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 by 1878, the college changed its name to its current name. It has since grown into the third largest university campus in the United States. In 2007, Ohio State was officially designated as the flagship institution of Ohio's public universities as part of the newly centralized University System of Ohio. It is considered to be one of America's Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public research universities 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 an active student government association. Ohio State athletic teams compete in Division I (Football Bowl Subdivision for football) 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 theCentral Collegiate Hockey Association, and its women's hockey program competes in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In addition, the OSU men's volleyball is a member of theMidwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association (MIVA) while the men's lacrosse team is a member of the ECAC Lacrosse League. OSU is one of only thirteen 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.

Harvard University

Harvard University is an American private Ivy League research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation (officially The President and Fellows of Harvard College) chartered in the country. Harvard's history, influence, and wealth have made it one of the most prestigious universities in the world.

Harvard was named after its first benefactor, John Harvard. Although never formally affiliated with a church, the college primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Harvard's curriculum and students became secular throughout the 18th century and by the 19th century had emerged as the central cultural establishment among Boston elites. Following theAmerican Civil War, President Charles W. Eliot's forty-year tenure (1869–1909) transformed the college and affiliated professional schools into a centralized research university, and Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. James Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College. Drew Gilpin Faust was elected the 28th president in 2007 and is the first woman to lead the university. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32 billion as of September 2011.

The university comprises eleven separate academic units—ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—with campuses throughout the Boston metropolitan area. Harvard's 210-acre (85 ha) main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3.4 miles (5.5 km) northwest of downtown Boston. The business school and athletics facilities, including Harvard Stadium, are located across the Charles River in the Allston neighborhood of Boston and the medical, dental, and public health schools are located in the Longwood Medical Area.

Eight U.S. presidents have been graduates, and 75 Nobel Laureates have been student, faculty, or staff affiliates. Harvard is also the alma mater of sixty-two living billionaires, the most in the country. The Harvard University Library is the largest academic library in the United States, and one of the largest in the world.

The Harvard Crimson competes in 41 intercollegiate sports in the NCAA Division I Ivy League. Harvard has an intense athletic rivalry with Yale University traditionally culminating in The Game, although the Harvard–Yale Regatta predates the football game. This rivalry, though, is put aside every two years when the Harvard and Yale Track and Field teams come together to compete against a combined Oxford University and Cambridge University team, a competition that is the oldest continuous international amateur competition in the world.

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (U of M) is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest campus within the University of Minnesota system and has the sixth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 51,853 students in 2012–2013.

In 2012, the Academic Ranking of World Universities placed the University of Minnesota at 29th out of more than 1000 world-class universities and international research institutions surveyed. Also in 2012, the University of Minnesota was ranked 47th out of 400 top research universities in the world by the Times Higher Education world university rankings, and was ranked ninth among U.S. public research universities and 26th in the world in Newsweek's most recent "Top 100 Global Universities" report.

Minnesota's athletic teams are known collectively as the Minnesota Golden Gophers and compete in the NCAA's Division I, as members of the Big Ten Conference.

The original Minneapolis campus overlooked the Saint Anthony Falls on the Mississippi River, but it was later moved about a mile downstream to its current location. The original site is now marked by a small park known as Chute Square at the intersection of University and Central Avenues. The school shut down following a financial crisis during the American Civil War, but reopened in 1867 with considerable financial help from Pillsbury. It was upgraded from a preparatory school to a college in 1869.

The campus now has buildings on both river banks. The "East Bank", the main portion of the campus, covers 307 acres (124 ha). The West Bank is home to Carlson School of Management and the performing arts center. St. Paul campus is home to CBS, CDes, CFANS, and the vet program.

Arizona State University

Arizona State University (commonly referred to as ASU or Arizona State) is a national space-grant institution and public metropolitan research university located in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area of the U.S. state of Arizona. ASU is the largest public university in the United States by enrollment. Founded in 1885 as the Tempe Normal School for the Arizona Territory, the school came under control of the Arizona Board of Regents in 1945 and was renamed Arizona State College. A 1958 statewide ballot measure gave the university its present name; thus, making Arizona State one of the nation's newest public research universities. A goal of the university is to meet Association of American Universities (AAU) criteria and to become a member. The mission of the university is to create a model of the “New American University” that recognizes “inclusion, rather than exclusion” as a measure of success.

ASU awards bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees, and is broadly organized into 16 colleges and schools spread across four campuses: the original Tempe campus, the West campus in northwest Phoenix, the Polytechnic campus in eastern Mesa, and the Downtown Phoenix campus. All four campuses are accredited as a single institution by the Higher Learning Commission. The University is categorized as a Research University with very high research activity (RU/VH) as reported by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, with a research expenditure of $385 million in 2012 (a tripling of research expenditure since fiscal year 2002). More than 1.5 million sq. ft. of new research space has been added to the university's research facilities.

