Applying To Universal Colleges

Who would not like to go to a popular College like Oxford, Harvard or the Sorbonne? As the world gets more aggressive, the nature of College you get your degree from can focus a great deal about your future. Getting a College degree from a brilliant universal College can give you that edge over top alumni from a College in your own nation.

What numerous candidates don’t understand is that applying to a College, particularly an abroad College, is not simply an issue of experiencing the application process. Anybody can do that, and, at prestigious Colleges, numerous more do than get in! To summarize the Book of scriptures: “numerous thump at the affirmations office entryway, however few are permitted in”.

Notwithstanding when English-talking understudies apply to English-medium Colleges abroad, there is a component of society included. Society means, to make it extremely straightforward, “how individuals think and carry on in a certain nation”. Americans, Britons, Australians, New Zealanders, and Canadians, for instance, talk the same dialect however have diverse societies. We feel that they are the same on the grounds that the distinctions are such a great amount of not exactly the distinctions from nations where English is not the first dialect.

Indeed, even nations which utilize the same examination framework don’t fundamentally have the same society, and that prompts shocks. Every year, a huge number of Nigerians, Indians, Kenyans, Pakistanis, Malays, and west Indians, who experienced “English framework” schools with great imprints, neglect to get into great English, Australian, and Canadian Colleges when they attempt. Getting a high review point normal in an open secondary school in Nebraska may not get you into Cambridge either. Nor will an Ivy Alliance College in America essentially give your English state funded school (all the more so in the event that it is in Africa or Asia) the validity that Colleges in your nation would.

Obviously, you have to be shrewd. Yes, you require a decent instruction. The best procedure on the planet won’t get an idiot into a top College. Yet the majority of the individuals who don’t get into the College they had always wanted are not dolts by any means: they are truly savvy and have done well at school. Hence, the more noteworthy the shock when they fall flat. They just can’t comprehend why!

The social side of College confirmations includes things like observation and worth. You may well need to “offer” your optional school to your forthcoming College, only on the grounds that they have not knew about it some time recently. Keep in mind one thing: the top Colleges stay at the top in light of the fact that they just concede understudies who are certain to succeed, both in their Colleges and in their professions. They don’t care to take risks. Yet telling the confirmations office how extraordinary your school was won’t even start to offer it.

English understudies may need to offer data to American Colleges that they never considered to get in, and they may not generally be requested it. Thus, American understudies may find that the things they believe are their most grounded focuses are of no enthusiasm at all to English Colleges: at any rate unless they are introduced in a certain manner. To sum up (which obviously implies that there are numerous exemptions), American Colleges are more inspired by the understudy as a man, while English Colleges are more keen on the understudy’s scholastic fabulousness, standing separated from different candidates.

African and Asian understudies who top their class in English-medium schools in their nations regularly learn systems that make them come up short in western Colleges, and never learn routines that will make them succeed. That is not a matter of awful instruction: it is training for the wrong culture. One reasonable case: in Africa or Asia, in the event that you remember the reading material, you are a decent understudy and will get good grades. In England or America, on the off chance that you remember the reading material, you have no innovativeness and will fizzle the examination. That kind of thing will appear in the application process, and the College entrance advisory boards know exactly where to look: lamentably the understudies have no clue about any of this and simply fill in the structures in their standard way.

Befuddled yet? Miserable? Does it all stable inconceivable? Here is the uplifting news: it is no place close outlandish! A large number of understudies get into the abroad Colleges they had always wanted every year, succeed and go ahead to incredible things. It is extremely conceivable, yet the individuals who succeed have the right methods, the right data, and the right exhortation.

How would I know? I know on the grounds that I have been helping understudies to get into abroad Colleges for quite a long time. I recollect one Malaysian understudy, when I was instructing at Victoria College of Wellington, who needed to get into an English College to turn into a Lawyer. Her English was sufficient, yet her certainty was definitely not. She knew minimal about the English Colleges, even which ones to apply to. I simply addressed her inquiries at consistently, think I gave her a letter of reference. Simply that was sufficient help for her.

