Louisiana State University

     Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, often referred to as LSU) is a public coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.The University was founded in 1853 in what is now known as Pineville, Louisiana, under the name Louisiana State Seminary of Learning & Military Academy. The current LSU main campus was dedicated in 1926, and consists of more than 250 buildings constructed in the style of Italian Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, and occupies a 650-acre (2.6 km²) plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River.

LSU is the flagship institution of the Louisiana State University System, and the largest institution of higher education in Louisiana in terms of student enrollment. In 2015, the University enrolled over 26,000 undergraduate and over 5,000 graduate students in 14 schools and colleges. Several of LSU's graduate schools, such as the E.J. Ourso College of Business and the Paul M. Hebert Law Center, have received national recognition in their respective fields of study.Designated as a land-grant, sea-grant and space-grant institution, LSU is also noted for its extensive research facilities, operating some 800 sponsored research projects funded by agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Louisiana State University Agricultural & Mechanical College had its origin in several land grants made by the United States government in 1806, 1811, and 1827 for use as a seminary of learning. It was founded as a military academy and is still today steeped in military tradition, giving rise to the school's nickname "The Ole War Skule." In 1853, the Louisiana General Assembly established the Seminary of Learning of the State of Louisiana near Pineville in Rapides Parish in Central Louisiana. Modeled initially after Virginia Military Institute, the institution opened with five professors and nineteen cadets on January 2, 1860, with Colonel William Tecumseh Sherman as superintendent. The original location of the Old LSU Site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.On January 26, 1861, after only a year at the helm, Sherman resigned his position because Louisiana became the sixth state to secede from the Union. The school closed on June 30, 1861, with the start of the American Civil War.

The current LSU campus is located on 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) just south of downtown Baton Rouge. A majority of the university's 250 buildings, most of which were built between 1925 and 1940, occupy a 650-acre (2.6 km²) plateau on the banks of the Mississippi River.

The Olmsted Brothers Firm of Brookline, Massachusetts, designed the current campus around 1921 when LSU was planning to move its campus from downtown Baton Rouge. The Olmsted firm originally designed the campus for up to 3,000 students, but state officials asked the firm to scale the plan back due to budgetary constraints; subsequently, the new plan presented to the state by the Olmsted Brothers centered the campus around a cruciform quadrangle similar to the one that exists on campus today.

Athletic -

LSU fields teams in 21 varsity sports (9 men's, 12 women's), and is a member of the NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and the Southeastern Conference.

The 9 men's teams compete in baseball, basketball, cross country, football, golf, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, and outdoor track and field. The 12 women's teams compete in basketball, beach volleyball, cross country, golf, gymnastics, soccer, softball, swimming and diving, tennis, indoor track and field, outdoor track and field, and volleyball.

Ranked -

• Louisiana State University is ranked 129th in the national universities category and 63rd among public universities by the 2015 U.S. News & World Report ranking of U.S. colleges.LSU is also ranked as the 190th best overall university in the nation by Forbes magazine and is featured in the 2011 edition of Princeton Review's Best 371 Colleges guide. Additionally, U.S. News & World Report ranked LSU as the 16th most popular university in the nation.LSU was listed for academic censure by the national Association of University Professors for its alleged mistreatment of faculty on June 16, 2012.Programs that have received recognition within LSU include the following:

• The E. J. Ourso College of Business has two professional programs ranked by U.S. News & World Report: in 2015, the Public Administration Institute ranked 73rd nationally according to the magazine, and the Flores MBA program was ranked 65th nationally.Additionally,

• LSU students have won the International Student High Achievement Award, an accolade given to students who score the highest possible score on the Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) exam, seventeen times during the last twenty-one years.

• In 2007, the Flores MBA Program was ranked seventh in the nation "for attracting corporate MBA recruiters who recruit regionally" by the Wall Street Journal.

• The LSU College of Engineering undergraduate program was ranked 91st by U.S. News & World Report while the graduate program was ranked 94th.

