For those interested in studying in Kansas, we have a very useful list. We selected the best Kansas institutions for prospective students. Please know that rankings are based on academic research, alumni reviews, graduation rates, as well as assessment from peer colleges. On the page, you will find major admissions stats such as acceptance rate, tuition fees, average SAT scores for each ranked college or university.
Rankings | Schools |
1 | University of Kansas (Lawrence, KS) Tuition: N/A Total enrollment: 27,939 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 92.7% Average freshman retention rate: 79% 6-year graduation rate: 61% Classes with under 20 students: 41.5% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 22-28 |
2 | Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS) Tuition: N/A Total enrollment: 23,863 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 98.9% Average freshman retention rate: 80% 6-year graduation rate: 56% Classes with under 20 students: 49.7% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 21-27 |
3 | Wichita State University (Wichita, KS) Tuition: in-state: $6,408, out-of-state: $14,442 Total enrollment: 15,100 Fall 2011 acceptance rate: 93.9% Average freshman retention rate: 72% 6-year graduation rate: 43% Classes with under 20 students: 42.7% SAT/ACT 25th-75th percentile: 21-26 |
Recent History of Kansas
The struggle between supporters and opponents of slavery, which went down in the history of the United States of America as “Bleeding Kansas”, ended only with the adoption in 1859 of the Kansas Constitution, which banned slavery. The events of those years are often called the prelude to the American Civil War.
On January 29, 1861, Kansas became the thirty-fourth state of the United States.
During the years of the Civil War, the majority of Kansas residents supported the northerners, several regiments were formed in the state that fought in the Union army. At the same time, Kansas, which did not have an organized militia by the beginning of the war, suffered greatly from the guerrilla attacks of the southerners, most of which were organized from the territory of the neighboring state of Missouri. The most famous of these are the raid of the southerners led by William Quantrill on the city of Lawrence, during which up to two hundred people were killed (“Massacre in Lawrence”) and the attack on Fort Blair (more than a hundred dead, “Battle of Baxter Springs”).
In 1863, construction began on the Kansas Pacific Railroad. The first section of the track, from Kansas City to Lawrence, was opened already in 1864, and in 1870 the steel line reached Denver in the neighboring state of Colorado. The construction of the railroad became the most important factor in the further development of the Kansas economy and, in particular, the emergence of “cattle towns.”
At that time, there were a lot of cattle ranches in Texas, but there were no railroads. The shortest route that could take cattle from the Lone Star State to the Chicago slaughterhouses was through the Kansas rail yards. In 1867, in the village of Abilene, entrepreneur Joseph McCoy built warehouses, a hotel, and a bank near the railroad. McCoy actively encouraged Texas traders to drive cattle to Abilene along a route known as the “Chisholm Trail”. At the station, cattle were loaded into wagons and transported for sale in markets in the Midwest and Northeast of the United States.
The cattle trade prospered, Abilene grew rapidly, and soon other Kansas cities (Wichita, Newton, Dodge City) followed suit. Only farmers, fearing possible epidemics, spoke out against the “cattle-breeding cities”. Because of these protests, Kansas legislators have established “quarantine boundaries”, banning the passage of livestock through the state’s eastern counties.