Another Taiwanese understudy was overwhelmed by the UCAS arrangement of utilization to English Colleges. English was a piece of the issue, however the most serious issue was simply add up to newness to the entire framework. I simply stayed with him through the procedure, checked his structures and exhorted him on alternatives, and kept his spirits up. I was so upbeat, around after 4 years. when he returned to say thanks to me, Business degree close by.

Both of them, or numerous others whom I coached on their IELTS or TOEFL examinations or helped them to enhance their written work and perusing abilities to succeed in school, could undoubtedly have fizzled if nobody had been there. You don’t simply require an application paper supervisor or a secondary school direction advisor. You require an expert counsel who can help on EVERYTHING!: that is, whatever you, particularly, need to get into the College you had always wanted. It won’t be a 1-day, or 1-month handle: the prior you begin, the more probable you are to succeed.

One vital tip: the application procedure does NOT begin when you get the application structure! An effective application to a noteworthy College begins YEARS ahead of time: in the school you pick, the subjects you pick, and the exercises you partake in. After that, the structure filling procedure is either a matter of good system or fiasco administration to succeed.

So you require somebody who can make it through to the end, and not run the time at Madison Road rates each time you have an inquiry. On the off chance that I am not the one helping you, discover somebody in your family or neighborhood who has “been there, done that” (no “moment specialists” need apply).

Jack Effron Copyright 2007 All rights saved (aside from as gave under the principles of EzineArticles.com)

Dr. Jack Effron BA (Hon) (Econ) (Cincinnati) LLB (Brit Col) PhD (London) Cert Jaw Lang (Prov) has considered in 4 nations (Britain, Canada, U.S.A., and Taiwan) (none of them his nation of origin!). He has taught in Colleges and schools in 6 nations. He has helped numerous understudies like you get ready for and get into Colleges in the nation of their decision!

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley (also referred to as Berkeley, UC Berkeley, California or simply Cal) is a public research university located in Berkeley, California. It is the flagship campus of the University of California system, one of three parts in the state's public higher education plan, which also includes the California State University system and the California Community Colleges System.

It is considered by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings as one of six university brands that lead in world reputation rankings in 2015 and is ranked third on the U.S. News' 2015 Best Global Universities rankings conducted in the U.S. and nearly 50 other countries. The Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) also ranks the University of California, Berkeley, fourth in the world overall, and first among public universities. Some department specifics include third in engineering, fourth in social sciences and first in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and life sciences. The university is also well known for producing a high number of entrepreneurs.

Established in 1868 as the result of the merger of the private College of California and the public Agricultural, Mining, and Mechanical Arts College in Oakland, UC Berkeley is the oldest institution in the UC system and offers approximately 350 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in a wide range of disciplines.The University of California has been charged with providing both "classical" and "practical" education for the state's people. Cal co-manages three United States Department of Energy National Laboratories, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy.

Berkeley faculty, alumni, and researchers have won 72 Nobel Prizes (including 30 alumni Nobel laureates), nine Wolf Prizes, seven Fields Medals, 18 Turing Awards, 45 MacArthur Fellowships,20 Academy Awards, and 11 Pulitzer Prizes. To date, UC Berkeley scientists have discovered six chemical elements of the periodic table (californium, seaborgium, berkelium, einsteinium, fermium, lawrencium). Along with Berkeley Lab, UC Berkeley researchers have discovered 16 chemical elements in total – more than any other university in the world.Berkeley is a founding member of the Association of American Universities and continues to have very high research activity with $730.7 million in research and development expenditures in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014.Berkeley physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director of the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb in the world, which he personally headquartered at Los Alamos, New Mexico, during World War II. Faculty member Edward Teller was (together with Stanislaw Ulam) the "father of the hydrogen bomb". Former United States Secretary of Energy and Nobel laureate Steven Chu (PhD 1976), was Director of Berkeley Lab, 2004–2009.

