Get the best bang for your buck! USM is the only private college in Kansas and the only university in the Kansas City metro area listed by the Princeton Review as an America's Best Value College. About 98 percent of our students receive some form of financial aid, including scholarships, grants, and loans.

For the fifth consecutive year, USM was named A Best Midwestern College by the Princeton Review as well, which awards the honor only to colleges with reputations for excellence in academics. Our students find that small class sizes and professors that call you by name are what set USM apart.

Get your blue and gold on and cheer for the Spires! USM offers eight-varsity men's and women's sports teams in football, men's and women's soccer, baseball, men's and women's basketball, volleyball, and softball. USM's baseball team was the 2005 Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference Champions and boasts arguably the best baseball diamond in the conference.

Don't be surprised when a USM professor calls you by name in the halls - personal attention is what USM professors are all about. In fact, our professors will give you the personal attention you need to succeed - because they simply love what they do. Combine that with small class sizes and you'll quickly discover that close, personal attention will be a great benefit for you.

At USM we're small enough for you to try anything-or do anything. From athletics to theatre, student government to music, you can showcase your talents and skills in a small, friendly environment where everyone knows your name. In a recent student survey, one Saint Mary student said, "I feel that everyone finds a niche here, but it seems like everyone cares for everybody so everyone fits in no matter who they are."

USM and its red brick buildings have been located on this lush, green Kansas hilltop since 1870. Nestled inside a tree line that makes the campus its own little community, the campus is small enough to keep you close to everything-yet big enough to form your own identity. The oldest building, Saint Mary Hall, has high tin ceilings, hand-carved wood paneling, and several stained glass windows. There are two Victorian era gazebos on campus and a winding brick road. The front campus is landscaped by an environmental architect who combines manicured lawns and gardens with areas of native grasses, trees, and flowers. The unique landscaping brings a variety of birds and wildlife to campus.

that you keep when you graduate. If you enroll as a full-time day-time freshmen student you will get a brand-new laptop that you get to keep when you graduate.

USM President Sister Diane Steele, Ph.D., knows what you are going through as a student at Saint Mary. Steele is a 1983 graduate of Saint Mary and a former USM theology professor. "I was the first generation in my family to go to college and I came to Saint Mary on the full ride Jubilee Scholarship. The education I received here prepared me, especially in the areas of critical thinking and writing, all the way through my doctorate. The Sisters demanded my best and they got it."

The legendary Sister Madonna Fink is on your side. The inaugural member of USM's athletic hall of fame goes to virtually every USM athletic contest, prays for the athletes, and even bakes cookies for students. For her gratitude, USM's main gym floor inside Ryan Sports Center now bears her name.

Spooky ghost stories haunt the halls of USM. Did the headless nun fall to her fate in an old elevator shaft or did she plummet to her death around an old spiral staircase? No one knows for sure but her legend has frightened a few students enough to lock their doors on Halloween night.

It's not just a popular movie or pro wrestler. We have one. The pink granite boulder is as big as a Volkswagen, and was actually removed from underneath the current USM soccer field behind McGilley Field House. The Rock is a popular meeting place just outside Berchmans Hall. It took a giant crane to install the rock in 1989.