Directory of U.S. Higher Education Institutions

Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Its influence, wealth, and rankings have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.Harvard's founding was authorized by the Massachusetts colonial legislature, "dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches"; though never formally affiliated with any denomination, in its early years, Harvard College primarily trained Congregational clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century. By the 19th century, Harvard emerged as the most prominent academic and cultural institution among the Boston elite. Following the American Civil War, under President Charles William Eliot's long tenure (1869–1909), the college developed multiple affiliated professional schools that transformed the college into a modern research university. In 1900, Harvard co-founded the Association of American Universities. James B. Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II, and liberalized admissions after the war. The university is composed of ten academic faculties plus the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences offers study in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate academic disciplines, and other faculties offer only graduate degrees, including professional degrees. Harvard has three main campuses: the 209-acre (85 ha) Cambridge campus centered on Harvard Yard; an adjoining campus immediately across Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston; and the medical campus in Boston's Longwood Medical Area. Harvard's endowment is valued at $50.7 billion, making it the wealthiest academic institution in the world. Endowment income enables the undergraduate college to admit students regardless of financial need and provide financial aid with no loans. Harvard Library is the world's largest academic library system, comprising 79 individual libraries holding 20 million items.Throughout its existence, Harvard alumni, faculty, and researchers have included 188 living billionaires, 8 U.S. presidents, numerous heads of state, Nobel laureates, Fields Medalists, members of Congress, MacArthur Fellows, Rhodes Scholars, Marshall Scholars, Turing Award Recipients and Fulbright Scholars; by most metrics, Harvard ranks among the top globally in each of these categories. Additionally, students and alumni have won 10 Academy Awards, 48 Pulitzer Prizes, 110 Olympic medals (46 gold), and have founded notable companies.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. It was established in 1868 as the University of California and is the state's first land-grant university and the founding campus of the University of California system. Berkeley has been regarded to be among the top universities in the world and Berkeley alumni have also founded more companies than any other university worldwide.A founding member of the Association of American Universities, Berkeley hosts research institutes dedicated to science, engineering, and mathematics. The university founded and maintains relationships with three national laboratories at Berkeley, Livermore and Los Alamos, and played a role in the Manhattan Project and the discovery of 16 chemical elements. Berkeley's athletic teams, which compete as the California Golden Bears primarily in the Pac-12 Conference, have won 107 national championships, and its alumni have won 223 Olympic medals (including 121 gold medals).Among Berkeley's alumni, faculty, and researchers are 107 Nobel laureates, 25 Turing Award winners, 14 Fields Medalists, 30 Wolf Prize winners, 34 Pulitzer Prize winners, 190 recipients of the MacArthur "Genius Grant", and 68 recipients of the National Medal of Science. The university has produced seven heads of state or government, six chief justices, and 25 living billionaires. It is also a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars, MacArthur Fellows, and Marshall Scholars.

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.