Berkeley is a large, primarily residential research university with a majority of enrollments in undergraduate programs but also offers a comprehensive doctoral graduate program. The university has been accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges Senior College and University Commission since 1949. The university is one of only two UC campuses operating on a semester calendar, (the other is UC Merced). Berkeley offers 106 Bachelor's degrees, 88 Master's degrees, 97 research-focused doctoral programs, and 31 professionally focused graduate degrees. The university awarded a total of 7,526 Bachelor's, 2,164 Master's, and 1,264 Doctoral degrees in 2012.

Harvard University

Harvard University

The University is organized into eleven separate academic units—ten faculties and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study—with campuses throughout the Boston metropolitan area: its 209-acre (85 ha) main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, approximately 3 miles (5 km) northwest of 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 in the Longwood Medical Area. Harvard has the largest financial endowment of any academic institution in the world, standing at $32.3 billion as of June 2013.

Harvard is a large, highly residential research university.The nominal cost of attendance is high, but the University's large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. It operates several arts, cultural, and scientific museums, alongside the Harvard Library, which is the world's largest academic and private library system, comprising 79 individual libraries with over 18 million volumes. Harvard's alumni include eight U.S. presidents, several foreign heads of state, 62 living billionaires, and 335 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 150 Nobel laureates and 5 Fields Medalists (when awarded) have been affiliated as students, faculty, or staff.

Harvard's 209-acre (85 ha) main campus is centered on Harvard Yard in Cambridge, about 3 miles (4.8 km) west-northwest of the State House in downtown Boston, and extends into the surrounding Harvard Square neighborhood. Harvard Yard itself contains the central administrative offices and main libraries of the university, academic buildings including Sever Hall and University Hall, Memorial Church, and the majority of the freshman dormitories. Sophomore, junior, and senior undergraduates live in twelve residential Houses, nine of which are south of Harvard Yard along or near the Charles River. The other three are located in a residential neighborhood half a mile northwest of the Yard at the Quadrangle (commonly referred to as the Quad), which formerly housed Radcliffe College students until Radcliffe merged its residential system with Harvard. The Harvard MBTA station provides public transportation via bus service and the Red Line subway.

Undergraduate admission to Harvard is characterized by the Carnegie Foundation as "more selective, lower transfer-in". Harvard College accepted 5.3% of applicants for the class of 2019, a record low and the second lowest acceptance rate among all national universities. Harvard College ended its early admissions program in 2007 as the program was believed to disadvantage low-income and under-represented minority applicants applying to selective universities, yet for the class of 2016 an Early Action program was reintroduced.

The undergraduate admissions office's preference for children of alumni policies have been the subject of scrutiny and debate as it primarily aids Caucasians and the wealthy and seems to conflict with the concept of meritocratic admissions.
Harvard's academic programs operate on a semester calendar beginning in early September and ending in mid-May. Undergraduates typically take four half-courses per term and must maintain a four-course rate average to be considered full-time. In many concentrations, students can elect to pursue a basic program or an honors-eligible program requiring a senior thesis and/or advanced course work. Students graduating in the top 4–5% of the class are awarded degrees summa cum laude, students in the next 15% of the class are awarded magna cum laude, and the next 30% of the class are awarded cum laude. Harvard has chapters of academic honor societies such as Phi Beta Kappa and various committees and departments also award several hundred named prizes annually. Harvard, along with other universities, has been accused of grade inflation, although there is evidence that the quality of the student body and its motivation have also increased. Harvard College reduced the number of students who receive Latin honors from 90% in 2004 to 60% in 2005. Moreover, the honors of "John Harvard Scholar" and "Harvard College Scholar" will now be given only to the top 5 percent and the next 5 percent of each class.

