University of California, San Diego

The Ranking of University of California, San Diego

www.ucsd.edu

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD, also commonly referred to as UC San Diego) is a public research university in San Diego, California. The school's nearly 2,000-acre (810 ha) campus contains 694 buildings and is located in the La Jolla community. UC San Diego is one of ten University of California campuses and was founded in 1960 around the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

22,048 undergraduate and 5,073 graduate students enrolled in Fall 2007 and the university awarded 6,802 degrees in 2005/06. The university is organized into six undergraduate colleges and six graduate divisions and offers 125 undergraduate majors, 52 masters degrees, 51 doctoral programs, and four professional degrees. The four year, full-time undergraduate program is classified as "more selective, higher transfer-in" by the Carnegie Foundation and was ranked 35th among national universities and 7th among public schools by U.S. News & World Report. The university was ranked 14th internationally in the Academic Ranking of World Universities.

The university employs 7,566 faculty members including eight Nobel Laureates, eight MacArthur fellows, three National Medal of Science laureates, and one Fields medallist. UCSD has a very high level of research activity and total research funding for 2006/07 was $714 million. The university operates the UC San Diego Medical Center and is affiliated with several regional research centers, such as the Salk Institute, the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, and The Scripps Research Institute. The university was admitted to the Association of American Universities in 1982.

UC San Diego's 19 intercollegiate sports teams are known as the Tritons and participate in the NCAA's Division II (DII) level in the California Collegiate Athletic Association.

History

When the Regents of the University of California originally authorized the San Diego campus in 1956, it was planned to start as a graduate school of science and engineering comparable in quality to Caltech. Citizens of San Diego enthusiastically supported the idea, voting the same year to transfer to the university 59 acres (240,000 m2) of mesa land on the coast near the Scripps Institute. General Dynamics Corporation donated a large sum of money to be used for recruiting a distinguished founding faculty.

In 1957, an undergraduate curriculum was planned as part of the general science curriculum, and Roger Revelle, Director of Scripps, was named dean of the new school. UC San Diego was the first general campus of the UC to be designed "from the top down" in terms of curricular and research emphasis. Stellar faculty were recruited as they became available as opposed to the dictates of a pre-planned curriculum or academic schedule. The graduate division of the school opened in 1960, when it had 20 faculty in residence, with instruction offered in the fields of physics, biology, chemistry and earth science. Classes initially met in the Scripps Institute.

Before the selection of San Diego was made final, however, the Regents requested an additional gift of 550 acres (2.2 km2) of undeveloped mesa land northeast of Scripps, as well as 500 acres (2 km²) in Camp Matthews, a United States Marine Corps rifle range adjacent to the site. The city voted in agreement to its part in 1958, and the UC, convinced that all its other conditions would be met, approved construction of the new campus in 1960. Herbert York was designated its first chancellor, and he worked out the planning of the main campus according to the "Oxbridge" model, relying on many of Revelle's ideas.

By 1963, new facilities on the mesa been finished for the School of Science and Engineering, and new buildings were under construction for Social Sciences and Humanities. Ten additional faculty in those disciplines were hired, and the whole site was designated the First College of the new campus. The campus accepted its first undergraduate class of 181 freshman in 1964, and was designated Revelle College the next year.

In 2007, UC San Diego became the first university in the western region to top $1 billion in their fundraising campaign. To date, more than $1.01 billion dollars in private support has been designated to the university.

Research

UC San Diego’s total research expenditures for 2007-08 was $798 million. The National Science Foundation ranks UC San Diego 6th in the nation in federal R&D expenditures.

The Power of Academic Medicine: The UC San Diego Medical Center is the only San Diego hospital ranked among the best in the nation in eight specialty areas (respiratory diseases, rheumatology, kidney disease, gynecology, cancer, urology, psychiatry, and ear, nose and throat) in the 2008 U.S. News and World Report annual “Best Hospitals” issue.

The Milken Institute ranks UC San Diego 6th among the world’s leading universities in the strength of its biotechnology research publications and 8th in the number of biotech patents issued.

Thomson Scientific ranks UC San Diego the 7th highest-impact research institution in the nation from 2001-2005, based on the citation impact of published research in science and the social sciences. Based on the number of citations, UC San Diego ranks 2nd in the nation in the field of pharmacology, 4th in the nation for molecular biology and genetics, and 5th in the nation for clinical medicine.