ASU's athletic teams compete in Division I of the NCAA and are collectively known as the Arizona State Sun Devils. They are members of the Pacific-12 Conference and have won 23 national championships. Along with multiple athletic clubs and recreational facilities, ASU is also home to over 1,000 registered student organizations across its campuses, reflecting the diversity of the student body. With the continued growth of the student population, ASU has recently undergone numerous renovations across each of its campuses, including expansion of student recreational facilities and dormitories. The demand for more student housing on campus is being addressed with public/private investment. Currently, ASU campus housing accommodates one of the largest residential populations in the nation with over 13,000 residents, a figure that will increase each year as the university continues to build more on-campus housing.

Ashford University

Ashford University is a for-profit university located in Clinton, Iowa. It is the largest educational holding of Bridgepoint Education (NYSE: BPI). Although the university is regionally accredited by The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools, their accreditation status has come under scrutiny after a rejected attempt to become accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges and demands from HLC for additional information.

The university offers Associate's, Bachelor's, and Master's degrees in more than 50 degree programs on campus and online. The majority of the student population is enrolled in online courses but the campus has experienced growth in recent years.

As for-profit colleges have come under increasing scrutiny, a U.S. Senate report in 2011 listed Ashford's parent company, Bridgepoint, as having one of the highest withdrawal rates of any publicly traded school in the industry. Ashford has also been faulted for its recruiting and finance practices in a U.S. Department of Education audit. Bridgepoint Education responded in March 2011 with a report asserting that the information used in the Senate hearing was either inaccurate or incomplete. Source: en.wikipedia.org

University of Phoenix

The University of Phoenix (UOPX) is an American for-profit institution of higher learning, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Apollo Group Inc., a publicly traded (NASDAQ: APOL) S&P 500 Phoenix-based corporation that owns several for-profit educational institutions.

The university has 112 campuses worldwide and confers degrees in over 100 degree programs at the associate, bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. The University of Phoenix closed 115 of its campuses in 2013, previously having over 200.

It is one of the largest higher-education providers in North America. Although the university attained a peak enrollment of almost 600,000 students in 2010, a 30-percent enrollment drop in 2011 was attributed to operational changes amid criticism of high debt loads and low job prospects for university students. These changes included allowing students to try classes before officially enrolling and recruiter training programs that are designed to improve student retention and completion rates.

In October 2012, it announced plans to close 115 campuses due to a drastic drop in its profits. The New York Times reported that "enrollments at the University of Phoenix and in the for-profit sector over all have been declining in the last two years, partly because of growing competition from other online providers, including nonprofit and public universities, and a steady drumroll of negative publicity about the sector’s recruiting abuses, low graduation rates and high default rates ... including many charges that the schools enrolled students who had almost no chance of succeeding, to get their federal student aid."

The university has an open-enrollment admission policy, requiring a high-school diploma, GED, or its equivalent as its criteria for admissions. It also provides associate or bachelor's degree applicants opportunity for advanced placement through its prior-learning assessment, through which, aside from previous coursework, college credit can come from experiential learning essays, corporate training, and certificates or licenses. Source: en.wikipedia.org

University of Manitoba

The University of Manitoba (U of M), is a public university in the province of Manitoba, Canada. Located in Winnipeg, it is Manitoba's largest, most comprehensive, and only research-intensive post-secondary educational institution. Founded in 1877, it was Western Canada’s first university.

The University of Manitoba has three main locations—the Bannatyne Campus, the Fort Garry Campus and the William Norrie Centre.

The downtown Bannatyne campus of the University comprises a complex of ten buildings located west of the Health Sciences Centre between McDermot Ave and William Ave in Central Winnipeg. This complex houses the medical and dental instructional units of the University. The Faculty of Dentistry, the Faculty of Medicine, the School of Medical Rehabilitation, and the School of Dental Hygiene are the major health sciences units located on this campus. The Faculty of Pharmacy officially joined the Bannatyne campus with the opening of the 95,000 sq ft (8,800 m2) Apotex Centre on October 16, 2008.

The main Fort Garry Campus (located on the Red River in south Winnipeg) comprises over 60 teaching and research buildings of the University and sits on 233 hectares (580 acres) of land. In addition, Smartpark is the location of seven buildings leased to research and development organizations involving university-industry partnerships.

The William Norrie Centre on Selkirk Avenue is the campus for social work education for inner-city residents.

The University also operates agricultural research stations near Glenlea and Carman, Manitoba. The Ian N. Morrison Research Farm near Carman is a 406 acres (164 ha) facility located 70 km (43 mi) from Winnipeg, while the Glenlea facility is approximately 1,000 acres (405 ha) and located 20 km (12 mi) from Winnipeg.