Harvard University

Stanford University (officially Leland Stanford Junior University) is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies 8,180 acres (3,310 hectares), among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford has been considered to be one of the most prestigious universities in the world.Stanford University was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford—a railroad magnate who served as the eighth governor of and then-incumbent senator from California—and his wife, Jane, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who had died of typhoid fever aged 15 the previous year. The university admitted its first students on October 1, 1891, as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Stanford University struggled financially after Leland's death in 1893 and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Frederick Terman, the university's provost, inspired and supported faculty and graduates entrepreneurialism to build a self-sufficient local industry, which would later be known as Silicon Valley.The university is organized around seven schools on the same campus: three schools consisting of 45 academic departments at the undergraduate level, as well as four professional schools that focus on graduate programs in law, medicine, education, and business. The university also houses the Hoover Institution, a public policy think-tank. Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pac-12 Conference. As of May 26, 2022, Stanford has won 131 NCAA team championships, more than any other university, and was awarded the NACDA Directors' Cup for 25 consecutive years, beginning in 1994. In addition, by 2021, Stanford students and alumni had won at least 296 Olympic medals including 150 gold and 79 silver medals.As of April 2021, 58 Nobel laureates, 29 Turing Award laureates, and 8 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with Stanford as students, alumni, faculty, or staff. In addition, Stanford is particularly noted for its entrepreneurship and is one of the most successful universities in attracting funding for start-ups. Stanford alumni have founded numerous companies, which combined produce more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue. Stanford is the alma mater of U.S. President Herbert Hoover, the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak, 74 living billionaires, and 17 astronauts. In academia, its alumni include the presidents and provosts of Yale, Harvard and Princeton. It is also one of the leading producers of Fulbright Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Gates Cambridge Scholars, Rhodes Scholars, and members of the United States Congress.

The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, approximately a decade after the founding of Seattle, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast. The university has a 703-acre (284 ha) main campus located in the city's University District. It also has satellite campuses in nearby cities of Tacoma and Bothell. Overall, UW encompasses more than 500 buildings and over 20 million gross square footage of space, including one of the largest library systems in the world with more than 26 university libraries, art centers, museums, laboratories, lecture halls, and stadiums. Washington is the flagship institution of the six public universities in Washington state. It is known for its medical, engineering, and scientific research. Washington is a member of the Association of American Universities. According to the National Science Foundation, UW spent $1.41 billion on research and development in 2018, ranking it 5th in the nation. Its 22 varsity sports teams compete as the Huskies in the Pac-12 Conference of the NCAA Division I, representing the United States at the Olympic Games, and other competitions.

The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, U.S. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the California State Normal School (now San José State University). It was absorbed with the official founding of UCLA as the Southern Branch of the University of California in 1919, making it the second-oldest of the ten-campus University of California system after the University of California, Berkeley. UCLA offers 337 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a range of disciplines, enrolling about 31,600 undergraduate and 14,300 graduate and professional students annually. It received 174,914 undergraduate applications for Fall 2022, including transfers, making it the most applied-to university in the United States. The university is organized into the College of Letters and Science and twelve professional schools. Six of the schools offer undergraduate degree programs: Arts and Architecture, Engineering and Applied Science, Music, Nursing, Public Affairs, and Theater, Film and Television. Three others are graduate-level professional health science schools: Medicine, Dentistry, and Public Health. Its three remaining schools are Education & Information Studies, Management and Law. UCLA student-athletes compete as the Bruins in the Pac-12 Conference. They have won 121 NCAA team championships, second only to Stanford University's 128 team titles. 410 Bruins have made Olympic teams, winning 270 Olympic medals: 136 gold, 71 silver and 63 bronze. UCLA has been represented in every Olympics since the university's founding (except in 1924) and has had a gold medalist in every Olympics in which the U.S. has participated since 1932.UCLA has been considered a Public Ivy. As of October 2021, 27 Nobel laureates, five Turing Award winners, two Chief Scientists of the U.S. Air Force and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with it as faculty, researchers and alumni. Among its past and current faculty members, 55 have been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, 32 to the National Academy of Engineering, 41 to the National Academy of Medicine and 167 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The university was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1974.

Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins was the first U.S. university based on the European research institution model.The university was named for its first benefactor, the American entrepreneur and Quaker philanthropist Johns Hopkins. Hopkins' $7 million bequest to establish the university was the largest philanthropic gift in U.S. history up to that time. Daniel Coit Gilman, who was inaugurated as Johns Hopkins's first president on February 22, 1876, led the university to revolutionize higher education in the U.S. by integrating teaching and research. In 1900, Johns Hopkins became a founding member of the American Association of Universities. The university has led all U.S. universities in annual research and development expenditures for over four consecutive decades ($3.1 billion as of fiscal year 2020).While its primary campus is in Baltimore, Johns Hopkins also maintains ten divisions on campuses in other Maryland locations, including Laurel, Rockville, Columbia, Aberdeen, California, Elkridge, and Owings Mills. The two undergraduate divisions, the Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and the Whiting School of Engineering are located on the Homewood campus in Baltimore's Charles Village neighborhood. The medical school, nursing school, Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Johns Hopkins Children's Center are located on the Medical Institutions campus in East Baltimore. The university also consists of the Peabody Institute, Applied Physics Laboratory, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, School of Education, Carey Business School, and various other facilities. The university also has graduate campuses in Italy, China, and Washington, D.C.As of October 2019, 39 Nobel laureates and one Fields Medalist have been affiliated with Johns Hopkins's faculty and alumni. Founded in 1883, the Blue Jays men's lacrosse team has captured 44 national titles and plays in the Big Ten Conference as an affiliate member. The university's other sports teams compete in Division III of the NCAA as members of the Centennial Conference.