In the 2008 survey of graduate programs by U.S. News, the Jacobs School of Engineering ranked 4th and the School of Medicine ranked 2nd in the nation for research expenditures per faculty member.

Academic Reputation

UC San Diego's undergraduate program is ranked 35th among National Universities (7th among public universities) according to the 2009 U.S. News & World Report college rankings. In 2007, The Times Higher Education Supplement ranked UC San Diego as 58th in the world overall, 11th in the world for biomedicine, and 27th in the world for natural sciences. The 2007 Academic Ranking of World Universities released by Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked UC San Diego 12th in the United States and 14th in the world based on achievements and publications of the faculty. The Graham-Diamond report ranks UCSD 8th overall in the country, including top-10 rankings in biological sciences (3rd), economics (5th), social and behavioral sciences (7th) and physics (9th). In the 2006 Newsweek Magazine review, "America's 25 Hottest Colleges," UC San Diego was selected as the "Hottest for Science," noting the school's location, research grants, tradition, and diverse topics of study as key points. In its 2007 annual college rankings, The Washington Monthly ranks UC San Diego fourth nationally with criteria based on research, community service, and social mobility. In its 2008 report on best values in public colleges, Kiplinger ranked UC San Diego 11th in the nation for in-state value and 17th in the nation for out-of-state value.UC San Diego has been called a Public Ivy by Greene's Guides.

In the Biological and Physical Sciences, according to the US News and World Report rankings of graduate programs, the UC San Diego biology program is ranked 2nd in neuroscience and neurobiology, 6th in genetics and genomics, and 10th in cell biology. In 2008, US News and World Report ranked the graduate School of Medicine as 14th in the nation for medical research. and 35th for primary care UC San Diego's graduate program in behavioral neuroscience was ranked second in the nation while its cognitive psychology program was ranked third. The UC San Diego physics program is ranked 6th in plasma and 10th in condensed matter and low temperature physics. UC San Diego chemistry program is ranked 7th in biochemistry. UC San Diego's earth sciences program is ranked 5th in geophysics and seismology. In the Social Sciences, the UC San Diego Economics department is ranked 10th in the nation; Econometrics, a subdiscipline of Economics, is ranked 2nd in the nation, right below Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Department of Political Science is ranked 7th overall. The Department of Visual Arts is ranked 15th overall. UCSD is also ranked among the world’s elite universities in Life and Agriculture Sciences (14th); the Natural Sciences and Mathematics (19th); Clinical Medicine and Pharmacy (25th); and the Social Sciences (26th).

The Jacobs School of Engineering overall was ranked 11th in the nation. All six of the Jacobs School's academic departments were ranked in the top 20: The Department of Bioengineering, ranked 2nd in the nation for biomedical engineering behind Johns Hopkins. The department has ranked among the top five programs in the nation every year for the past decade. The Jacobs School of Engineering is also the 10th best in the world for engineering/technology and computer sciences, according to an academic ranking of the top 100 world universities published online in February 2008 by the Institute of Higher Education, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE), ranked highly in all categories surveyed: computer systems (9), computer science (13), theory (14), programming language (17) and artificial intelligence (19). The Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, ranked 16th in mechanical engineering and 19th in aerospace engineering; the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE), ranked 16th in electrical engineering and communications, and 17th in computer engineering; and the Department of Structural Engineering, ranked 17th in the specialty of civil engineering. The interdisciplinary Bioinformatics program, which is offered jointly by eight UC San Diego departments including the Jacobs School's bioengineering and computer science and engineering departments, ranked 6th in the nation.

Divisions & Schools

• Arts & Humanities
• Biological Sciences
• Intl' Relations/Pacific Studies
• Jacobs School of Engineering
• Physical Sciences
• Rady School of Management
• School of Medicine
• Scripps Inst. of Oceanography
• Skaggs School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Social Sciences
  
  

University of California, San Diego was ranked 58th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.

Washington University in St. Louis

The Ranking of Washington University in St. Louis

www.wustl.edu

Washington University in St. Louis is a nonsectarian, private research university located in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853 and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than one hundred and twenty five nations. Twenty-two Nobel laureates have been associated with Washington University, nine doing the major part of their pioneering research at the university.