The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego or colloquially, UCSD), is a public land-grant research university in San Diego, California. Established in 1960 near the pre-existing Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego is the southernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California, and offers over 200 undergraduate and graduate degree programs, enrolling 33,096 undergraduate and 9,872 graduate students. The university occupies 2,178 acres (881 ha) near the coast of the Pacific Ocean, with the main campus resting on approximately 1,152 acres (466 ha).UC San Diego consists of twelve undergraduate, graduate and professional schools as well as eight undergraduate residential colleges. The university operates 19 organized research units as well as eight School of Medicine research units, six research centers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and two multi-campus initiatives. UC San Diego is also closely affiliated with several regional research centers, such as the Salk Institute, the Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute, the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine, and the Scripps Research Institute. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". According to the National Science Foundation, UC San Diego spent $1.403 billion on research and development in fiscal year 2021, giving it the second-highest R&D spending in the University of California system and the 7th-highest in the nation.UC San Diego has been considered a Public Ivy. UC San Diego faculty, researchers, and alumni have won 27 Nobel Prizes as well as three Fields Medals, eight National Medals of Science, eight MacArthur Fellowships, and three Pulitzer Prizes. Additionally, of the current faculty, 29 have been elected to the National Academy of Engineering, 70 to the National Academy of Sciences, 45 to the Institute of Medicine and 110 to 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 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and science. Founded in response to the increasing industrialization of the United States, MIT adopted a European polytechnic university model and stressed laboratory instruction in applied science and engineering. MIT is one of three private land grant universities in the United States, the others being Cornell University and Tuskegee University. The institute has an urban campus that extends more than a mile (1.6 km) alongside the Charles River, and encompasses a number of major off-campus facilities such as the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Bates Center, and the Haystack Observatory, as well as affiliated laboratories such as the Broad and Whitehead Institutes. As of October 2023, 101 Nobel laureates, 26 Turing Award winners, and 8 Fields Medalists have been affiliated with MIT as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. In addition, 58 National Medal of Science recipients, 29 National Medals of Technology and Innovation recipients, 50 MacArthur Fellows, 83 Marshall Scholars, 41 astronauts, 16 Chief Scientists of the US Air Force, and various heads of states have been affiliated with MIT. The institute also has a strong entrepreneurial culture and MIT alumni have founded or co-founded many notable companies. MIT is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU).

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.

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.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It conducts research and teaching in medical and biological sciences. UCSF was founded as Toland Medical College in 1864. In 1873, it became affiliated with the University of California as its Medical Department. In the same year, it incorporated the California College of Pharmacy and in 1881 it established a dentistry school. Its facilities were located in both Berkeley and San Francisco. In 1964, the school gained full administrative independence as a campus of the UC system, headed by its own chancellor, and in 1970 it gained its current name. Historically based at Parnassus Heights with satellite facilities throughout the city, UCSF developed a second major campus in the newly redeveloped Mission Bay district in the early 2000s. In 2023, UCSF received the 2nd highest research funding from the National Institutes of Health. In 2021, the university spent $1.71 billion in research and development, the second most among institutions of higher education in the U.S. With 25,398 employees, UCSF is the second-largest public agency employer in the San Francisco Bay Area. UCSF faculty have treated patients and trained residents since 1873 at the San Francisco General Hospital and for over 50 years at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.

The University of Pittsburgh (also known as Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the university's central administration and around 28,000 undergraduate and graduate students. The 132-acre Pittsburgh campus includes various historic buildings that are part of the Schenley Farms Historic District, most notably its 42-story Gothic revival centerpiece, the Cathedral of Learning. Pitt is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It is the second-largest non-government employer in the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The campus is situated adjacent to the flagship medical facilities of its closely affiliated University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and its flagship hospital, UPMC Presbyterian, as well as the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Schenley Park, and Carnegie Mellon University. The university also operates four undergraduate branch campuses in Western Pennsylvania, located in Bradford, Greensburg, Johnstown, and Titusville. In athletics, Pitt competes in Division I of the NCAA as the Pittsburgh Panthers, primarily as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference. Pitt athletes have received a total of five Olympic medals. Alumni, faculty, and staff include 8 Rhodes Scholars, 10 Marshall Scholars, and 297 Fulbright Scholars. Past and present faculty and alumni at Pitt include six Nobel laureates, three Pulitzer Prize winners, three Academy Award winners, members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, seven United States senators, three United States cabinet officials, and five U.S. state governors.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved statehood and is the flagship campus of the University of Wisconsin System. The 933-acre (378 ha) main campus is located on the shores of Lake Mendota; the university also owns and operates a 1,200-acre (486 ha) arboretum 4 miles (6.4 km) south of the main campus. UW–Madison is organized into 13 schools and colleges, which enrolled approximately 34,200 undergraduate and 14,300 graduate and professional students in 2024. Its academic programs include 136 undergraduate majors, 148 master's degree programs, and 120 doctoral programs. Wisconsin is one of the founding members of the Association of American Universities. It is considered a Public Ivy and is classified as an R1 University. UW–Madison was also the home of both the prominent "Wisconsin School" of economics and diplomatic history. It ranked sixth among U.S. universities in research expenditures in 2023, according to the National Science Foundation. As of March 2023[update], 20 Nobel laureates, 41 Pulitzer Prize winners, 2 Fields medalists, and 1 Turing Award recipient have been affiliated with UW–Madison as alumni, faculty, or researchers. It is also a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars and MacArthur Fellows. The Wisconsin Badgers compete in 25 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference and have won 31 national championships. Wisconsin students and alumni have won 50 Olympic medals (including 13 gold medals).