• The Paul M. Hebert Law Center is ranked as the 75th best law school in the nation by the 2010 U.S. News Rankings of Best Law Schools.

• In 2009, Entrepreneur Magazine ranked LSU among the top 12 Entrepreneurial Colleges and Universities in the nation.

• The University's Robert S. Reich School of Landscape Architecture was ranked No. 1 nationally in undergraduate and No. 2 in graduate programs by DesignIntelligence in its 2011 and 2012 editions of "America's Best Architecture & Design Schools".The journal has ranked the school in the top five since 2004.

• The LSU College of Education graduate program was ranked 86th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

• The LSU French program, comprising the Department of French Studies and the Center for French and Francophone Studies, is recognized by the Cultural Services office of the French Ambassador to the United States as a centre d'excellence, an honor given to only 15 university French programs in the United States, and is ranked as one of the top 20 undergraduate French programs in the nation.

• The LSU graduate program in fine arts is ranked 62nd in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

• The LSU graduate program in library and information studies is ranked 27th in the nation by U.S. News & World Report.

• The LSU School of Social Work is ranked 79th in the nation by the 2015 U.S. News & World Report.

Saint Leo University

     Saint Leo University is a private, non-profit, Roman Catholic liberal arts university established in 1889 and reestablished in 1959. It is located in Saint Leo, Florida, 35 miles north of Tampa.The university is associated with the Holy Name Monastery, a Benedictine convent, and Saint Leo Abbey, a Benedictine monastery. The university and the abbey are both named in honor of Pope Leo the Great, who is recognized by Catholics as both a saint and as one of the most outstanding leaders in the history of the Church.

The oldest Catholic college in Florida, and the sixth-largest in the United States, Saint Leo University was one of the first American universities to provide distance learning opportunities to students, beginning to educate military men and women in 1973 during the Vietnam era at the height of the anti-war movement.

Saint Leo University now operates 17 continuing education centers in seven states, including California, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia, as well as dozens of military base centers, and the University's Center for Online Learning.

Saint Leo was founded as the first Catholic college in Florida, chartered on June 4, 1889 by a group of Benedictine monks from Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania.The University opened its doors on September 14, 1890 with an enrollment of 32 students.

Saint Leo ended racial segregation on their campus in 1889, before it was legal to do so in Florida, and totally integrated their campus in the Deep South.In 1920, the College was temporarily phased out to become an English-style prep school.Saint Leo opened again as a college in 1959, receiving assistance from the Benedictine sisters at Holy Name Monastery, its neighboring community. Operating first on the associate's level, the college moved quickly to a four-year program and conferred its first bachelor's degree on April 23, 1967, on 51 men and 13 women. The college was accredited by the Southern Educational Association on November 29, 1987.

In 1973, the college responded to requests from the armed services to offer degree programs on US military bases. Today Saint Leo University is one of the largest providers of higher education to military-related personnel in the United States.Continuing in the tradition of distance learning, the Saint Leo University Center for Online Learning was established in 1999, as one of the first online schools in the country.

In 2011, Saint Leo University was named by U.S. News & World Report as one of the "Top Universities in the South."In 2010 the university was listed in the magazine G.I. Jobs as a "Military Friendly School."Saint Leo was also a finalist in 2011 for the Distinguished Program in Teacher Education Award presented by the Association of Teacher Educators.The Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) named Saint Leo among its 2010 Community Service Honor Roll.Saint Leo's online program has also gained some notable recognition;Guide to Online Schools ranked it #17th in their list of top online schools.

 Athletic -

Saint Leo teams participate as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division II. The Lions are a member of the Sunshine State Conference (SSC). Men's sports include baseball, basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, swimming and tennis; women's sports include basketball, cross country, golf, lacrosse, soccer, softball, swimming, tennis and volleyball.