Washington University is made up of seven graduate and undergraduate schools that encompass a broad range of academic fields. Officially incorporated as "The Washington University", popular nicknames for the university include "Wash. U." and "WUSTL", all derived from the initials of the university's name. To prevent confusion over its location, the Board of Trustees added the phrase "in St. Louis" in 1976. The university has an endowment of $4.05 billion. The current chancellor is Mark S. Wrighton, who has led the university since 1995. He is among the highest paid university heads in the United States.

History

Washington University was conceived by seventeen St. Louis business, political, and religious leaders concerned by the lack of institutions of higher learning in the Midwest. Missouri State Senator Wayman Crow and Unitarian minster William Greenleaf Eliot, grandfather of the Nobel Prize laureate poet T. S. Eliot, led the effort.

The university's first chancellor was Joseph Gibson Hoyt. Crow secured the university charter from the Missouri General Assembly in 1853 and handled further political maneuvering. While Eliot was in charge of raising funds for the university, he accepted the position as President of the Board of Trustees.

In fact Wash U is unique among American universities in not having had a prior financial endowment to begin with. The institution had no backing of a religious organization, single wealthy patron, or earmarked government support. Financial problems plagued the university for several decades after its founding.

The name of the university was still unclear; in the three years following its inspection, the university bore three different names. Several months later Treat's committee proposed naming the University the Washington Institute, after the nation's first president George Washington.

In 1856 the University amended its name to Washington University. The university amended its name once more in 1976 when the Board of Trustees voted to add the suffix "in St. Louis" to distinguish the university from the nearly two dozen universities bearing Washington's name.

Washington University has been selected by the Commission on Presidential Debates to host more Presidential and Vice Presidential Debates than any other institution in history. The University has been selected to host a Presidential or Vice Presidential debate in every United States Presidential election since 1992. United States presidential election debates were held at the Washington University Field House in 1992, 2000, and 2004. A Presidential debate was planned to occur in 1996, but scheduling difficulties between the candidates canceled the debate. The university hosted the only 2008 Vice Presidential debate, between Republican Sarah Palin, and Democrat Joe Biden, on October 2, 2008, also at the Washington University Field House.

Campus

Although the school includes St. Louis in its name – and its official mailing address is in the City of St. Louis – the school's main Danforth Campus (including Brookings Hall and its most famous landmark pertrusions) is mostly in an unincorporated section of St. Louis County. The city's border pass though the east end of the campus, bisecting Whitaker Hall (Biomedical Engineering) and Givens Hall (Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts). The eastern border of the campus is Skinker Boulevard, across from Forest Park. It is bordered to the north and west by the city of University City, Missouri, and to the south by Clayton, Missouri.

The school's Medical Campus is in the city of St. Louis on the east end of Forest Park. Some administrative offices are in the city of St. Louis in what is called the North Campus. The 560 Music Center and the Lewis Center are in University City. The school has also two smaller campuses (South and West) as well as the Tyson Research Center in St. Louis County.

Academic Reputation

n 2007, Washington University received 22,428 applications for 1,338 spots at the undergraduate level. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2011 was 19%. More than 90% of incoming freshmen were ranked in the top 10% of their high school class. Also in 2006, the University ranked fourth overall and second amongst private universities in the number of enrolled National Merit Scholar freshmen, according to the National Merit Scholar Corp.'s annual report. Washington University in St. Louis was ranked number one for quality of life in 2008 according to the Princeton Review, among other top rankings.

Currently, the undergraduate program is ranked 12th overall, tied with Northwestern University, and 11th in admissions selectivity, in the 2009 U.S. News & World Report National Universities ranking. Additionally, 19 undergraduate disciplines are ranked among the top 10 programs in the country. Global rankings include 28th in a ranking of world universities by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2006 that assesses quality of scientific research leading toward a Nobel Prize. Britain's Times Higher Education Supplement ranked Washington University 48th in the world in 2006. Washington University was ranked 45th nationally in The Washington Monthly's 2006 ranking of universities' contributions to research, community service, and social mobility. In addition, the Olin Business School's undergraduate program is among the top 12 in the country. The Olin Business School's undergraduate program is also considered amongst the country's most competitive, admitting only 14% of applicants in 2007.

Graduate schools include the School of Medicine, currently ranked 3rd in the nation, and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, currently ranked 1st. The Program in Occupational Therapy at Washington University currently occupies the top spot for the US News and World Report rankings (tied for #1). For the 2009-2010 edition, the School of Law is ranked 19th while the Olin Business School is ranked 22th. Additionally, the Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design was ranked 5th in the nation by Design Intelligence.

