UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

INTRODUCTION ON UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 

The University of Michigan (U-M, UM, UMich, or also known as U of M), normally referred to as Michigan, has been and is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. It was 1817 the year it was founded in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, also known as University of Michigania, twenty years before the Michigan Territory trun into a state, the University of Michigan is the state's most oldest institution. The university transferred to Ann Arbor in the year 1837 onto 40 acres  of what is currently known as Central Campus. From the day of its establishment in Ann Arbor, the university campus has grown in capacity to include more than 584 major buildings with a gross area of more than 34 million combined square feet ( 3.16 km²) which is spread out over a Central Campus and North Campus, it also has two satellite campuses in Flint and Dearborn, and a Center in Detroit aswell. The University was also a founding member of the Association of American Universities.

CAMPUS AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 

The Ann Arbor campus is separated into main four areas i.e.: the North, Central, Medical and South campuses.Moreover, the physical infrastructures include over more than 500 major buildings, with a total combined area of over more than 34 million square feet  (3.16 km2). Both the Central and South Campus areas are contiguous, but the North Campus area has been separated from them,  by the Huron River. There are also many leased space throughout buildings scattered all over the city, which  are many occupied by organizations affiliated with the University of Michigan Health System. An East Medical Campus has quite recently been constructed on Plymouth Road, with several university-owned buildings for outpatient care, diagnostics and outpatient surgery.

STUDENTS LIFE INSIDE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

The University of Michigan's campus housing system can accommodate and provide residence to more than 10,900 people, or you can say close to 30 percent of the total students population at the university. The residence halls are situated in 3 distinct geographic areas on campus: Central Campus, Hill Area (between Central Campus and the Medical Campus) and finally the North Campus.Housing foe family is based on North Campus and mainly serves students appearing for graduate program. The largest residence hall has a capacity to hold upto  1,240 students, while the smallest one can  accommodate 25 residents. A big number of upper-division and graduate students live in off-campus apartments, houses, and cooperatives, with the largest concentrations in the Central and South Campus areas.

ATHLETICS AT UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

The University of Michigan's sports teams are known as the Wolverines. They take part in the NCAA's Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) and also in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except for women's water polo, which has been a member of the Collegiate Water Polo Association since the beginning. U-M boasts about 27 varsity sports, which includes 13 men's teams and 14 women's teams. In ten of the past fourteen years concluding in the year 2009, U-M has also finished in the top 5 of the NACDA Director's Cup, a ranking which is compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to tabulate the achievement of universities in competitive sports.Also U-M has finished in the top ten of the Directors' Cup standings in fourteen of the award's sixteen seasons and has been able to place in the top 6 in 9 of the last ten seasons.

Duke University

INTRODUCTION ON DUKE UNIVERSITY

Duke University has been a private research university situated  in Durham, North Carolina, USA. This university was founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in the year 1892. In the year 1924,  electric power and tobacco  industrialist James Buchanan Duke established the Duke Endowment, at the same time the institution switched its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.

The university's campus spans over more than 8,600 acres (3,500 hectares) on three neighboring campuses in Durham as well as a lab for marine  in Beaufort. Duke's main campus,  executed largely by architect Julian Abele—incorporates Gothic architecture also with the 210-foot Duke Chapel at the institution' middle and highest point of elevation. The 1st year-populated East Campus has a  Georgian-style architecture, while the primary Gothic-style West Campus 1.5 miles (2.4 km) away is adjacent to the Medical Center. Duke is the seventh richest private research university in United States with over $11.4 billion in cash and investments in fiscal year 2014.

CAMPUSES OF DUKE UNIVERSITY

Duke Chapel, an icon of  the university, can seat nearly 1,600 people and contains a 5,200-pipe organ.
Duke University owns approximately 254 buildings on 8,547 acres (34.59 km2) of land, which includes the 7,044 acres (28.51 km2) Duke Forest. The university has been divided into four main areas: West, East, and Central campuses and the Medical Center, which are all connected with each other via a free bus service. On the Atlantic coast in Beaufort, Duke owns 15 acres (61,000 m2) as part of its marine lab. One main public attractions on the main campus is the 54-acre (220,000 m2) Sarah P. Duke Gardens, ingrained in the 1930s.