The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. The university has its main campus in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.The university is composed of an undergraduate college and four graduate research divisions, which contain all of the university's graduate programs and interdisciplinary committees. It has eight professional schools: the Law School; the Booth School of Business; the Pritzker School of Medicine; the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice; the Harris School of Public Policy; the Divinity School; the Graham School of Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies; and the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering. The university has additional campuses and centers in London, Paris, Beijing, Delhi, and Hong Kong, as well as in downtown Chicago.University of Chicago scholars have played a major role in the development of many academic disciplines, including economics, law, literary criticism, mathematics, physics, religion, sociology, and political science, establishing the Chicago schools in various fields. Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory produced the world's first human-made, self-sustaining nuclear reaction in Chicago Pile-1 beneath the viewing stands of the university's Stagg Field. Advances in chemistry led to the "radiocarbon revolution" in the carbon-14 dating of ancient life and objects. The university research efforts include administration of Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory, as well as the Marine Biological Laboratory. The university is also home to the University of Chicago Press, the largest university press in the United States.The university's students, faculty, and staff include 99 Nobel laureates. The university's faculty members and alumni also include 10 Fields Medalists, 4 Turing Award winners, 52 MacArthur Fellows, 26 Marshall Scholars, 53 Rhodes Scholars, 27 Pulitzer Prize winners, 20 National Humanities Medalists, 29 living billionaire graduates, and 8 Olympic medalists.

Northwestern University (NU) is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest chartered university in Illinois. The university has its main campus along the shores of Lake Michigan in the Chicago metropolitan area. Chartered by the Illinois General Assembly in 1851, Northwestern was initially affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church but later became non-sectarian. By 1900, the university was the third-largest university in the United States. Northwestern became a founding member of the Big Ten Conference in 1896 and joined the Association of American Universities in 1917. Northwestern is composed of eleven undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, which include the Kellogg School of Management, the Pritzker School of Law, the Feinberg School of Medicine, the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, the Bienen School of Music, the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Medill School of Journalism, the School of Communication, the School of Professional Studies, the School of Education and Social Policy, and The Graduate School. Northwestern has additional campuses in downtown Chicago, Coral Gables, San Francisco, Doha, and Washington, D.C. As of 2023, the university maintains an endowment of $14.1 billion, along with an annual budget of around $2.9 billion, and research funding of over $1 billion. The university's intercollegiate athletic teams, collectively known as the Northwestern Wildcats, compete in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference, of which the university is a founding member. As of September 2020, 33 Nobel Prize laureates and 2 Fields Medalists, have been affiliated with Northwestern as alumni or faculty. In addition, Northwestern has been associated with 45 Pulitzer Prize winners, 23 National Medal of Science winners, 11 National Humanities Medal recipients, 23 MacArthur Fellows, 20 Rhodes Scholars, and 28 Marshall Scholars. Northwestern alumni also include 10 living billionaires, 2 U.S. Supreme Court Justices, and 24 Olympic medalists.