Research

Virtually all faculty members engage in important research activities, including scholarly and creative endeavors, that complement their strong commitment to teaching. These activities contribute to a mentoring environment in which undergraduates and graduate students may work alongside their professors on new discoveries and new understandings.

Faculty are successful in winning support for their research from many sources, including the federal and state governments, corporations, foundations, nonprofit agencies, individuals, and the University itself. During fiscal 2008, $548.4 million was received in total research support, including $440 million in federal obligations.

Library

Washington University's 14 libraries (12 on the Danforth Campus, one at the medical school, and one at West Campus) bring fine collections, great facilities, and expert librarians within easy reach of students, faculty, and visiting scholars. The stunning John M. Olin Library stands at the center of campus. Its location, diverse study spaces, technology center, exhibition space, and a café offering 24-hour study space make it one of the most popular destinations on campus. New libraries serve the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts and the Earth & Planetary Sciences Department. Several other libraries have been renovated.

On-site, the Libraries offer more than 4 million books, periodicals, government publications, rare books, literary manuscripts, and audio-visual titles. Online, the Libraries provide access to thousands of databases, journals, and other digital resources, some created here at the University. Online access allows students and faculty to do research, search the catalog, request or renew books, or read reserve materials from nearly anywhere at any hour.

School & Research

• Arts & Sciences
• Olin Business School
• Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts
• School of Engineering
• School of Law
• School of Medicine
• George Warren Brown School of Social Work
• Academic Departments
• Research at Washington University
• Research Offices & Resources
• Opportunities for Students
• Environmental Research
  

Washington University in St. Louis was ranked 60th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.

University of Notre Dame

The Ranking of University of Notre Dame

www.nd.edu

The University of Notre Dame du Lac (or simply Notre Dame) is a private Roman Catholic research university located in Notre Dame, Indiana, USA. It is the largest Catholic university in the United States. It was founded by Father Edward Sorin, CSC, who was also the school's first president. It was established as an all-male institution on November 26, 1842, in an area first settled as a mission by Father Claude-Jean Allouez S.J. in 1686. The university first enrolled women in 1972, and 47 percent of the student body is female. Notre Dame's Catholic heritage is evident in the architecture around campus, manifested by the ornate Basilica of the Sacred Heart, together with numerous chapels and religious iconography.

The university today is organized into five colleges and one professional school, the oldest of which, the College of Arts and Letters, began awarding degrees in 1849. The undergraduate program was ranked 18th among national universities by U.S. News & World Report for 2008-2009. Notre Dame has a comprehensive graduate program with 32 master's and 25 doctoral degree programs. Additionally, the university's library system is one of the 100 largest in the United States.

More than 80% of the university's 8,000 undergraduates live on campus in one of 28 single-sex residence halls, each of which fields teams for more than a dozen intramural sports. Notre Dame's approximately 120,000 alumni are located around the world.

Notre Dame is also known for its sports programs, especially its football team. The sports teams are members of the NCAA Division I, and are known collectively as the Fighting Irish, a name it adopted in the 1920s. The football team, an Independent, has accumulated eleven national championships, eight Heisman Trophy winners, and sixty-two members in the College Football Hall of Fame. Additionally, other sport teams, most members of the Big East Conference, have accumulated 18 national championships.

History

The University of Notre Dame began late on the bitterly cold afternoon of November 26, 1842, when a 28-year-old French priest, Rev. Edward Sorin, C.S.C., and seven companions, all of them members of the recently established Congregation of Holy Cross, took possession of 524 snow-covered acres that the Bishop of Vincennes had given them in the Indiana mission fields. A man of lively imagination, Father Sorin named his fledging school in honor of Our Lady, in his native tongue, “L’Université de Notre Dame du Lac” (The University of Our Lady of the Lake). On January 15, 1844, the University was thus officially chartered by the Indiana legislature.

Father Sorin’s indomitable will was best demonstrated in 1879 when a disastrous fire destroyed the Main Building, which housed virtually the entire University. Father Sorin willed Notre Dame to rebuild and continue its growth. "I came here as a young man and dreamed of building a great university in honor of Our Lady," he said. "But I built it too small, and she had to burn it to the ground to make the point. So, tomorrow, as soon as the bricks cool, we will rebuild it, bigger and better than ever."