Duke students often refer to the campus as "the Gothic Wonderland," 
a nickname which refers to the Collegiate Gothic architecture of West Campus. Much of the campus was designed by Julian Abele, who is one of the 1st prominent African-American architects and the chief designer in the offices of architect Horace Trumbauer. The residentiary quadrangles are of an early and somewhat unadorned design, while the buildings in the 
academic quadrilateral buildings show influences of the more elaborate late French and Italian styles. The freshmen campus (also known as "East Campus") is comprised of many buildings in the Georgian architecture style. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed Duke among the most beautiful and attractive college campuses in the whole United States.

ATHLETICS AT DUKE UNIVERSITY

Duke University teams are known as the Blue Devils. Blue Devils has always been competing as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for the Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) sub-level for football), mainly participating in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) for all sports since the 1953–54 season. Men's sports include  basketball, baseball,  fencing, football, golf, cross country,  soccer, lacrosse, swimming & diving, tennis, track & field and wrestling aswell; whereas  women's sports include  cross country, basketball, fencing,  golf, lacrosse,field hockey, rowing,  swimming & diving, soccer, tennis, track & field and finally volleyball. Duke plans to add softball as its 27th varsity sport in spring the year 2018.

Duke university's teams have already won 16 NCAA team national championships—the women's golf team has won six  in the year 1999, 2002, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2014, also the men's basketball team has won five in the year 1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, and 2015, the men's lacrosse team has won three (2010, 2013, and 2014), and the men's soccer (1986) and women's tennis (2009) teams have won one each.

California Institute of Technology

INTRODUCTION ON CALTECH

The California Institute of Technology (also known as Caltech) is a private research and doctorate-granting university situated in Pasadena, California, USA. Although it was founded as a preparatory and vocational school by Amos G. Throop in the year 1891, the university attracted deserving scientists such as  Arthur Amos Noyes, George Ellery Hale and Robert Andrews Millikan in the beginning of  the 20th century. The vocational and preparatory schools were immobilized and spun off in the year 1910, and the college assumed its present name in 1921. In the year 1934, Caltech was nominated to the Association of American Universities(AAU), and the ancestor of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, which Caltech peruses to supervise and operate, were established between 1936 and 1943 under Theodore von Kármán. The university is also one of the member of a  small group of Institutes of Technology in the United States which tends to be primarily dedicated to the instruction of technical arts and applied sciences.

CAMPUS AT CALTECH

Caltech's 124-acre (50 ha) primary campus is situated in city of Pasadena, California, around 11 miles (18 km) northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is within walking distance from Old Town Pasadena to the Pasadena Playhouse District and that is why the two locations are frequent getaways for Caltech students.
                    

In the year 1917 Hale signed up a known architect Bertram Goodhue to produce a great approach for the 22 acres (8.9 ha) campus. Goodhue created the overall layout of the campus and designed the  building for physics, Dabney Hall, and many other structures, in which he needed to be steady with the character of the school, the local climate,  and Hale's educational philosophy. Goodhue's designs for Caltech  were also motivated by the traditional  architecture of Spanish mission from Southern California.

ACADEMICS AT CALTECH

Caltech is a small 4 year, highly suitable residential research university with a bit of majority in graduate programs. The Institute has been approved by the renowned Western Association of Schools and Colleges since the year 1949. Caltech is on the quarter system which means the fall term begins in late September and comes to an end before 
Christmas, the second term starts after New Year and comes to an end in mid pf March, and the third term begins in late March or early April and ends in early June.

Caltech has been rated first internationally since the year 2011 by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Caltech was rated as the top best university in the world in mainly two categories: Engineering & Technology and Physical Sciences. It is also known to have been found  the highest faculty citation rate in the world.