Ohio State University

    The Ohio State University, commonly referred to as Ohio State or OSU, is a public research university in Columbus, Ohio. Founded in 1870, as a land-grant university and ninth university in Ohio with the Morrill Act of 1862,the university was originally known as the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The college began with a focus on training students in various agricultural and mechanical disciplines but was 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".It has since grown into the third largest university campus in the United States.Along with its main campus in Columbus, Ohio State also operates a regional campus system with regional campuses in Lima, Mansfield, Marion, Newark, and Wooster.

The university is also home to an extensive student life program, with over 1,000 student organizations; intercollegiate, club and recreational sports programs; student media organizations and publications, fraternities and sororities; and three active student governments. Ohio State athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are known as the Ohio State Buckeyes. The university is a member of the Big Ten Conference for the majority of sports. The Ohio State Buckeyes men's ice hockey program competes in the Big Ten Conference, while its women's hockey program competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In addition, the OSU men's volleyball team is a member of the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA). OSU is one of only fourteen universities in the nation that plays Division I FBS football and Division I ice hockey. Alumni and former students have gone on to prominent careers in government, business, science, medicine, education, sports, and entertainment.

The initial idea of a manufacturing and agriculture university in central Ohio had been hindered in the 1870s by hostility from the state's agricultural interests and competition for resources from Ohio University, which was chartered by the Northwest Ordinance, and Miami University; although, these issues were dismissed by Republican stalwart Governor Rutherford B. Hayes. The Ohio State University was founded in 1870 as a land-grant university in with the Morrill Act of 1862 under the name of the Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College. The school was originally situated within a farming community located on the northern edge of Columbus. While some interests in the state had hoped that the new university would focus on matriculating students of various agricultural and mechanical disciplines, Governor Hayes manipulated both the university's location and its initial board of trustees towards a more comprehensive end.The university opened its doors to 24 students on September 17, 1873. In 1878, the first class of six men graduated. The first woman graduated the following year.Also in 1878, in light of its expanded focus, the college permanently changed its name to the now-familiar "The Ohio State University", with "The" as part of its official name.

Ranked -

• In 1916, Ohio State became the first university in Ohio to be extended membership into the Association of American Universities, and remains the only public university in Ohio among the organization's 60 members. The Public Ivies: America's Flagship Public Universities (2000) by Howard and Matthew Greene listed Ohio State as one of a select number of public universities offering the highest educational quality.

• In its 2016 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked Ohio State as tied for the 16th-best public university in the United States, and tied for 52nd among all national universities.

• The Academic Ranking of World Universities placed Ohio State 40th nationally and 67th globally for 2015.In its 2015-16 rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it tied for 90th in the world.Also in 2015, QS World University Rankings ranked the university 99th in the world.

• The Lombardi Program on Measuring University Performance at Arizona State University detailed analysis and rankings of American universities in 2007 placed Ohio State as the 24th ranked university in America, the 10th ranked public university in the country and the top overall university in Ohio. Of their nine ranking criteria, Ohio State ranked in the top-25 in four categories and between 26–50 in an additional four categories.The Washington Monthly college rankings, which seek to evaluate colleges' contributions to American society based on factors of social mobility, cutting edge research, and service to the country by their graduates, in 2015 placed Ohio State 18th in the nation.

• The Ohio State law school is ranked by U.S. News & World Report tied for 34th overall in America for 2016, with the nursing school tied for 22nd, and the medical school ranked tied for 31st for research and tied for 40th for primary care; the graduate engineering program was ranked 32nd best and the College of Education ranked 15th in America.Nineteen Ohio State graduate programs or specialties were rated among the nation's top ten for 2016.

• Ohio State's political science department is ranked 15th in the country by U.S. News & World Report for 2016, with the international politics section 8th, American politics 10th, and political methodology 10th.Professor Alexander Wendt was ranked the most influential scholar of international relations in the world in a 2011 survey of American professors of international relations.The history department was recently ranked 18th in the nation by the National Research Council.

Case Western Reserve University

      Case Western Reserve University (also known as Case Western Reserve, Case Western, Case, and CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. The university was created in 1967 by the federation of Case Institute of Technology (founded in 1881 by Leonard Case Jr.) and Western Reserve University.TIME magazine described the merger as the creation of "Cleveland's Big-Leaguer" university.

