College profile
University of Kansas
KS · Public · Small city · 19,226 applicants 2023
A parent's read
- The major moves the money more than the admit letter. Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration grads from here earn about $125,384 four years out; fine and studio arts grads about $38,355 — a 3.3× spread on the same diploma. Have the major conversation before you deposit, not after.
- The payoff holds even at full price: roughly 6× over a decade. With no aid at all — the full in-state ~$26,751/yr — a decade of median earnings (~$61,945/yr) still runs about 6× the four-year cost. This payoff doesn't depend on qualifying for anything. (Out-of-state costs more.)
- Ask the submit question deliberately. This college is test-optional — but at many such colleges, applicants who submit strong scores are admitted at meaningfully higher rates. “Optional” is a strategy decision, not a pass.
Composed from this page's data — every claim is backed by a number in the sections below.
Parent/student verdict
AccessibleAccessible for most applicants. Affordable — net price averages ~$18,059/yr among aid recipients. Major value play for in-state residents.
Best for
- In-state residents (tuition ~$12,102 — major value play)
- Students drawn to Business, Management, & Marketing or Health Professions (the two biggest majors)
- Research-oriented students (R1 — top tier of federal research funding)
The reality
- You'd be near the bottom of their admitted class if: SAT below 1050, or ACT below 21 (test bands are the school's own; the GPA floor is our estimate, not a published figure)
- Out-of-state tuition is 2.5× the in-state rate
Verdict is composed from this college's structured data (admit rate, SAT bands, net price with aid and at full price, Carnegie classification, scholarship grids) using transparent rule thresholds — not a chat-bot's opinion.
What are your child's odds here?
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Weighted is the higher GPA, with honors/AP credit in it — pick whichever your school reports. PSAT scores work in the SAT box.
Institutional snapshot
What kind of college is this?
11% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 68% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Source: federal IPEDS Admissions 2023 for scores + admit rate; federal College Scorecard (20260606 vintage) for earnings + outcomes. SAT/ACT bands are the 25th–75th percentile of enrolled submitters.
Outcomes & cost
What graduates actually earn, finish, and owe.
Federal College Scorecard data. Earnings are median annual income measured years after entering. Debt is for federal-aid borrowers only (cash-pay students aren't counted).
The real cost
What University of Kansas actually costs
Which side your family lands on isn't set by any national income line — it's set by University of Kansas's own aid decision: the gap between its price and your family's finances.
Your odds + estimated cost across your whole college list, side by side.
The payoffTen years of typical graduate pay minus four years of cost — how many dollars ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten. Check both the full-price and with-aid versions to see which applies to you; median pay reflects who a college admits and what they study as much as the college itself., both ways
+$512K ahead at full price +$547K with aidSource: College Scorecard (average net price among Title IV first-time, full-time undergraduates who received aid) and each college's published cost of attendance. We don't show the federal net-price-by-income brackets: their categories were fixed in 2008 and never adjusted, and none of the averages is your family's own number — the full story. Payoff = (10-yr median earnings × 10) − (4 years of cost), in dollars — how far ahead a typical graduate runs by year ten; medians travel with the students a college admits and the majors they choose as much as with the college itself. Full price is the published cost of attendance, largely in-state for publics; earnings are 10 years after enrollment, all majors combined.
What students study here
Most popular majors at University of Kansas
Top 5 fields of study by bachelor's degrees awarded (most recent IPEDS Completions). Use this to see what University of Kansas actually graduates — not just what it markets.
What those majors earn here
Median earnings 4 years after entry, by major — University of Kansas's own graduates, not national averages.
| Major (CIP) | 4-yr earnings |
|---|---|
| Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration. | $125,384 |
| Computer Engineering. | $113,339 |
| Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods. | $107,635 |
| Petroleum Engineering. | $97,527 |
| Chemical Engineering. | $93,391 |
| Aerospace, Aeronautical, and Astronautical/Space Engineering. | $92,335 |
| Computer and Information Sciences, General. | $92,008 |
| Civil Engineering. | $89,087 |
| Management Information Systems and Services. | $87,704 |
| Finance and Financial Management Services. | $86,453 |
Sources: IPEDS Completions (C2023_a; bachelor's-level first majors, 2-digit CIP family — share is of the top 5 only) · College Scorecard program-level outcomes (PP-FOS). Full college-vs-major comparison: /college-outcomes →
Student body & economic mobility
Who attends here — and what the campus adds.