Currently Notre Dame is led by Father John I. Jenkins, the 17th president of the university. Jenkins took over the position from Father Edward Malloy, on July 1, 2005. In his inaugural address, Jenkins described his goals of making the university a leader in research that recognizes ethics and building the connection between faith and studies. In 2009, the University received criticism for its invitation and planned conferring of an honorary degree to President Barack Obama due to Obama's position on abortion, stem cell research, which conflict with Catholic teachings

Campus

Notre Dame's campus is located in Notre Dame, Indiana, an unincorporated community in north Indiana, just north of South Bend and four miles (6 km) from the Michigan state line. Development of the campus began in the spring of 1843 when Father Sorin and some of his congregation built the "Old College", a building used for dormitories, a bakery, and a classroom. A year later, after an architect arrived, a small "Main Building" was built allowing for the launch of the college. Today the campus lies on 1,250 acres (5.1 km2) just south of the Indiana Toll Road and includes 138 buildings located on quads throughout the campus.

Library

The library system of the university is divided between the main library and each of the colleges and schools. The main building is the fourteen-story Theodore M. Hesburgh Library, completed in 1963, which is the third building to house the main collection of books. The front of the library is adorned with the Word of Life mural. This mural is popularly known as "Touchdown Jesus" because of its proximity to Notre Dame Stadium and Jesus' arms appearing to make the signal for a touchdown. The library system also includes branch libraries for Architecture, Chemistry & Physics, Engineering, Law, the Life Sciences, and Mathematics as well as information centers in the Mendoza College of Business and the Kellogg/Kroc Institute for Peace Studies, and a slide library in O'Shaughnessy Hall. The library system holds over three-million volumes and is one of the top–100 largest libraries in the country.

Research

Notre Dame has a long history of scientific research. In 1882, Professor Albert Zahm built the first wind tunnel used to compare lift to drag of aeronautical models. Around 1899, Professor Jerome Green became the first American to send a wireless message. Also, in 1931, Father Julius Nieuwland performed early work on basic reactions that was used to create neoprene. Additionally, nuclear physics study at the university began with the building of a nuclear accelerator in 1936.

Today, research continues in many fields, as the current university president, Father Jenkins, described his hope that Notre Dame would become "one of the pre–eminent research institutions in the world" in his inaugural address. The university has many multi-disciplinary institutes devoted to research in varying fields, including the Medieval Institute, the Kroc Institute for International Peace studies, and the Center for Social Concerns. Recent research includes work on family conflict and child development,genome mapping, the increasing trade deficit of the United States with China, studies in fluid mechanics, and marketing trends on the Internet.

Endowment

Notre Dame's financial endowment was started in the early 1920s by then-president of the university, Father James Burns, and increased to $7 million by 1952 when Father Hesburgh became president. By the 1980s it reached $150 million, and in 2000 it returned a record 57.9% investment. For the 2007 fiscal year, the endowment had grown to approximately $6.5 billion, putting the university in the top–15 largest endowments in the country. As of September, 2008, Notre Dame's endowment has grown to over $7 billion.

Academic Reputation

As of 2008. Notre Dame ranked 18th overall among "national universities" in the United States in U.S. News & World Report's best colleges. U.S. News and World Report also lists Notre Dame Law School as 22nd overall, and the Gourman Report, which is published by The Princeton Review, ranks the Law School at 18th. BusinessWeek ranks Mendoza College of Business undergraduate school as 2nd overall. Additionally, The Washington Monthly ranked the university 13th nationally in its 2006 edition. BusinessWeek also ranked the undergraduate business program as 2nd nationally. The Philosophical Gourmet Report ranked Notre Dame's graduate philosophy program as 13th nationally, while ARCHITECT Magazine, ranked the undergraduate architecture program as 12th nationally. Additionally, the study abroad program ranks sixth in highest participation percentage in the nation, with 57.6% of students choosing to study abroad in 17 countries.

Colleges and Schools

• School of Architecture
• College of Arts and Letters
• Mendoza College of Business
• College of Engineering
• First Year of Studies
• The Graduate School
• The Law School
• College of Science
  
  

University of Notre Dame was ranked 168th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.

