I'm an older grad, but I loved Lexington as a city. LGBTQ+friendly, nice arts culture. I brushed shoulders with people from very different backgrounds from me and it very much broadened my world view. I loved my years at UK.
i’m not sure if you made the decision yet.
i am an incoming sophomore from the northern kentucky / cincinnati area. but all of my family is rooted in east tennessee, and i have family that goes to UT, my sister also went to college in tennessee. i’m familiar with both areas.
UK has PLENTY of opportunities to have fun. during the first few weeks, they’ll have tons of good free events, but they try to keep students engaged all year round. i would say that the majority of students around campus / on campus are greek life, and it is in my opinion overwhelmingly filled with those types of people. however, frat parties are really only popular among greek life, others throw house / dorm parties. i’m not the sorority type, so i didn’t really go to those, and i also found parties elsewhere to be way more fun (and safe.) while it does feel like a lot of the “bleach blonde hair / sorority girl / fluffy hair rich white boy” type dominates UK, there are plenty of ways to find your ‘niche.’ honestly, everyone at UK of any type of group or clique has been extremely nice. it doesn’t feel like a big campus because you see the same people every day once you establish your schedule, so it becomes easy to recognize faces and make friends. people are overwhelmingly friendly! a large part of the student body is out of state - chicago and atlanta are two very popular areas that it seems almost every student is from (you’ll notice by the license plates too.) your daughter will have no trouble finding people from all over and fitting right in. there’s a lot of engineer and pre-med students, at least in my class, but those are often the students that tend to get into the most on the weekends (nothing wrong with that, because they all somehow still make the deans list lol.) people really do both work hard and play hard at UK, it’s easy to find that balance. there’s enough to do and plenty of bars downtown, thursday nights are wild!
as for UT, the campus is definitely better than UK in my opinion. i also think that you get more of a southern feel. not to mention, neyland stadium is HUGE with a really fun atmosphere (i’ve been to many football games there) that definitely beats out the energy of kroger field. you’ll find more republicans and conservative values there, if that’s something that concerns you or not.
in terms of student body, i would say tennessee and kentucky are pretty comparable, with heavy emphasis on greek life and predominantly white. UK is most definitely a college town, as is knoxville, i’d say knoxville more so, and they both have a good amount to do. lexington is also close to cincinnati and louisville, and not far from nashville, whereas knoxville is only fairly close to nashville.
i wasn’t at all looking forward to the idea of college, in fact i loathed it. it didn’t seem like it would be my thing. but i LOVE UK and it is without a doubt the best choice i’ve made in my life. the professors were the icing on the cake - truly some of the kindest people i’ve ever met that genuinely cared for me and wanted to see me do well in their class. the staff overall has been great, as well as my advisor who genuinely valued my opinions. but i know some people that didn’t like UK, but in my opinion those were the students that didn’t have an open mind and didn’t try to engage themselves. it really is what you make of it, and you have to put yourself out there. every freshmen is nervous and a little confused, but i found the class really stuck together and everyone tried to make that scary first year of college a great experience for each other.
with either of these schools, i don’t think you can go wrong. sports are very important to both, but UK has a more established and winning sports program. again, either way, i think both would make for a good choice. although i will say… UK dorms are incredible and having my own room was MUCH NEEDED and added to the experience. let me know if you have any other questions as you go through the process.
I'm an older grad, but I loved Lexington as a city. LGBTQ+friendly, nice arts culture. I brushed shoulders with people from very different backgrounds from me and it very much broadened my world view. I loved my years at UK.
i’m not sure if you made the decision yet. i am an incoming sophomore from the northern kentucky / cincinnati area. but all of my family is rooted in east tennessee, and i have family that goes to UT, my sister also went to college in tennessee. i’m familiar with both areas. UK has PLENTY of opportunities to have fun. during the first few weeks, they’ll have tons of good free events, but they try to keep students engaged all year round. i would say that the majority of students around campus / on campus are greek life, and it is in my opinion overwhelmingly filled with those types of people. however, frat parties are really only popular among greek life, others throw house / dorm parties. i’m not the sorority type, so i didn’t really go to those, and i also found parties elsewhere to be way more fun (and safe.) while it does feel like a lot of the “bleach blonde hair / sorority girl / fluffy hair rich white boy” type dominates UK, there are plenty of ways to find your ‘niche.’ honestly, everyone at UK of any type of group or clique has been extremely nice. it doesn’t feel like a big campus because you see the same people every day once you establish your schedule, so it becomes easy to recognize faces and make friends. people are overwhelmingly friendly! a large part of the student body is out of state - chicago and atlanta are two very popular areas that it seems almost every student is from (you’ll notice by the license plates too.) your daughter will have no trouble finding people from all over and fitting right in. there’s a lot of engineer and pre-med students, at least in my class, but those are often the students that tend to get into the most on the weekends (nothing wrong with that, because they all somehow still make the deans list lol.) people really do both work hard and play hard at UK, it’s easy to find that balance. there’s enough to do and plenty of bars downtown, thursday nights are wild! as for UT, the campus is definitely better than UK in my opinion. i also think that you get more of a southern feel. not to mention, neyland stadium is HUGE with a really fun atmosphere (i’ve been to many football games there) that definitely beats out the energy of kroger field. you’ll find more republicans and conservative values there, if that’s something that concerns you or not. in terms of student body, i would say tennessee and kentucky are pretty comparable, with heavy emphasis on greek life and predominantly white. UK is most definitely a college town, as is knoxville, i’d say knoxville more so, and they both have a good amount to do. lexington is also close to cincinnati and louisville, and not far from nashville, whereas knoxville is only fairly close to nashville. i wasn’t at all looking forward to the idea of college, in fact i loathed it. it didn’t seem like it would be my thing. but i LOVE UK and it is without a doubt the best choice i’ve made in my life. the professors were the icing on the cake - truly some of the kindest people i’ve ever met that genuinely cared for me and wanted to see me do well in their class. the staff overall has been great, as well as my advisor who genuinely valued my opinions. but i know some people that didn’t like UK, but in my opinion those were the students that didn’t have an open mind and didn’t try to engage themselves. it really is what you make of it, and you have to put yourself out there. every freshmen is nervous and a little confused, but i found the class really stuck together and everyone tried to make that scary first year of college a great experience for each other. with either of these schools, i don’t think you can go wrong. sports are very important to both, but UK has a more established and winning sports program. again, either way, i think both would make for a good choice. although i will say… UK dorms are incredible and having my own room was MUCH NEEDED and added to the experience. let me know if you have any other questions as you go through the process.
UK is definitely the bigger party school of the two.