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It is the flagship of the University of North Carolina system. After being chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolling students in 1795, making it one of the oldest public universities in the United States.The university offers degrees in over 70 courses of study and is administratively divided into 13 separate professional schools and a primary unit, the College of Arts & Sciences. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and is a member of the Association of American Universities (AAU). According to the National Science Foundation, UNC spent $1.14 billion on research and development in 2018, ranking 12th in the nation.The campus covers 760 acres (310 ha), encompassing the Morehead Planetarium and the many stores and shops located on Franklin Street. Students can participate in over 550 officially recognized student organizations. UNC Chapel Hill is one of the charter members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which was founded on June 14, 1953. The university's athletic teams compete as the Tar Heels. UNC faculty and alumni include 9 Nobel Prize laureates, 23 Pulitzer Prize winners, and 51 Rhodes Scholars. Additional notable alumni include a U.S. President, a U.S. Vice President, 38 Governors of U.S. States, 98 members of the United States Congress, and 9 cabinet members as well as CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, Olympians and professional athletes.

The Pennsylvania State University, commonly referred to as Penn State and sometimes by the acronymn PSU, is a public state-related land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvania. Founded in 1855 as Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, In 1863, Penn State was named the state's first land-grant university. Its primary campus, known as Penn State University Park, is located in State College and College Township in Pennsylvania. In addition to its land-grant designation, the university is a sea-grant, space-grant, and one of only seven sun-grant universities. research consortia. The university has two law schools: Penn State Law on the school's University Park campus and Penn State Dickinson Law in Carlisle. The College of Medicine is in Hershey. The university maintains 19 commonwealth campuses and five special mission campuses located across Pennsylvania.The university competes in the Big Ten Conference in Division I of the NCAA for most of its athletic teams, known collectively as the Penn State Nittany Lions. Since its founding, Penn State has won 81 national collegiate team championships, including 53 NCAA titles across all sports, and Penn State students, alumni, faculty, and coaches have won a total of 60 Olympic medals, including 17 gold medals.

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis), is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institution was first founded as an agricultural branch of the system in 1905 and became the seventh campus of the University of California in 1959. Founded as a primarily agricultural campus, the university has expanded over the past century to include graduate and professional programs in medicine (which includes the UC Davis Medical Center), law, veterinary medicine, education, nursing, and business management, in addition to 90 research programs offered by UC Davis Graduate Studies. The UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine is the largest veterinary school in the United States. The UC Center Sacramento, a public-service oriented program founded in 2004, is operated by UC Davis. UC Davis also offers certificates and courses, including online classes, for adults and non-traditional learners through its Division of Continuing and Professional Education.The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The UC Davis Aggies athletic teams compete in NCAA Division I, primarily as members of the Big West Conference with additional sports in the Big Sky Conference (football only) and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation. Athletes from UC Davis have won a total of 10 Olympic medals. University faculty, alumni, and researchers have been the recipients of two Nobel Prizes, one Fields Medal, a Presidential Medal of Freedom, three Pulitzer Prizes, three MacArthur Fellowships, and a National Medal of Science.

The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas. It is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 52,384 students as of Fall 2022, it is also the largest institution in the system.Founded in 1883, UT Austin is considered a Public Ivy. The university is a major center for academic research, with research expenditures totaling $679.8 million for fiscal year 2018. It joined the Association of American Universities in 1929. The university houses seven museums and seventeen libraries, including the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library and the Blanton Museum of Art, and operates various auxiliary research facilities, such as the J. J. Pickle Research Campus and the McDonald Observatory. Student-athletes compete as the Texas Longhorns. The Longhorns have won four NCAA Division I National Football Championships, six NCAA Division I National Baseball Championships, thirteen NCAA Division I National Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, and the school has claimed more titles in men's and women's sports than any other member in the Big 12. As of November 2020, 13 Nobel Prize winners, over 25 Pulitzer Prize winners, three Turing Award winners, two Fields Medal recipients, two Wolf Prize winners, and three Abel Prize winners have been affiliated with the school as alumni, faculty members, or researchers. The university has also been affiliated with three Primetime Emmy Award winners, and as of 2021, its students and alumni have earned a total of 155 Olympic medals.