Indiana University Bloomington

The Ranking of Indiana University Bloomington

www.iub.edu

Indiana University is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. It is also known as "Indiana University Bloomington," "Indiana," or simply IU, and is located in Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana University is among the top 100 universities in the world and among the top 50 in the United States according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities. It was awarded U.S. News & World Report's Best Graduate Schools 2001-2002. Time magazine named Indiana University its "2001 College of the Year" among major research universities. Indiana is one of 60 members of the Association of American Universities, the leading American research universities. Additionally, IU has over 110 academic programs ranked in the top twenty nationwide.

The tenth annual Newsweek-Kaplan College Guide, which appeared in the August 22, 2005 issue of Newsweek magazine, chose IU as its "Hottest Big State School" and extolled the campus's blend of tradition with emerging technologies..

USA Today called Bloomington one of the top 10 student-friendly college towns. The university offers the latest in technology: IU was ranked as one of the top five wired universities in America according to Princeton Review and PC Magazine.

Of students enrolled in fall 2006, 1,669 (4.4%) were African-Americans, 1,339 (3.5%) were Asian, 889 (2.3%) were Hispanic, and 105 (0.3%) were American Indian. More women (19,821) were enrolled than men (18,426). Currently, the IU student body contains students from every state in the U.S. as well as over 159 foreign nations. Indiana University also has a wide variety of extracurricular organizations and clubs to keep students active and involved beyond academics. IU is also home to a Greek system of about 17 percent of undergraduates.

History

ndiana's state government in Corydon founded Indiana University in 1820 as the "State Seminary." It was originally located at what is now called Seminary Square Park near the intersection of Second Street and College Avenue.The 1816 Indiana state constitution required that the General Assembly (Indiana's state legislature) create a "general system of education, ascending in a regular gradation, from township schools to a state university, wherein tuition shall be gratis, and equally open to all." It took some time for the legislature to fulfill its promise, partly due to a debate regarding whether the Indiana Territory's land-grant public university—what is now Vincennes University—should be adopted as the State of Indiana's public university or whether a new public university should be founded in Bloomington to replace the territorial university.

While the original state-issued legislative charter for IUB was granted in 1820, construction began in 1822; the first professor was hired in 1823; classes were offered in 1824. The first class graduated in 1830. Throughout this period and until the rechartering of Vincennes University from a four-year institution to a two-year institution in 1889, a legal-cum-political battle was fought between the territorial-chartered public university in Vincennes and the State of Indiana on behalf of the state-chartered public university in Bloomington, including the legal case (Trustees for Vincennes University v Indiana, 1853) which was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States.

IU developed rapidly in its first years. The hiring of Andrew Wylie, its first president, in 1829 signified the school's growing professionalism. The General Assembly changed the school's name to "Indiana College" in the same year. In 1838 the legislature changed the school's name for a final time to Indiana University.

Wylie's death in 1851 marks the end of the university's first period of development. IU now had nearly a hundred students and seven professors. Despite the university's more obviously secular purpose, presidents and professors were still expected to set a moral example for their charges. It was only in 1885 that a non-clergyman, biologist David Starr Jordan, became president.

Between Wylie and Jordan's administrations, the University grew slowly. Few changes rocked the university's repose. One development is interesting to modern scholars: the college admitted its first woman student, Sarah Parke Morrison in 1867, making IU the one of the first state universities to admit women on an equal basis with men. Morrison went on to become the first female professor at IU in 1873.

Campus

The IU campus is considered one of the most beautiful college campuses in the nation, with its abundance of flowering plants and trees and graceful, limestone buildings. Art critic Thomas Gaines called IU one of America's five most beautiful universities in The Campus as a Work of Art.

IUB's 1,933 acres (7.8 km²) includes abundant green space and historic buildings dating to the university's reconstruction in the late nineteenth century. The campus rests on a bed of Indiana limestone, specifically Salem limestone and Harrodsburg limestone, with outcroppings of St. Louis limestone. The "Jordan River" is a stream flowing through the center of campus. It is named for David Starr Jordan, Darwinist, ichthyologist, and president of IU and later Stanford University.

Library

On the Bloomington campus, the Herman B Wells Library, with its double towers of Indiana limestone, is the visual center of the multi-library system and primarily supports the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. More than 4.6 million volumes are contained in this building. Especially noteworthy are the collections that support IU’s international and area studies, including interdisciplinary research collections developed in the areas of African Studies, Russian and East European Studies, Uralic and Altaic Studies, East Asian Studies, and West European Studies.