Columbia University, officially Columbia University in the City of New York, is a private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhattan, it is the oldest institution of higher education in New York and the fifth-oldest in the United States. Columbia was established as a colonial college by royal charter under George II of Great Britain. It was renamed Columbia College in 1784 following the American Revolution, and in 1787 was placed under a private board of trustees headed by former students Alexander Hamilton and John Jay. In 1896, the campus was moved to its current location in Morningside Heights and renamed Columbia University. Columbia is organized into twenty schools, including four undergraduate schools and 16 graduate schools. The university's research efforts include the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and accelerator laboratories with Big Tech firms such as Amazon and IBM. Columbia is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and was the first school in the United States to grant the MD degree. The university also annually administers the Pulitzer Prize. Its endowment stands at $13.3 billion as of 2022, which is among the largest of any academic institution. Columbia scientists and scholars have played a pivotal role in scientific breakthroughs including brain-computer interface; the laser and maser; nuclear magnetic resonance; the first nuclear pile; the first nuclear fission reaction in the Americas; the first evidence for plate tectonics and continental drift; and much of the initial research and planning for the Manhattan Project during World War II. As of December 2021, its alumni, faculty, and staff have included seven Founding Fathers of the United States; four U.S. presidents; 34 foreign heads of state; two secretaries-general of the United Nations; ten justices of the United States Supreme Court; 103 Nobel laureates; 125 National Academy of Sciences members; 53 living billionaires; 23 Olympic medalists; 33 Academy Award winners; and 125 Pulitzer Prize recipients.

Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution.The Collegiate School was established in 1701 by Congregationalist clergy of the Connecticut Colony. At first restricted to instructing ministers in theology and sacred languages, the curriculum began to incorporate humanities and sciences by the time of the American Revolution. In the 19th century, the college expanded into graduate and professional instruction, awarding the first PhD in the United States in 1861 and organizing as a university in 1887. Yale's faculty and student populations grew rapidly after 1890 with expansion of the physical campus and of scientific research programs. Yale is organized into fourteen constituent schools: the original undergraduate college, the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and twelve professional schools. While the university is governed by the Yale Corporation, each school's faculty oversees its curriculum and degree programs. In addition to a central campus in downtown New Haven, the university owns athletic facilities in western New Haven, a campus in West Haven, and forests and nature preserves throughout New England. As of 2021, the university's endowment was valued at $42.3 billion, the third largest of any educational institution. The Yale University Library, serving all constituent schools, holds more than 15 million volumes and is the third-largest academic library in the United States. Student athletes compete in intercollegiate sports as the Yale Bulldogs in the NCAA Division I Ivy League conference. As of October 2020, 65 Nobel laureates, five Fields medalists, four Abel Prize laureates, and three Turing Award winners have been affiliated with Yale University. In addition, Yale has graduated many notable alumni, including five U.S. presidents, 10 Founding Fathers, 19 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, 31 living billionaires, 54 college founders and presidents, many heads of state, cabinet members and governors. Hundreds of members of Congress and many U.S. diplomats, 78 MacArthur Fellows, 263 Rhodes Scholars, 123 Marshall Scholars, 81 Gates Cambridge Scholars, 102 Guggenheim Fellows and nine Mitchell Scholars have been affiliated with the university. Yale's current faculty include 67 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 55 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 8 members of the National Academy of Engineering, and 187 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by a group of New Yorkers led by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institution near City Hall based on a curriculum focused on a secular education. The university moved in 1833 and has maintained its main campus in Greenwich Village surrounding Washington Square Park. Since then, the university has added an engineering school in Brooklyn's MetroTech Center and graduate schools throughout Manhattan. NYU has become the largest private university in the United States by enrollment, with a total of 51,848 enrolled students, including 26,733 undergraduate students and 25,115 graduate students in 2019. Admissions are considered highly selective.NYU main campus in New York City is organized into ten undergraduate schools, including the College of Arts & Science, Gallatin School, Steinhardt School, Stern School of Business, Tandon School of Engineering, and Tisch School of the Arts. NYU's 15 graduate schools include the Grossman School of Medicine, School of Law, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, School of Professional Studies, Silver School of Social Work, and Rory Meyers School of Nursing. The university's internal academic centers include the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Center for Data Science, Center for Neural Science, Clive Davis Institute, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, Institute of Fine Arts, and the NYU Langone Health System.NYU is a global university system with degree-granting portal campuses at NYU Abu Dhabi in United Arab Emirates and NYU Shanghai in China, and academic learning centers in Accra, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Florence, London, Los Angeles, Madrid, Paris, Prague, Sydney, Tel Aviv, and Washington, D.C. Past and present faculty and alumni include 39 Nobel Laureates, 8 Turing Award winners, 5 Fields Medalists, 31 MacArthur Fellows, 26 Pulitzer Prize winners, 3 heads of state, a U.S. Supreme Court justice, 5 U.S. governors, 4 mayors of New York City, 12 U.S. senators, 58 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 2 Federal Reserve Chairmen, 38 Academy Award winners, 30 Emmy Award winners, 25 Tony Award winners, 12 Grammy Award winners, 17 billionaires, and 7 Olympic medalists.