In U.S. News & World Report's 2015 rankings, Case Western Reserve's undergraduate program ranked 37th among national universities.The University is associated with 16 Nobel laureates.Other notable alumni include Paul Buchheit, creator and lead developer of Gmail; Craig Newmark, founder of craigslist.org; Pete Koomen, the co-founder and CTO of Optimizely; and Peter Tippett, who developed the anti-virus software Vaccine, which Symantec purchased and turned into the popular Norton AntiVirus. Case Western Reserve is particularly well known for its medical school, business school, dental school, law school, Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing,Department of Biomedical Engineering and its biomedical teaching and research capabilities. It is also a leading institution for research in electrochemistry and electrochemical engineering. Case Western Reserve is a member of the Association of American Universities.

Western Reserve College was founded in 1826 in Hudson, Ohio, which, at the time, was the region's most populated area and named for the Connecticut Western Reserve, out of which the area arose. The nearby city of Cleveland, located about 26 miles (42 km) to its northwest, had only begun to grow. Western Reserve College, or "Reserve" as it was popularly called, was the first college in northern Ohio.

By 1875, a number of other schools had been established nearby, and Cleveland had emerged as clearly the dominant population and business center of the region. In 1882, with funding from Amasa Stone, Western Reserve College moved to Cleveland and changed its name to Western Reserve University.

The university is approximately 5 miles (8 km) east of downtown Cleveland, adjacent to the historic Wade Park District in University Circle, a park-like city neighborhood and commercial center, home to numerous educational, medical, and other cultural institutions. Case Western Reserve has a number of programs taught in conjunction with nearby institutions, including the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Hearing & Speech Center, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland Botanical Garden, and the Cleveland Play House.

Ranked -

• In 2014, Case Western Reserve was ranked 38th in the category American "national universities" by U.S. News & World Report.

• In 2014, Washington Monthly ranked Case Western Reserve University as the 9th best National University.

• In 2013, Washington Monthly ranked Case Western Reserve as the nation's 4th best national university for contributing to the public good. The publication's ranking was based upon a combination of factors including social mobility, research, and service.In 2009, the school had ranked 15th.

• In 2014, The Times ranked Case Western Reserve 116th worldwide.

• In September 2009, "BusinessWeek" ranked Case Western Reserve's Weatherhead School of Management as one of the 30 best Design Thinking schools in the world.

• In 2008, the National Science Foundation ranked Case Western Reserve #23 in the country for producing the highest percentage of undergraduate students that go on to earn Engineering and Science Ph.Ds.

• In 2014, Case Western Reserve was ranked the 405th top college in the United States by Payscale and CollegeNet's Social Mobility Index college rankings.

Michigan State University

         Michigan State University (MSU) is a public research university located in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. MSU was founded in 1855 and became the nation's first land-grant institution under the Morrill Act of 1862, serving as a model for future land-grant universities.The university was originally founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, one of the first institutions of higher education in the country to teach scientific agriculture.Following the introduction of the Morrill Act, the college became coeducational and expanded its curriculum beyond agriculture. Today, MSU is the eighth-largest university in the United States and has approximately 540,000 living alumni worldwide.

The history of Michigan State University (MSU) dates back to 1855, when the Michigan Legislature established the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan in East Lansing, with 3 buildings, 5 faculty members and 63 male students. As the first agricultural college in the United States, the school served as a prototype for future land-grant institutions under the Morrill Act enacted during Abraham Lincoln's presidency. The school's first class graduated in 1861 right after the onset of the American Civil War. That same year, the Michigan Legislature approved a plan to allow the school to adopt a four-year curriculum and grant degrees comparable to those of the University of Michigan (U-M).