Academic Reputation

IU has over 120 majors and programs ranked in the nation's top 20. 29 graduate programs and four schools at Indiana University are ranked among the top 25 in the country in the US News & World Report's Best Graduate Schools 2001–02. Time magazine named IU its 2001 College of the Year among major research universities. Newsweek named it the Hottest Big State School in the Nation in 2005. The Institute of Higher Education at Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked Indiana University as the 28th best in the world in the social sciences and the 90th best in the world overall.

Upon assuming leadership of Indiana University, one of President Adam Herbert's biggest initiatives focused on "mission differentiation" for IU's eight campuses, which includes making the flagship Bloomington campus choosier among freshman applicants. Under the proposal, IUB would educate the professionals, executives and researchers while the regional campuses would educate the state's remaining labor force. Advocates believe it will rejuvenate Indiana's economy while critics argue it betrays the university's mission of educating more of Indiana's populace. The university's academic system is divided into one large "College" (which itself contains one school) and twelve other schools and divisions. Together, these thirteen units offer more than 900 individual degree programs and majors.

Schools

The schools are degree-granting units made up of smaller departments and programs. IU's schools are some of the best in their areas of expertise, with world-renowned faculty and cutting-edge facilities.

• College of Arts and Sciences
• Jacobs School of Music
• Kelley School of Business
• Maurer School of Law
• School of Education
• School of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation
• School of Informatics
• School of Journalism
• School of Library and Information Science
• School of Nursing
• School of Optometry
• School of Public and Environmental Affairs
• University Graduate School

Indiana University Bloomington was ranked 170th in the 2008 THES-QS World University Ranking.

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

The Ranking of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute

www.rpi.edu

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, is a private research university located in Troy, New York, United States. RPI was founded in 1824 by Stephen Van Rensselaer for the "application of science to the common purposes of life", and is the oldest technological university in the English-speaking world. The institute is known for its success in the transfer of technology from the laboratory to the marketplace.

RPI's mission has slowly evolved over the years while retaining its focus on the scientific and technological roots upon which the school was founded. Adopted by the Board of Trustees in 1995, RPI's current mission is to "educate the leaders of tomorrow for technologically based careers. We celebrate discovery, and the responsible application of technology, to create knowledge and global prosperity.

History

Stephen Van Rensselaer established the Rensselaer School on November 5, 1824 with a letter to the Rev. Dr. Samuel Blatchford, in which van Rensselaer asked Blatchford to serve as the first president. Within the letter he set down several orders of business. He appointed Amos Eaton as the school's first senior professor and appointed the first board of trustees. On December 29 of that year, the president and the board met and established the methods of instruction, which were rather different from methods employed at other colleges at the time. Students performed experiments, explained their rationale, and gave their own lectures rather than listening to lectures and watching demonstrations.

The school opened on Monday, January 3, 1825 at the Old Bank Place, a building at the north end of Troy. The opening was announced by a notice, signed by the president, and printed in the Troy Sentinel on December 28. The school attracted students from New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The fact that the school attracted students from afar is attributed to the reputation of Eaton. Fourteen months of successful trial led to the incorporation of the school on March 21, 1826 by the State of New York. In its early years, the Rensselaer School resembled a graduate school more than it did a college. It drew graduates of older institutions such as Amherst, Bowdoin, Columbia, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, Union, Wesleyan, Williams, and Yale. Indeed, there was a considerable stream from Yale, where there were several teachers interested in the sciences.

RPI enjoyed a period of academic and resource expansion under the leadership of President Palmer Ricketts. Born in 1856 in Elkton, Maryland, Ricketts came to RPI in 1871 as a student. Another period of expansion occurred following World War II. Enrollment for the 1946 school year was so high that temporary dormitories had to be constructed.

On October 4, 2008, RPI celebrated the grand opening of the $220 million Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center. About two months later, President Jackson announced via email that there would be Institute-wide layoffs due to "the global and national economic crisis, and its impact on endowments." On December 16, 2008, RPI eliminated 98 positions across the Institute, about five percent of its workforce.

Having nearly two centuries of history and a high tech future in store, the Princeton Review remarks, “Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute is simultaneously the oldest technological school in the country and the most modern school of technology in the U.S. It’s like George Jetson meets Archimedes.

Campus

RPI's 275-acre (1.11 km2) landscaped campus sits upon a hill overlooking historic Troy, New York and the Hudson River. The surrounding area is mostly residential neighborhoods, with the city of Troy lying at the base of the hill. The campus is bisected by 15th Street, with most of the athletic and housing facilities to the east, and the academic buildings to the west. An iconic footbridge spans the street, linking the two halves. Much of the campus features a series of Colonial Revival style structures built in the first three decades of the 20th century.