The University of Pennsylvania (often abbreviated simply as Penn or UPenn) is a private Ivy League research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is one of nine colonial colleges and was chartered prior to the U.S. Declaration of Independence when Benjamin Franklin, the university's founder and first president, advocated for an educational institution that trained leaders in academia, commerce, and public service. Penn identifies as the fourth oldest institution of higher education in the United States, though this representation is challenged by other universities, as Franklin first convened the Board of Trustees in 1749, arguably making it the fifth oldest institution of higher education in the U.S.The university has four undergraduate schools and 12 graduate and professional schools. Schools enrolling undergraduates include the College of Arts and Sciences, the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Wharton School, and the School of Nursing. Among its highly ranked graduate schools are its law school, whose first professor James Wilson participated in writing the first draft of the U.S. Constitution, its medical school, which was the first medical school established in North America, and Wharton, the nation's first collegiate business school. Penn's endowment is US$20.7 billion, making it the sixth-wealthiest private academic institution in the nation as of 2022. In 2020, the university was awarded $1.5 billion in research grants, the fourth-largest of any U.S. university.The University of Pennsylvania's main campus is located in the University City neighborhood of West Philadelphia, and is centered around College Hall. Notable campus landmarks include Houston Hall, the first modern student union, and Franklin Field, the nation's first dual-level college football stadium and the nation's longest-standing NCAA Division I college football stadium in continuous operation. The university's athletics program, the Penn Quakers, fields varsity teams in 33 sports as a member of NCAA Division I's Ivy League conference. Since its founding, Penn alumni, trustees, and faculty have included 8 signers of the Declaration of Independence, 7 signers of the Constitution, 3 Presidents of the United States, 3 U.S. Supreme Court justices, 32 U.S. senators, 163 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 19 U.S. Cabinet Secretaries, 46 governors, 28 State Supreme Court justices, and 9 foreign heads of state. Alumni and faculty include 39 Nobel laureates, 4 Turing Award winners, and a Fields Medalist. Penn has graduated 32 Rhodes Scholars and 21 Marshall Scholars. As of 2022, Penn has the largest number of undergraduate alumni who are billionaires of all colleges and universities (17, counting only Penn's four undergraduate schools). At least (a) 43 different Penn alumni have earned 81 Olympic medals (26 gold), (b) 2 Penn alumni have been NASA astronauts, and (c) 5 Penn alumni have been awarded the Medal of Honor.

The University of Michigan (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, U-M, UMich, or just Michigan) is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1817, the university was the first U.S. modern university based on the European model. The university consists of nineteen colleges and offers degree programs at undergraduate and graduate levels in some 250 disciplines. Michigan was one of the original eight "Public Ivies". Admission to the university is highly selective.Michigan is one of the earliest American research universities and a founding member of the Association of American Universities. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It ranked 2nd among American universities in research expenditures. As of October 2019, 26 Nobel Prize laureates, six Turing Award laureates and two Fields Medalist have been affiliated with the university. It is also a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars and MacArthur Fellows.The university's alumni include eight domestic and foreign heads of state or heads of government; 47 U.S. senators; 218 members of the U.S. House of Representatives; 42 U.S. Cabinet secretaries; 41 U.S. governors; and 26 living billionaires. As of 2022, Wolverine athletes have won 188 medals at the Olympic Games.

Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established The Duke Endowment and the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.The campus spans over 8,600 acres (3,500 hectares) on three contiguous sub-campuses in Durham, and a marine lab in Beaufort. The West Campus—designed largely by architect Julian Abele, an African American architect who graduated first in his class at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design—incorporates Gothic architecture with the 210-foot (64-meter) Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation, is adjacent to the Medical Center. East Campus, 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers) away, home to all first-years, contains Georgian-style architecture. The university administers two concurrent schools in Asia, Duke–NUS Medical School in Singapore (established in 2005) and Duke Kunshan University in Kunshan, China (established in 2013).Duke's undergraduate admissions are among the most selective in the United States, with an overall acceptance rate of 6.2% for the class of 2026. Duke spends more than $1 billion per year on research, making it one of the ten largest research universities in the United States. More than a dozen faculty regularly appear on annual lists of the world's most-cited researchers. As of 2019, 15 Nobel laureates and 3 Turing Award winners have been affiliated with the university. Duke alumni also include 50 Rhodes Scholars. Duke is the alma mater of one president of the United States (Richard Nixon) and 14 living billionaires.