National University of Singapore

National University of Singapore

The National University of Singapore (Abbreviation: NUS) is a university located in Singapore. NUS is ranked consistently as one of Asia's top universities by both UK ranking systems, the QS World University Rankings and the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. According to the latest 2015 QS World University Rankings, NUS is ranked 12th in the world and retained its position as 1st in Asia. NUS also fared well in the 2014-15 Times Higher Education World University Rankings, coming in at No.25.

Founded in 1905, it is the oldest higher learning institute in Singapore, as well as the largest university in the country in terms of student enrollment and curriculum offered. The mission of NUS is to become a research-intensive university with an entrepreneurial dimension. NUS's main campus is located in southwest Singapore at Kent Ridge, with an area of approximately 1.83 km2 (0.71 sq mi). The Bukit Timah campus houses the Faculty of Law, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy and research institutes, while the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore is located at the Outram campus.

NUS has a semester-based modular system for conducting courses. It adopts features of the British system, such as small group teaching (tutorials) and the American system (course credits). Students may transfer between courses within their first two semesters, enrol in cross-faculty modules or take up electives from different faculties (compulsory for most degrees). Other cross-disciplinary initiatives study programmes include double-degree undergraduate degrees in Arts & Social Sciences and Engineering; Arts & Social Sciences and Law; Business and Engineering; and Business and Law.

NUS has 16 faculties and schools, including a Music Conservatory. Currently, it has seven overseas colleges at major entrepreneurial hubs in Shanghai and Beijing (China), Israel, India, Stockholm (Sweden), Silicon Valley and Bio Valley (US).
The NUS Overseas Colleges (NOC) programme started in 2001. Participants of the programme spend 6–12 months overseas, taking internships and courses at partner Universities. There are seven colleges: the Silicon Valley, California, United States; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US; Shanghai, China, Beijing, China, Stockholm, Sweden, India and Israel.

The local equivalent is the Innovative Local Enterprise Achiever Development (iLEAD) initiative, where students intern at innovative Singapore companies. This is a 7–8-month programme that cultivates an entrepreneurial mindset, and develops leadership and management skills.

NOC set up an entrepreneurial-themed residence, known as N-House. Located within the NUS Prince George's Park residence, this houses about 90 students, who are graduates of the NOC and iLEAD programmes. Entrepreneurial activities are also organised by the N-House residents, and these include entrepreneurial sharing sessions, business idea pitching and networking events.
Among the major research focuses at NUS are biomedical and life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, nanoscience and nanotechnology, materials science and engineering, infocommunication and infotechnology, humanities and social sciences, and defence-related research.

One of several niche research areas of strategic importance to Singapore being undertaken at NUS is bioengineering. Initiatives in this area include bioimaging, tissue engineering and tissue modulation. Another new field which holds much promise is nanoscience and nanotechnology. Apart from higher-performance but lower-maintenance materials for manufacturing, defence, transportation, space and environmental applications, this field also heralds the development of accelerated biotechnical applications in medicine, health care and agriculture.

Stanford University

Stanford University

Stanford was founded in 1885 by Leland Stanford, former Governor of and U.S. Senator from California and leading railroad tycoon, and his wife, Jane Lathrop Stanford, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford, Jr., who had died of typhoid fever at age 15 the previous year. Stanford was opened on October 1, 1891 as a coeducational and non-denominational institution. Tuition was free until 1920. The university struggled financially after Leland Stanford's 1893 death and and again after much of the campus was damaged by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Following World War II, Provost Frederick Terman supported faculty and graduates' entrepreneurialism to build self-sufficient local industry in what would later be known as Silicon Valley. By 1970, Stanford was home to a linear accelerator, and was one of the original four ARPANET nodes (precursor to the Internet).

Stanford's academic strength is broad with 40 departments in the three academic schools that have undergraduate students and another four professional schools. It has 21 living Nobel Laureates in Physics, Medicine, Chemistry, and Economics and 1 living Fields Medal winner.