Opportunity Insights data. It measures two things at once: how many lower-income students a college enrols, and how many of them reach the top earnings quintile later. A high rate says the college does both — it does not establish that the campus caused the earnings, because the students it admits differ from the students it doesn't. Read it as a signal about access and destination, not as proof of value added.
Full leaderboards: /college-mobility →
AI program signal
AI + computing education at University of Kansas
Full multi-lens comparison: /ai-colleges →
Alternatives to University of Kansas
Matched not just by selectivity, but by strategic goal — what a family actually decides on.
Or compare any college side-by-side
Deciding on University of Kansas?
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Get your child's odds at University of Kansas →Score-odds calculator · Improve the score first · Find merit aid
Feeder high schools
Which high schools send graduates to University of Kansas?
Enrolled — from the schools' matriculation lists
16 high schools publish a numbered matriculation list — where their graduates actually enrolled, counted, in the school's own School Profile — and name University of Kansas on it. Between them they printed 63 enrolled graduates. Ranked by graduates per class year enrolling at University of Kansas, from each school's own published list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, so a one-year list and a five-year list can sit on the same page. A list whose class years we cannot read is not divided by a guess — it is listed below with its total instead.
and 6 more
Admitted — from the schools' acceptance lists
5 high schools publish a numbered list of college acceptances — where their graduates were admitted, not where they enrolled — and name University of Kansas on it. Between them they printed 8 admissions. Ranked by admissions per class year to University of Kansas, from each school's own published acceptances list: the number that school printed, divided by the class years its list covers. Admits are counted at each college a student was admitted to, the same way the UC Reach Score counts a student admitted to three UC campuses three times — so this is a count of admissions, not of students. The published total and the school's own years label are shown beside every school, and a list whose class years we cannot read is listed below with its total rather than divided by a guess.
All 21 feeder schools, ranked →
Counted from each school's own published document, linked on that school's page. A high school that is not here does not publish a numbered list we could read — that is all absence means, and it says nothing about its graduates. Where a school publishes both, the two lists are shown separately: an acceptances list is not a list of enrollments, and the two are never added together.
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At a glance
JSON · Using this page with an AI assistantUniversity of Kansas is a public four-year college in KS. It admitted 88% of applicants (19,226 applied, 2023). Test policy: Test-optional.
Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted that test: SAT 1050–1290, ACT 21–27. 11% of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT score, 68% an ACT — these ranges describe students who submitted, not the whole class.
Cost: about $18,059 a year on average with aid, $26,751 a year at full price for in-state students.
Median earnings ten years after entry: $61,945 a year. Payoff, meaning ten years of that pay minus four years of cost: $547,214 ahead with aid, $512,446 ahead at full price.
Highest median earnings four years after the degree, by program: Pharmacy, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Administration ($125,384); Computer Engineering ($113,339); Management Sciences and Quantitative Methods ($107,635).
Economic mobility (Opportunity Insights): 3% of students came from families in the bottom fifth of income, and 29% of those reached the top fifth as adults.
High schools that publish a numbered matriculation list and name University of Kansas: 16, 63 enrolled students between them — ranked by graduates per class year, most often The Pembroke Hill School - Wornall Campus (12.0 per class year, 12 over 1 class year, Class of 2026); The Barstow School (7.0 per class year, 35 over 5 class years, 2021-2025); Santa Margarita Catholic High School (1.0 per class year, 1 over 1 class year, Class of 2025). Each figure is the number that school printed divided by the class years its own list covers; the totals and years are shown. These are the schools that publish such a list, not every school that sends students; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/university-of-kansas.
High schools that publish a numbered list of college acceptances naming University of Kansas: 5, 8 admissions between them — ranked by admissions per class year, most often Archbishop Mitty High School (2.0 per class year, 2 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Oratory Preparatory School (2.0 per class year, 2 over 1 class year, Class of 2025); Wilmington Friends School (0.5 per class year, 1 over 2 class years, 2023 & 2024). Admits are counted at each college, so this counts admissions, not students. These are a different set of documents from the matriculation lists above and the two are never added together; full list: https://highschoolreach.com/leaderboards/feeder-schools/university-of-kansas.
Machine-readable version of this page: https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/university-of-kansas.json