You can see KU for miles around, its crimson rooflines accenting the wide blue sky. We admit getting to the top of Mount Oread is physically daunting at first. Stairs, sidewalks, streets — they're all a workout. But nothing worth achieving is ever easy, and from the top the vista is endless.

Students are known to be transformed by their first walk along Jayhawk Boulevard, past the distinguished stone edifices of Hoch, Strong, Watson, Lippincott, Dyche and Spooner halls. Walk beneath the steadfast gaze of bronzed mentor Uncle Jimmy Green, his arm guiding a young protégé, and you too will know: This is where I want to be.

The campus may be jaw-dropping gorgeous, but we also rave about the artsy downtown and its bustling tree-lined streets overflowing with eateries, small shops and galleries. The jazz, classical, rock, hip-hop and sidewalk music scene is renowned. Or just sail away on nearby Clinton Lake.

Still deciding what you want to do when you grow up? At KU you can find your passion, in the arts or the sciences or anything in between. KU has more than 100 fields of study taught by expert teachers and researchers, and more than 40 are nationally ranked, many in the top 10. A KU degree comes with cachet.

Kansans like to get a good price, be it for corn or college, and KU offers more for your investment in time and tuition. This is a value-added education: top-ranked, nationally respected programs low tuition rates that are fixed for 4 years! . That's why the Fiske Guide calls KU "one heck of a deal." Sweet.

We are not just in Kansas anymore. The economy is global, and so is a KU education. We strive to give every student an international learning experience, here or over there. One quarter of all students study overseas, and KU is one of five Simon Award winners for campus internationalization. There's no place like Italy (or China, Morocco or Latin America) for a summer or a semester.

Yes, all major universities do research, but when Forbes Magazine named only 10 as "IQ campuses" for trailblazing research, KU was one. And KU is one of 34 public universities in a select group of North American schools chosen on the basis of national significance in graduate studies and research. At KU, you are part of something great.

When you hear the long, slow, Gregorian cadences of KU's world-famous Rock Chalk chant, you understand why it's been declared the greatest college yell since it was created by a KU chemistry professor in 1886. It cheers the heart and soul of any Jayhawk: Rock Chalk Jayhawk Kaaay-youuuuuuu.

You know basketball is big here. But it's not just because of the national championships, raucous and revered Allen Fieldhouse, NBA stars from Chamberlain to Hinrich or even because four of the most successful college coaches of all time played or coached here. It's also because James Naismith, our first coach, happens to have invented the game. Great things start here.

It's the only one in the whole wide world, special because it is unique but also because this mascot embodies qualities we cherish: forward-looking, happy and confident, eager to compete, able to soar. Above all Jayhawks are loyal. Be one and you become part of a global family.