The University of California, Irvine (UCI or UC Irvine), is a public land-grant research university in Irvine, California, United States. One of the ten campuses of the University of California system, UCI offers 87 undergraduate degrees and 129 graduate and professional degrees, and roughly 30,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students are enrolled at UCI as of Fall 2019. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity", and had $523.7 million in research and development expenditures in 2021. UCI became a member of the Association of American Universities in 1996.The university administers the UC Irvine Medical Center, a large teaching hospital in Orange, and its affiliated health sciences system; the University of California, Irvine, Arboretum; and a portion of the University of California Natural Reserve System. UC Irvine set up the first Earth System Science Department in the United States. The university was rated as one of the "Public Ivies" in 1985 and 2001 surveys comparing publicly funded universities the authors claimed provide an education comparable to the Ivy League.The UC Irvine Anteaters currently compete in the NCAA Division I as members of the Big West Conference. During the early years of the school's existence, the teams played at the NCAA Division II level. The Anteaters have won 28 national championships in nine different team sports, 64 Anteaters have won individual national championships, and 53 Anteaters have competed in the Olympics, winning a total of 33 Olympic medals. As of January 2022, there have been 5 Nobel Prize laureates, 7 Pulitzer Prize winners, 6 MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipients, 37 Guggenheim Fellows, and 1 Turing Award winner affiliated with the university as alumni, faculty or researchers.

The University of Minnesota (formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. The Twin Cities campus comprises locations in Minneapolis and Falcon Heights, a suburb of St. Paul, approximately 3 mi (4.8 km) apart. The Twin Cities campus is the oldest and largest in the University of Minnesota system and has the ninth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,376 students at the start of the 2021–22 academic year. It is the flagship institution of the University of Minnesota System, and is organized into 19 colleges, schools, and other major academic units. The Minnesota Territorial Legislature drafted a charter for the University of Minnesota as a territorial university in 1851, seven years before Minnesota became a state. Today, the university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Minnesota is a member of the Association of American Universities and is ranked 20th in research activity, with $1.04 billion in research and development expenditures in the fiscal year 2020. In 2001, the University of Minnesota was included in a list of Public Ivy universities.The Minnesota Golden Gophers compete in 21 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference and have won 29 national championships. As of 2021, Minnesota's current and former students have won a total of 76 Olympic medals.

The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, Ohio State was founded in 1870 as the state's land-grant university and the ninth university in Ohio with the Morrill Act of 1862. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". As of 2023, the university has an endowment of $7.4 billion. Ohio State was originally known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College and focused on various agricultural and mechanical disciplines, but it developed into a comprehensive university under the direction of -Governor Rutherford B. Hayes, and in 1878, the Ohio General Assembly passed a law changing the name to "the Ohio State University" and broadening the scope of the university. The university has over 1,000 student organizations; intercollegiate, club and recreational sports programs; student media organizations and publications, fraternities and sororities; and three student governments. Its athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are known as the Ohio State Buckeyes, and it is a member of the Big Ten Conference for the majority of its sports. As of 2017, Ohio State's football program is valued at $1.5 billion. The main campus in Columbus has grown into the fifth-largest university campus by enrollment in the United States, with nearly 50,000 undergraduate students and nearly 15,000 graduate students. Ohio state is a member of the Association of American Universities. It is a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars. Past and present alumni and faculty include six Nobel Prize laureates, nine Rhodes Scholars, seven Churchill Scholars, one Fields Medalist, seven Pulitzer Prize winners, 64 Goldwater scholars, seven U.S. senators, 15 U.S. representatives, and 104 Olympic medalists.

