The University of Kentucky (UK) is a public research university in Lexington, Kentucky. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, the university is one of the state’s land-grant universities and is classified as an R1 doctoral university with “very high research activity” by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The university has consistently been ranked among the top 30 public universities in the United States by several measures.
In 2012, it was ranked 29th overall among all public national universities by U.S. News & World Report, 32nd by Forbes, and 42nd by Washington Monthly. In 2017, Kiplinger named UK one of its 100 Best Values in Public Colleges; this was also designation it had received from 2005 to 2010 and again from 2013 to 2016. In 2018, UK was ranked 40th among 600+ colleges surveyed for The Princeton Review/USA TODAY’s Best Value Colleges list; this ranking considered quality of education versus cost after need-based financial aid.”