Michigan State's NCAA Division I-A program offers 12 varsity sports for men and 13 for women.Since their teams are called the Spartans, MSU's mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty. The university participates in the Big Ten Conference in all varsity sports, including the new Big Ten hockey conference, featuring 6 teams. The current athletic director is Mark Hollis, who was promoted to the position on January 1, 2008.Hollis replaced Ron Mason, who served as head hockey coach from 1979 to 2002, retiring with a record total of 924 wins, and a 635–270–69 record at MSU.

In 1888 Michigan State University along with Olivet, Albion and Hillsdale Colleges was a founding member of the nation's oldest athletic conference, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA). MAC left the conference in 1907.

Michigan State ranks 99th in the world in 2015, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities.In its 2015-16 rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings also ranked it 99th in the world.The 2015 QS World University Rankings placed Michigan State University at 164th internationally.In its 2016 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked it as tied for the 29th-best public university in the United States, tied for 75th nationally and tied for 82nd globally.

The university has over 200 academic programs. U.S. News ranked MSU's graduate-level programs in elementary teacher's education, secondary teacher's education, industrial and organizational psychology, and nuclear physics first in the nation for 2016. U.S. News also ranks MSU third nationally for graduate education in African history and fourth nationally for graduate education in Educational Psychology.

The Eli Broad College of Business was ranked No. 42nd among undergraduate institutions nationally by Businessweek. Ninety-four percent of the school's graduates received job offers in 2014.The 2016 U.S. News ranked Michigan State's undergraduate supply chain management/logistics program in the Eli Broad College of Business 1st in the nation.In addition, the Eli Broad College of Business undergraduate accounting program is ranked 13th, the master's accounting program is ranked 15th, and the doctoral program is ranked 11th, according to the 2013 Public Accounting Report's Annual Survey of Accounting Professors.The MBA program is ranked 19th in the U.S. by Forbes magazine.

East Carolina University

        East Carolina University is a public, doctoral/research university in Greenville, North Carolina, United States. Named East Carolina University by statute and commonly known as ECU or East Carolina, the university is the third-largest in North Carolina.

Founded on March 8, 1907 as a teacher training school, East Carolina has grown from 43 acres to almost 1,600 acres today. The university's academic facilities are located on four properties: Main Campus, Health Sciences Campus, West Research Campus, and the Field Station for Coastal Studies in New Holland, North Carolina.The nine undergraduate colleges, graduate school, and four professional schools are located on these four properties.All of the non-health sciences majors are located on the main campus. The College of Nursing, College of Allied Health Sciences, The Brody School of Medicine, and School of Dental Medicine are located on the health science campus. There are ten social sororities, 16 social fraternities, four historically black sororities, five historically black fraternities, one Native American fraternity, and one Native American sorority.There are over 300 registered clubs on campus including fraternities and sororities.

Public Laws of North Carolina, 1907, Chapter 820 titled An Act to Stimulate High School Instruction in the Public Schools of the State and Teacher Training is the official law chartering East Carolina Teachers Training School (ECTTS) on March 8, 1907 by the North Carolina General Assembly.The chairman of its original Board of Trustees, Thomas Jordan Jarvis, a former Governor of North Carolina now known as the "Father of ECU", participated in groundbreaking ceremonies for the first buildings on July 2, 1908 in Greenville, North Carolina and ECTTS opened its doors on October 5, 1909.Although its purpose was to train "young white men and women", there were no male graduates until 1932.In 1920, ECTTS became a four–year institution and renamed East Carolina Teachers College (ECTC); its first bachelor's degrees were awarded the following year in education.A master's degree program was authorized in 1929; the first such degree granted by ECTC was in 1933.Progress toward full college status was made in 1948 with the designation of the bachelor of arts as a liberal arts degree, and the bachelor of science as a teaching degree.A change of name to East Carolina College in 1951 reflected this expanded mission.Over the objections of Governor Dan K. Moore, who opposed the creation of a university system separate from the Consolidated University of North Carolina, ECC was made a regional university effective July 1, 1967, and assumed its present name, East Carolina University.