Students compete in 36 varsity sports, and the university is one of two private institutions in the Division I FBS Pacific-12 Conference. It has gained 107 NCAA team championships, the second-most for a university, 476 individual championships, the most in Division I, and has won the NACDA Directors' Cup, recognizing the university with the best overall athletic team achievement, every year since 1994-1995.

Stanford faculty and alumni have founded many companies including Google, Hewlett-Packard, Nike, Sun Microsystems, Instagram and Yahoo!, and companies founded by Stanford alumni generate more than $2.7 trillion in annual revenue, equivalent to the 10th-largest economy in the world. It is the alma mater of 30 living billionaires and 17 astronauts. Stanford has produced a total of 18 Turing Award laureates. It is also one of the leading producers of members of the United States Congress.

Since 2000, Stanford has expanded dramatically. In February 2012, Stanford announced the conclusion of the Stanford Challenge. In a period of five years, Stanford raised $6.2 billion, exceeding its initial goal by $2 billion, making it the most successful university fundraising campaign in history. The funds will go towards 103 new endowed faculty appointments, 360 graduate student research fellowships, scholarships and financial aid, and the construction or renovation of 38 campus buildings. The new funding also enabled the construction of the world's largest facility dedicated exclusively to stem cell research; an entirely new campus for the business school; a dramatic expansion of the law school; a new Engineering Quad; a new art and art history building; an on-campus concert hall; a new art museum; and a planned expansion of the medical school, among other things. In 2012, Stanford opened the Stanford Center at Peking University, an almost 400,000-square-foot (37,000 m2), three-story research center in the Peking University campus. The ceremony featured remarks by U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke and Stanford President John Hennessy. Stanford became the first American university to have its own building on a major Chinese university campus.

Other Stanford programs underwent notable expansion as well, such as the Stanford in Washington Program's creation of the Stanford in Washington Art Gallery in Woodley Park, Washington, D.C., and the Stanford in Florence program's move to Palazzo Capponi, a 15th-century Renaissance palace. The university completed the James H. Clark Center for interdisciplinary research in engineering and medicine in 2003, named for benefactor, co-founder of Netscape, Silicon Graphics and WebMD, and former professor of electrical engineering James H. Clark.

In 2011, Stanford created the first PhD program in stem cell science in the United States. The program is housed at Stanford Medical School.

Undergraduate admission also became more selective; the acceptance rate dropped from 13% for the class of 2004 to 5.04% for the class of 2019, the lowest admit rate in University history. Stanford's reputation, competitive admissions, and strong legacy of entrepreneurship have contributed to the East-West rivalry between Stanford and such institutions as Harvard University, Princeton University and Yale University.

University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a collegiate public research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world's fourth-oldest surviving university. It grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with townsfolk.The two ancient universities share many common features and are often jointly referred to as "Oxbridge".

Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 constituent colleges and over 100 academic departments organised into six schools. The university occupies buildings throughout the town, many of which are of historical importance. The colleges are self-governing institutions founded as integral parts of the university. In the year ended 31 July 2014, the university had a total income of £1.51 billion, of which £371 million was from research grants and contracts. The central university and colleges have a combined endowment of around £5.89 billion, the largest of any university outside the United States. Cambridge is a member of many associations and forms part of the "golden triangle" of leading English universities and Cambridge University Health Partners, an academic health science centre. The university is closely linked with the development of the high-tech business cluster known as "Silicon Fen".

Students' learning involves lectures and laboratory sessions organised by departments, and supervisions provided by the colleges. The university operates eight arts, cultural, and scientific museums, including the Fitzwilliam Museum and a botanic garden. Cambridge's libraries hold a total of around 15 million books, 8 million of which are in Cambridge University Library which is a legal deposit library. Cambridge University Press, a department of the university, is the world's oldest publishing house and the second-largest university press in the world. Cambridge is regularly included among the world's best and most reputable universities by most university rankings. Beside academic studies, student life is centred on the colleges and numerous pan-university artistic activities, sports clubs and societies.

