entry is straightforward for most applicants. Despite admitting such a large proportion of candidates, the university shows solid drawing power compared to its institutional peers. Its yield rate reached 25.5% in 2025, higher than 83% of peer schools in that same group. While only about one in four admitted students enrolls, this conversion rate remains comparatively strong among peer institutions. For families building an application strategy, these figures mean gaining admission is very attainable, backed by steady interest from admitted students who choose to attend.

Applicants to the University of Kansas encounter moderate academic expectations, making the institution accessible for students with solid high school records. For the class entering in 2025, the median SAT score among enrolled students was 1190, a mark higher than 25% of peer schools in a comparison group of similar public research universities. Official records indicate that most enrolled students maintained high school grade point averages in the solid B-plus to A range. In unofficial applicant cases collected by Forward Pathway, which represent internal client outcomes rather than official institutional reporting, admitted international candidates presented a median unweighted GPA of 3.69 and a median SAT score of 1265. Prospective applicants who position their academic profiles around or above these benchmarks will find themselves well aligned with typical admission profiles. Because the university reviews applicants holistically within a broad public admissions framework, maintaining consistent classroom grades alongside competitive standardized testing provides a clear pathway to securing an offer of admission.

Academic programs at the University of Kansas feature a diverse distribution of undergraduate degrees alongside nationally recognized graduate strengths. Undergraduate completions are broadly dispersed rather than concentrated in a few fields, with the leading undergraduate majors accounting for 16% of the 4,308 bachelor's degrees awarded in 2025. The most popular bachelor's programs include Psychology, General Finance, and Journalism. However, these large undergraduate majors are not the university's highest-ranked programs. The institution's top academic standings appear primarily at the graduate level, where the 2026 U.S. News rankings placed its Special Education program at rank 1, Primary Care Medicine at rank 1, and Research Medicine at rank 2. Career outcomes highlight strong financial returns for engineering graduates. In 2023 earnings data, graduates in Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering achieved the highest median starting pay among bachelor's fields at $81,760 shortly after graduation. For applicants, this structure means students can pursue popular professional paths while recognizing that the school's elite national reputations lie in specialized professional and medical disciplines.

The student body at the University of Kansas is largely made up of domestic undergraduates, while global representation is concentrated primarily at the advanced study level. White students form the majority across campus programs, alongside growing Hispanic and Asian communities. Among incoming freshmen in 2025, Asian students numbered 256, representing 4.8% of first-year enrollment. International representation among first-year undergraduates remains modest, accounting for a minor fraction of the entering class. By contrast, postgraduate programs draw a substantial international cohort. In 2025, the graduate division enrolled 1,241 international students, who constituted 16.1% of all graduate students. Asian students also maintain a steady presence in graduate classrooms, reflecting consistent diversity across advanced academic disciplines. For prospective students, this demographic profile shows a classic flagship campus environment centered heavily around domestic undergraduate life, paired with a globally diverse research community at the postgraduate level.

Undergraduate enrollment at the University of Kansas is heavily concentrated among traditional college-age students. In 2025, students aged 18 to 19 made up 42.6% of the 22,085 undergraduates, and students aged 20 to 21 represented the second-largest share at 36.3%. Together, these cohorts indicate that undergraduate campus life is centered on young adults completing their degrees directly out of high school. In contrast, the 7,707 graduate students skew older. Those aged 25 to 29 constitute the single largest segment at 32.9%, followed by students in their early twenties and thirties. This separation in age profiles means the undergraduate environment revolves around early adulthood, whereas graduate degree programs primarily bring together individuals continuing their education after college or entering from early employment.

International enrollment at the University of Kansas shows contrasting trajectories between degree levels, with international students finding their deepest concentration in graduate technology programs. At the undergraduate level, international representation has contracted over the past decade, declining to 3.1% of undergraduates in 2025. Despite this decrease, the university's undergraduate international share remains higher than 70% of peer schools in a comparison group of similar public research universities. At the graduate level, global enrollment has held steady, reaching 16.1% of all graduate students in 2025. International degree recipients are heavily clustered in quantitative and technical fields rather than distributed evenly across disciplines. In 2025, the master's program in Computer and Information Sciences was overwhelmingly international, with foreign scholars making up 87.7% of all graduates. By contrast, popular undergraduate majors like psychology and finance graduated only a small international fraction. For prospective international applicants, these patterns indicate a domestic-oriented undergraduate setting alongside graduate programs that are highly integrated with global talent.

Applicants exploring regional university options in the Midwest have several public and private institutions located near the University of Kansas. Just 36 kilometers away, University of Missouri-Kansas City offers an urban campus setting and holds a rank of 250 in the 2027 US News rankings. Within the state of Kansas, Kansas State University is located 73 kilometers away in Manhattan, ranking 156th nationally, while Wichita State University sits 140 kilometers to the southwest with a rank of 288. Traveling north into Nebraska, University of Nebraska-Lincoln is 150 kilometers away and ranks 169th. These neighboring institutions give students strong public research alternatives within easy driving distance of Lawrence.

Campus safety at the University of Kansas has shown measurable improvement over the past decade, with overall incident rates trending downward. The university's crime rate per 1,000 students fell from 14.1 in 2016 to 8.7 in 2025. Campus records indicate that the majority of reported infractions stem from university disciplinary actions rather than violent offenses. Across the period from 2023 to 2025, alcohol disciplinary referrals formed the largest single category, totaling 588 incidents. Drug disciplinary referrals also represented a notable share of campus policy enforcement, with 157 incidents recorded over that same timeframe. Personal safety reports during those years included stalking, motor vehicle theft, and sexual offenses, though at significantly lower volumes than substance violations. For prospective students and their families, these records demonstrate an environment where overall safety conditions have improved, with routine enforcement focused primarily on campus alcohol policies and minor infractions.