University of California, Berkeley

INTRODUCTION ON UNIVERSITY OF BERKELEY

The University of California, Berkeley (also known as Berkeley; UC Berkeley; or Cal) is a public research university situated in Berkeley, California. It was founded in 1868,being the oldest of the ten piblic research universities affiliated with the University of California system.

Established in the year 1868 as the result of the merging of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, California. This university offers approximately 350 graduate and undergraduate degree programs in a vast range of disciplines. The Dwinelle Bill of the month March 5, 1868 (California Assembly Bill No. 583) states that the "University must have for its design, to provide instruction  and complete education in each and departments from science,  industry and profession pursuits, and general education, literature and art, and also special courses of guidance in preparation for the selected professions... ."

ACADEMICS AT BERKELEY 

Berkeley is a large, mostly residential research university with a high majority of enrollments in undergraduate programs but also grants a comprehensive doctoral graduate program. This university has been certified by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission since the year 1949. This university is one of only two UC campuses regulating on a semester calendar, (the other operates with UC Merced). It offers about 106 Bachelor's degrees, 88 Master's degrees, around 97 research-focused doctoral programs, and 31 professionally dedicated graduate degrees. The university awarded approximately 7,565 Bachelor's, about 2,610 Master's or Professional, and 930 Doctoral degrees in the year 2013-14.

Berkeley's hundred and thirty plus academic departments and programs are categorized into 14 colleges and schools in inclusion to UC Berkeley Extension."Colleges" are both undergraduate and graduate, while "Schools" is a place where students are generally graduate only, nevertheless some offer undergraduate majors, minors, or other courses.

CAMPUSES OF BERKELEY

The Berkeley campus covers approximately 1,232 acres (499 ha), nevertheless the "central campus" occupies only the low-lying western 178 acres (72 ha) of the total area. Of the remaining acres, exactly two hundred acres (81 ha) is occupied by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; other facilities above the major campus acquires the Lawrence Hall of Science and other several research units, notably  the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute, the Space Sciences Laboratory, the University of California Botanical Garden, an undeveloped 800-acre (320 ha) ecological preserve and a recreation center in Strawberry Canyon. Part of the mostly undeveloped, eastern area of the university are actually inside the City of Oakland, California; these portions extend from the Claremont Resort north through the Panoramic Hill neighborhood to Tilden Park.

To the west side of the main campus is the downtown business district of Berkeley; similarly to the northwest side is the neighborhood of North  of Berkeley,  also including the so-called Gourmet Ghetto, a commercial district recognised for its high quality dining as there is the existence of  world-renowned restaurants like Chez Panisse. Right to the north is a peaceful residential neighborhood recognised as Northside with a large number of graduate student population; located north of that, are the rich residential neighborhoods of the Berkeley Hills. Also immediately southeast side of the  campus lies fraternity row, and over that the Clark Kerr Campus and an prosperous residential is  named Claremont. The area at the south side of the university includes student housing and also Telegraph Avenue,  Berkeley's one of the main shopping area with stores, street vendors and also restaurants catering to college students as well as  tourists. In inclusion, the University also retains land to the northwest of the main campus, a 90-acre (36 ha) area of married student housing complex at the nearby town of Albany ("Albany Village" and the "Gill Tract"), and a field research station about a few miles to the north in Richmond, California.

Northwestern University

INTRODUCTION ON NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Northwestern University (NU) has been a private research university located in Evanston, Illinois and has campuses in Chicago, Illinois, San Francisco, California and Doha, Qatar. Comprised of 12 schools and colleges, Northwestern university  offers hundred and twenty four undergraduate degrees and 145 graduate and professional degrees.