ECU's sports teams, nicknamed the Pirates, compete in NCAA Division FBS as a full–member of the American Athletic Conference.The Pirates joined The American on July 1, 2014. Jeff Compher is the Athletic Director.The football team is supported by world-class spirit groups, such as the East Carolina University Marching Pirates, National Award winning Cheerleading squads, and spirit teams. Facilities include the 50,000 seat Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium for football, the 8,000–seat Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum for men's and women's basketball, and Clark-LeClair Stadium, with a seating capacity of 3,000 for baseball. The Ward Sports Medicine building comprises 82,095-square-foot (7,600 m2) and houses the athletic department, Pirate Club offices and the Human Performance Laboratory.

• In 2012, East Carolina was classified by U.S. News & World Report as a National University in its second-tier rankings.

• In 2010, Forbes ranked the school 36th in its America's Best College Buys story.

• In the 2012 edition of U.S. News & World Report, The Brody School of Medicine is ranked 10th in the country for primary care physician preparation, 13th in the rural medicine specialty and 14th in family medicine.In 2010, Brody was ranked seventh on the social mission scale.

In 2009, the university was awarded the Patriot Award. The Patriot Award recognizes employers who go above and beyond what the law requires in supporting their employees who serve in the National Guard or reserves.In 2010, the university was awarded the Secretary of Defense Employer Support Freedom Award. It is the highest recognition given by the U.S. Government to employers for their outstanding support of their employees who serve in the Guard and Reserve.

California State University, Long Beach

        

      California State University, Long Beach is the third largest campus of the 23 school California State University system (CSU) and one of the largest universities in the state of California by enrollment, its student body numbering 36,822 for the Fall 2014 semester. As of Fall 2014, the school had 2,283 total faculty, with 36.7 percent of those faculty on the tenure track.With 5,286 grad students, the university enrolls one of the largest graduate student populations across the CSU and in the state of California alone.The university is located in the Los Altos neighborhood of Long Beach at the southeastern coastal tip of Los Angeles County, less than one mile from the border with Orange County.The university offers 137 different Bachelor's degrees, 92 types of Master's degrees, 5 Doctoral degrees including two Doctor of Education, a Ph.D in Engineering, a Doctor of Physical Therapy and Doctor of Nursing Practice, as well as 29 different teaching credentials.

The College was established in 1949 by California Governor Earl Warren, to serve the rapidly expanding post-World War II population of Orange and Southern Los Angeles counties. Since then, CSULB has grown to become one of the state's largest universities.

The institution was first named as Los Angeles-Orange County State College. Peter Victor Peterson was its first president.It offered 25 courses, taught by 13 faculty members, in two apartment buildings at 5381 Anaheim Road in Long Beach. In June 1950, the citizens of Long Beach voted overwhelmingly to purchase 322 acres (130 ha) as a permanent campus for the college, then known as Long Beach State College. The purchase price was nearly $1,000,000. Student enrollment grew rapidly in this new, permanent location.

Also in 1972, the campus became the home of the largest library facility in the then 19-campus CSU system: a modern six-story building with a seating capacity of nearly 4,000 students.

In 1995, President Robert Maxson initiated the privately funded President's Scholars Program, providing selected qualified California high school valedictorians and National Merit finalists and semi-finalists with a full four-year scholarship package, including tuition, a book stipend, and housing. As of May 2010, over 1000 students have accepted the scholarship.For applicants for Fall 2010, National Achievement Program Semifinalists/Finalists and National Hispanic Recognition scholars were also considered.

•  Cal State Long Beach was ranked the 19th top college in the United States by Payscale and CollegeNet's Social Mobility Index college rankings.

•  Money Magazine ranked Cal State Long Beach 183rd in the country out of the nearly 1500 schools it evaluated for its 2014 Best Colleges ranking.

•  The Daily Beast ranked Cal State Long Beach 92nd in the country out of the nearly 2000 schools it evaluated for its 2013 Best Colleges ranking.

•  Long Beach State has also been ranked as one of the top five public master's degree-granting institutions in the West by U.S. News and World Report's "America's Best Colleges Guide" in every year's edition from 2005 to 2013.