Research and development

RPI has established six areas of research as institute priorities: biotechnology, energy and the environment, nanotechnology, computation and information technology, and media and the arts.Advances in these fields have the potential to effect dramatic transformations in 21st century society.

RPI is home to the United States' first on-campus business incubator, which has helped start over 180 companies in its lifetime, with a survival rate of about 80%. One of the largest companies to have originated in the incubator is MapInfo, a major publisher of mapping and geographic information systems software which is still headquartered in Troy, NY. Others incubator success stories include Vicarious Visions, a well known maker of video games, and CORESense, Inc., a leading provider of multi-channel retail software. RPI operates the Rensselaer Technology Park, which is home to over 50 technologically oriented companies. The 1,250-acre (5.1 km2) park is about 5 miles (8.0 km) south of the campus along the Hudson River. Park tenants collaborate with faculty and students on research projects and hire students for internships, co-ops, and employment.

Some notable research centers operated by RPI are the Terahertz Research Center, Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies, Rensselaer Nanotechnology Center, New York State Center for Polymer Synthesis, Darrin Fresh Water Institute, Center for Automation Technologies and Systems, and the Lighting Research Center. The Lighting Research Center (LRC) is the leading university-based research center devoted to lighting, offering the world's only M.S. degree in lighting. Since 1988 it has built an international reputation as a reliable source for objective information about lighting technologies, applications, and products. The LRC provides training programs for government agencies, utilities, contractors, lighting designers, and other lighting professionals.

RPI conducts nuclear research at the 60MeV Gaerttner Linear Accelerator (LINAC) Laboratory. The LINAC is used primarily for the testing of materials, but there is also ongoing research in neutron generation and other technologies. The lab made the news with discoveries regarding bubble fusion and portable pyroelectric fusion devices. Other important research facilities include the geotechnical centrifuge, used for civil engineering simulations, and RPI's array of six subsonic, supersonic and hypersonic wind tunnels.

In May 2006, RPI announced a partnership with IBM and New York State to create the Computational Center for Nanotechnology Innovations, a supercomputing center to be used for nanotechnology research. As of June 2008, the $100 million center is North America's most powerful university-based supercomputing center and the 22nd most powerful supercomputing center of any kind in the world.

Academic Reputation

RPI ranks among the top 50 national universities in the United States according to US News & World Report. The same source ranks RPI 24th for "Best Value" in undergraduate education. In 2005, the School of Engineering was ranked 18th in the nation for undergraduates, and 34th in the nation for graduates. Four of the graduate engineering programs are ranked in the top 20 (electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering), seven of 11 are ranked in the top 25, and all are ranked in the top 40 in the nation. U.S. News also put the graduate applied mathematics program at 20th.

The Newsweek/Kaplan 2007 Educational College Guide proclaimed Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute one of the 25 "New Ivies", an elite group of 25 schools that provide an education equivalent to schools in the Ivy League.

The Lally School of Management and Technology’s entrepreneurship programs ranked 21st in the nation, and its technological entrepreneurship program was ranked sixth by Entrepreneur Magazine. The Lally School's corporate strategy program was ranked first in the nation by BusinessWeek magazine.

The Electronic Arts program is one of the highest ranked departments at RPI. For four years in a row U.S. News ranked the iEAR program 8th in the nation: 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2006.

The 2008 America's Best Colleges ranked by Forbes.com placed RPI at #499.

The THES - QS World University Rankings rates RPI amongst the top 200 universities worldwide.

Department Faculty Lists

• Architecture
• Arts
• Biology
• Biomedical Engineering
• Chemical and Biological Engineering
• Chemistry and Chemical Biology
• Civil and Environmental Engineering
• Cognitive Science
• Computer Science
• Decision Sciences and Engineering Systems
• Earth and Environmental Sciences
• Economics
• Electrical, Computer and Systems Engineering
• Information Technology
• Language, Literature, and Communication
• Management & Technology
• Materials Science and Engineering
• Mathematical Sciences
• Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear Engineering
• Physics, Applied Physics, and Astronomy
• Science and Technology Studie
  
  

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was ranked 174th in the 2008 THES-QS World University ranking.