Boston University (BU) is a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodists with its original campus in Newbury, Vermont, before being chartered in Boston in 1869. It is a member of the Association of American Universities and the Boston Consortium for Higher Education.The university is nonsectarian, though it retains its historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. The university has more than 4,000 faculty members and nearly 34,000 students and is one of Boston's largest employers. It offers bachelor's degrees, master's degrees, doctorates, and medical, dental, business, and law degrees through 17 schools and colleges on three urban campuses. The main campus is situated along the Charles River in Boston's Fenway–Kenmore and Allston neighborhoods, while the Boston University Medical Campus is located in Boston's South End neighborhood. The Fenway campus houses the Wheelock College of Education and Human Development, formerly Wheelock College, which merged with BU in 2018. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity".BU athletic teams compete in the Patriot League and Hockey East conferences, and their mascot is Rhett the Boston Terrier. The Boston University Terriers compete in the NCAA Division I. Among its alumni and current or past faculty, the university counts 9 Nobel Laureates, 23 Pulitzer Prize winners, 10 Rhodes Scholars, 6 Marshall Scholars, 14 Academy Award winners, and Emmy and Tony Award winners. BU also has MacArthur, Fulbright, and Truman Scholars, among its past and present graduates and faculty. In 1876, BU professor Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in a BU lab.

The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very High Research Activity". The University of Arizona is one of three universities governed by the Arizona Board of Regents. As of 2021, the university enrolled 49,471 students in 19 separate colleges/schools, including the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson and Phoenix and the James E. Rogers College of Law, and is affiliated with two academic medical centers (Banner – University Medical Center Tucson and Banner – University Medical Center Phoenix). In 2021, University of Arizona acquired Ashford University. Known as the Arizona Wildcats (often shortened to "Cats"), the UA's intercollegiate athletic teams are members of the Pac-12 Conference of the NCAA. UA athletes have won national titles in several sports, most notably men's basketball, baseball, and softball.

Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1 million endowment in the hopes that his gift and the greater work of the university would help to heal the sectional wounds inflicted by the Civil War. Vanderbilt is a founding member of the Southeastern Conference and has been the conference's only private school since 1966.The university comprises ten schools and enrolls nearly 13,800 students from the US and 70 foreign countries. Vanderbilt is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". Several research centers and institutes are affiliated with the university, including the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center, and Dyer Observatory. Vanderbilt University Medical Center, formerly part of the university, became a separate institution in 2016. With the exception of the off-campus observatory, all of the university's facilities are situated on its 330-acre (1.3 km2) campus in the heart of Nashville, 1.5 miles (2.4 km) from downtown. Vanderbilt alumni, faculty, and staff have included 54 current and former members of the United States Congress, 18 U.S. Ambassadors, 13 governors, 8 Nobel Prize laureates, 2 Vice Presidents of the United States, and 2 U.S. Supreme Court Justices. Other notable alumni include 3 Pulitzer Prize winners, 27 Rhodes Scholars, 2 Academy Award winners, 1 Grammy Award winner, 6 MacArthur Fellows, 4 foreign heads of state, and 5 Olympic medallists. Vanderbilt has more than 145,000 alumni, with 40 alumni clubs established worldwide.

The University of Southern California (USC, SC, Southern Cal or SoCal) is a private research university in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1880 by Robert Maclay Widney, it is the oldest private research university in California. The university is composed of one liberal arts school, the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and 22 undergraduate, graduate, and professional schools, enrolling roughly 21,000 undergraduate and 28,500 post-graduate students from all fifty U.S. states and more than 115 countries. It is a member of the Association of American Universities, which it joined in 1969. USC sponsors a variety of intercollegiate sports and competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as a member of the Pac-12 Conference. Members of USC's sports teams, the Trojans, have won 107 NCAA team championships and 412 NCAA individual championships. As of 2021, Trojan athletes have won 326 medals at the Olympic Games (153 golds, 96 silvers, and 77 bronzes). USC has had 537 football players drafted to the National Football League, the second-highest number of draftees in the country.USC has graduated more alumni who have gone on to win Academy and Emmy Awards than any other institution, largely due to the School of Cinematic Arts, and has conferred degrees upon 29 living billionaires. USC presently has ten Nobel Laureates on staff, eleven Rhodes Scholars, twelve Marshall Scholars, six MacArthur Fellows, 181 Fulbright Scholars, and one Turing Award winner.