Northwestern university was founded in the year 1851 by John Evans, for whom the City of Evanston is named after, and also 8 other lawyers, businessmen and Methodist leaders. Its initial founding purpose was to serve the Northwest Territory which is an area that today includes the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and parts of Minnesota.In the moment, the main campus is a 240-acre parcel in Evanston, just along the shores of Lake Michigan by twelve miles north of downtown Chicago. The Northwestern university's law, medical, and professional schools are based on a 25-acre campus in Chicago's neighborhood Streeterville. In the year 2008, the university had opened a campus in Education City, Doha, Qatar with programs relating journalism and communication.

ACADEMICS AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

This university is a large residential research university which is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and the respective national professional organizations in the field of chemistry, psychology, business, education, journalism, music, engineering, law, and medicine. The university offers approximately 124 undergraduate programs and around 145 graduate and professional programs. Northwestern university has already conferred 2,190 bachelor's degrees, 3,272 master's degrees, 565 doctoral degrees, and 444 professional degrees between the year 2012–2013.

The 4-year, full-time undergraduate program includes the majority of enrollments at the university and also emphasizes instruction in the arts and sciences, plus the professions of engineering, journalism, communication, music, and education. Although a basic foundation in the liberal arts and sciences is must in all majors, there is no required common core curriculum; individual degree requirements are set by the faculty of each school itself. Northwestern university's full-time undergraduate and graduate programs operate on an average of 10-week academic quarter system with the academic year beginning by the late September and ending in early June. Undergraduates typically take 4 courses each quarter and 12 courses in an academic year and are also required to complete minimum of twelve quarters on campus to get graduated. Northwestern university has always been offering honors, accelerated, and joint degree programs in medicine, science, mathematics, engineering, and journalism. The comprehensive doctoral graduate program has a high co-existence with undergraduate programs.


LIBRARIES AND MUSEUM AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

University Library made in 1970 has a Brutalist style. The Northwestern university's library system is formed out of four libraries on the Evanston campus including the present main library (University Library) and the original library building (Deering Library) 3 libraries on the Chicago campus; and the library affiliated with Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. The University Library contains over more than 4.9 million volumes, 4.6 million microforms, and almost 99,000 periodicals making it  the thirteeth largest university library in the whole North America and the tenth largest library among private universities. Notable collections in the library system include the Melville J. Herskovits Library of African Studies, an extensive collection of early edition printed music, the largest Africana collection in the world and manuscripts as well as late-modern works, and an art collection noted for its 19th and 20th-century Western art and architecture periodicals.Also the library system participates with fifteen other universities in digitizing its collections as a part of the Google Book Search project. The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art is a major art museum in Chicago which contains more than 4,000 works in its permanent collection as well as dedicating a 3rd of its space to temporary and traveling exhibitions.

Columbia University

INTRODUCTION ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Columbia University is a private Ivy League research institute in Upper Manhattan, New York. It was founded in the year 1754 as King's College by the royal charter of George II of Great Britain. Columbia has been the oldest college in New York and the 5th  chartered university of higher learning in the nation, making it one of 9 colonial universities founded before the Declaration of Independence. After the American Revolutionary War, King's College thoroughly became a state entity and later was renamed Columbia College in the year 1784. A 1787 charter had placed the institution under the watch of a private board of trustees before it was named Columbia University in the year 1896 when the university was moved from Madison Avenue to its current location in Morningside Heights which occupies thirty two acres of area. Columbia fall under one of the fourteen founding members of the Association of American Universities, and also was the first school in the United States to prevail the M.D. degree.

STUDENTS AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

In fall 2014, student's of  Columbia University had a population of 29,870 (8,559 students in undergraduate programs and 21,311 in postgraduate programs), with about thirty nine percentage of the student population identifying themselves as a minority and twenty eight percentage born outside of the United States. Twenty-six percentage of students from Columbia have family incomes below $60,000 annually, which makes it one of the most socio-economically diverse top-tier colleges. Sixteen percentage of students at Columbia receive Federal Pell Grants, which mostly go to students whose family incomes are below $40,000 annually. Fifteen percentage of students are the 1st member of their family to attend a 4-year college.

