Stanford University Stanford University (officially Leland Stanford Junior University) is a private research university in Stanford, California, and one of the world's most prestigious institutions,[8][9][10][11] with the top position in numerous surveys and measures in the United States.[12][13][14][15][16][17][18] Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford, former governor of and U.S. senator from California and leading railroad tycoon, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford was opened on October 1, 1891[2][3] as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Stanford is located in northern Silicon Valley near Palo Alto, California. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the University is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pacific-12 Conference. History[edit] Origins and early years (1885–1906)[edit] Foundation[edit] Physical layout[edit] Early finances[edit]
QS World University Rankings The QS World University Rankings are annual university rankings published by Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) which provides overall rankings as well as rankings for individual subjects. QS also publishes additional regional rankings, the QS Asian University Rankings, the QS Latin American University Rankings, and the QS BRICS University Rankings, all of which are independent of and different to the major world rankings due to differences in the criteria and weightings used to generate them.[1] The publisher originally released its rankings in publication with Times Higher Education from 2004 to 2009 as the Times Higher Education-QS World University Rankings, but the two ended their collaboration in 2010. QS assumed sole publication of the pre-existing methodology, while Times Higher Education created a new one with Thomson Reuters, published as Times Higher Education World University Rankings. History[edit] Between 2004 and 2009, QS produced the rankings in partnership with THE. Fees[edit]
Academic Ranking of World Universities The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU), also known as the Shanghai Ranking, is a publication that was founded and compiled by the Shanghai Jiao Tong University to rank universities globally.[1] The rankings have been conducted since 2003 and updated annually. Since 2009, the rankings have been published by the Shanghai Ranking Consultancy.[2] ARWU was the first global ranking of universities published.[3] The ranking, backed by the Chinese government, was designed "to provide a global benchmark" against the various universities in China so they "could assess their progress. Methodology[edit] The methodology used by the Shanghai Rankings is entirely academic and research oriented. Influence[edit] As the first multi-indicator ranking of global universities, ARWU has attracted a great deal of attention from universities, governments and media. One of the factors in the significant influence of ARWU is that its methodology is said to look globally sound and transparent.
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (or Caltech)[5] is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphasis on science and engineering. Its 124-acre (50 ha) primary campus is located approximately 11 mi (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. Despite its small size, 32 Caltech alumni and faculty have won a total of 33 Nobel Prizes (Linus Pauling being the only individual in history to win two unshared prizes) and 70 have won the United States National Medal of Science or Technology.[3] There are 112 faculty members who have been elected to the National Academies. Caltech announced its ninth president, Thomas F. History[edit] Throop College[edit] Throop Polytechnic Institute, Pasadena, Calif, 1908, on its original campus at downtown Pasadena. Caltech started as a vocational school founded in Pasadena in 1891 by local businessman and politician Amos G. World Wars[edit] Throop Hall, 1912 Post-war growth[edit]
University of Oxford Coordinates: The University of Oxford (informally Oxford University or simply Oxford) is a collegiate research university located in Oxford, England. While Oxford has no known date of foundation, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096,[1] making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world, and the world's second-oldest surviving university.[1][6] It grew rapidly from 1167 when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.[1] After disputes between students and Oxford townsfolk in 1209, some academics fled northeast to Cambridge, where they established what became the University of Cambridge.[7] The two "ancient universities" are frequently jointly referred to as "Oxbridge". Oxford is the home of several notable scholarships, including the Clarendon Scholarship which was launched in 2001[10] and the Rhodes Scholarship which has brought graduate students to read at the university for more than a century.[11] History[edit] Founding[edit]
Massachusetts Institute of Technology MIT is often cited as among the world's top universities.[10][11][12][13] As of 2014[update], 81 Nobel laureates, 52 National Medal of Science recipients, 45 Rhodes Scholars, 38 MacArthur Fellows, and 2 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT. MIT has a strong entrepreneurial culture and the aggregated revenues of companies founded by MIT alumni would rank as the eleventh-largest economy in the world.[14] History[edit] Foundation and vision[edit] Rogers, a professor from the University of Virginia, wanted to establish an institution to address rapid scientific and technological advances.[19][20] He did not wish to found a professional school, but a combination with elements of both professional and liberal education,[21] proposing that: The Rogers Plan reflected the German research university model, emphasizing an independent faculty engaged in research, as well as instruction oriented around seminars and laboratories.[23][24] Early developments[edit] Curricular reforms[edit]
Princeton University Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is one of the ten Colonial Colleges established before the American Revolution as well as the fourth chartered institution of higher education in the American colonies.[5][a] The institution moved to Newark in 1747, then to the current site nine years later where it was renamed as a University in 1896.[10] The present-day College of New Jersey in nearby Ewing Township, New Jersey, is an unrelated institution. Princeton had close ties to the Presbyterian Church, but has never been affiliated with any denomination[11] and today imposes no religious requirements on its students.[b] History[edit] New Light Presbyterians founded the College of New Jersey, later Princeton University, in 1746 in order to train ministers.[14] The college was the educational and religious capital of Scots-Irish America. Campus[edit] Cannon Green[edit]
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (also referred to as Berkeley, UC Berkeley, California or simply Cal)[8] is a major public research university located in Berkeley, California. It is the flagship campus of the University of California system, one of three parts in the state's public higher education plan, which also includes the California State University system and the California Community Colleges System. It is considered by Times Higher Education as a member of a group of six university brands that lead in world reputation rankings in 2015[9] and is ranked third on the U.S. News' 2015 Best Global Universities rankings conducted in the U.S. and nearly 50 other countries.[10] The Academic Ranking of World Universities also ranks the University of California, Berkeley, fourth in the world, third in engineering, fourth in social sciences and first in mathematics & life sciences.[11] The university is also well known for producing a high number of entrepreneurs.[12][13][14]
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public research university located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1919, it is the third-oldest campus of the University of California system.[citation needed] UCLA is one of the two flagship universities in the UC system (alongside UC Berkeley).[11][12][13][14] It offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines.[15] With an approximate enrollment of 29,000 undergraduate and 13,000 graduate students, UCLA is the university with the largest enrollment in the state of California[16] and the most applied to university in the world with over 105,000 applications for Fall 2014.[17] The university has been labeled one of the Public Ivies, a publicly funded university considered as providing a quality of education comparable to those of the Ivy League. UCLA student-athletes compete intercollegiately as the Bruins in the Pacific-12 Conference.
Columbia University The university was founded in 1754 as King's College by royal charter of George II of Great Britain. After the American Revolutionary War, King's College briefly became a state entity, and was renamed Columbia College in 1784. The University now operates under a 1787 charter that places the institution under a private board of trustees, and in 1896 it was further renamed Columbia University.[7] That same year, the university's campus was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights, where it occupies more than six city blocks, or 32 acres (13 ha).[8] The university encompasses twenty schools and is affiliated with numerous institutions, including Teachers College (which is an academic department of the university though legally separate from the university), Barnard College, and the Union Theological Seminary, with joint undergraduate programs available through the Jewish Theological Seminary of America as well as the Juilliard School.[9] History[edit]