TECHNOLOGY AND ENTREPRENEUR AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

The Columbia University Organization of Rising Entrepreneurs (CORE) was founded and established in the year 1999. The student-run group aims to foster entrepreneurship on campus. Every year CORE manages and hosts dozens of events which  include talks, #StartupColumbia, a conference and venture competition for $250,000, and Ignite@CU, a weekend for undergrads interested in design, engineering, and entrepreneurship. Notable speakers in the program include Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey,[ Alexis Ohanian, Drew Houston, and Mark Cuban. By 2006,also CORE had awarded graduate and undergraduate students over $100,000 in seed capital.

COLUMBIA UNIVESITY ATHLETICS

A member institution from the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in Division I FCS, Columbia fields varsity teams in twenty nine sports and is also a member of the Ivy League. The football Lions play home games at the 17,000-seated Robert K. Kraft Field at Lawrence A. Wien Stadium. Almost one hundred blocks north of the main campus at Morningside Heights, the Baker Athletics Complex also comprises facilities for baseball, soccer, lacrosse, softball, field hockey, tennis, track and rowing, as well as the new Campbell Sports Center which opened in January of 2013. The basketball, fencing, swimming & diving, volleyball and wrestling programs are carried out at the Dodge Physical Fitness Center on the main campus.

Keele University

KEELE UNIVERSITY

INTRODUCTION ON KEELE UNIVERSITY

Keele University which is officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university situated about three miles (4.8 km) from Newcastle, Staffordshire, England.This university was granted university status by Royal Charter in the year 1962 and was originally created in  the year 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire.

The university occupies an area of 620-acre  rural campus near the village of Keele and also has a science park and also a conference centre, making it  the biggest main campus university in the UK at that time. The university's School of Medicine comducts the clinical part of its courses through a separate campus at the Royal Stoke University Hospital. School of Nursing and Midwifery is located at the nearby Clinical Education Centre.

ACADEMIC PROFILE AND REPUTATION

The university's unique profile reflects the vision of its founders: breadth of study and community atmosphere. A modern sculpture had also been established ("The Forest of Light") at the centre of campus in Union Square that carries the motto which said  "search for truth in the company of friends".

Breadth of study was also guaranteed by the "pioneering" 4-year dual-honours degree programmes originally put forward  by Keele. The university's curriculum and activities  required every student to study two "major" subjects to honours level, as well as further "conditional" subjects, with an additional requirement where students should study at least 1 subject from each of the subject groupings of Sciences, Arts  and Social Sciences. The cross-disciplinary needs was reinforced by the Foundation Year,( an innovation which meant that for the 1st year of the 4-year programmes, all students must  study a common course of interdisciplinary "foundation studies"). Through the words of the 1st UCNS Prospectus, the programme offered:

"...a broad education system based upon an understanding of the heritage of  movements, civilisation, , conditions, and of the nature, methods and influence of the  science experimentally"

STUDENT ACTIVITY

The Keele team had won the 1968 series of University Challenge. Later the same team also made runner up for Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge (1979) in the 2002 special University Challenge: Reunited.

In the year early 1980s Keele grabbed the attention of the national press as well as television news when some students had  found a 'cuddling society' and a 'mass cuddle' was filmed in the car park outside the students' union.

The post-modern sculpture based outside Keele's library was stolen by a visiting sports team, only for it to be later retrieved and securely fitted. In the year  2005 that  same statue was damaged in protest against the university's policy of fine for  their undergraduate students.

In the year 2007, Keele students were stood  responsible for getting Keele featured as a location on the UK "Here and Now" version of the traditional board game "Monopoly" . People from the UK had an chance to vote for which places should be made the board, and Keele was the highest "wild-card" location which made it on the top. It even finished top  on the board than London, and took the place of "Fleet Street" in the game. Later that year, students from Keele won a competition hosted by O2 via Facebook known as "The battle for the UK's favourite university" where they scored  over 172,000 points by uploading photos, videos and making wall posts on the group. The prize for winning the competition was a party at their students' union, hosted by O2.