Cambridge has many notable alumni, including several eminent mathematicians, scientists, economists, writers, philosophers, actors, politicians. Ninety-one Nobel laureates have been affiliated with it as students, faculty, staff or alumni. Throughout its history, the university has featured in literature and artistic works by numerous authors including Geoffrey Chaucer, E. M. Forster and C. P. Snow.

Undergraduate applications to Cambridge must be made through UCAS in time for the early deadline, currently mid-October in the year before starting. Until the 1980s candidates for all subjects were required to sit special entrance examinations, since replaced by additional tests for some subjects, such as the Thinking Skills Assessment and the Cambridge Law Test. The University is considering reintroducing an admissions exam for all subjects with effect from 2016.

Most applicants who are called for interview will have been predicted at least three A-grade A-level qualifications relevant to their chosen undergraduate course, or the equivalent in other qualifications, such as getting at least 7,7,6 for higher-level subjects at IB. The A* A-level grade (introduced in 2010) now plays a part in the acceptance of applications, with the university's standard offer for most courses being set at A*AA, with A*A*A for sciences courses. Due to a very high proportion of applicants receiving the highest school grades, the interview process is crucial for distinguishing between the most able candidates. The interview is performed by College Fellows, who evaluate candidates on unexamined factors such as potential for original thinking and creativity. For exceptional candidates, a Matriculation Offer is sometimes offered, requiring only two A-levels at grade E or above. In 2006, 5,228 students who were rejected went on to get 3 A levels or more at grade A, representing about 63% of all applicants rejected. The acceptance rate for students in the 2012–2013 cycle was 21.9%.

Strong applicants who are not successful at their chosen college may be placed in the Winter Pool, where they can be offered places by other colleges. This is in order to maintain consistency throughout the colleges, some of which receive more applicants than others.

Graduate admission is first decided by the faculty or department relating to the applicant's subject. This effectively guarantees admission to a college—though not necessarily the applicant's preferred choice.

Kingston University

Kingston University

Kingston was founded as Kingston Technical Institute in 1899. In 1930 the Kingston School of Art separated, later to become Kingston College of Art. Kingston was recognised as a Regional College of Technology by Ministry of Education in 1957. In 1970 it merged again with the College of Art to become Kingston Polytechnic, offering 34 major courses, of which 17 were at degree level.

Kingston University was granted university status under the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. In 1993, Kingston opened the Roehampton Vale campus building and in 1995, Kingston acquired Dorich House.

The University has six halls of residence. Chancellors' and Walkden are based at the Kingston Hill campus. Middle Mill is adjacent to Knights Park campus, while Clayhill and Seething Wells are on opposite sides of Surbiton. Finally, there is Kingston Bridge House which is situated on the edge of Bushy Park at the Hampton Wick end of Kingston Bridge, London.
There are also contracted out halls of residence which are not owned by the university but licensed by them. IQ Wave halls were contracted due to Rennie being demolished to make way for a new education building at Kingston Hill.

The university operates a "headed tenancy" scheme in which the university sublets local properties to students from landlords.
In 2008, the BBC obtained e-mails circulated within Kingston's School of Music, relating to the opinions of an external examiner moderating the BMus course. The messages showed that her final report caused considerable concern within the department. The examiner was persuaded to moderate her criticism following contact from a member of the University's staff. The e-mails also detailed a plan to replace her (at the end of her term) with a more experienced and broad-based external examiner, a process which Kingston stressed breaks no rules relating to the appointment of such examiners. In October 2008, Peter Williams, Chief Executive of the UK Quality Assurance Agency (QAA), presented the agency's findings to a Parliamentary Select Committee charged with investigating standards in British higher education. Following an investigation of the allegations by a former University staff member that undue pressure was applied to the School of Music's External Examiner, QAA upheld all charges of wrongdoing, as alleged.

The Faculty of Business & Law has a number of specialist research units which cover the principal business disciplines. These research units include: Asia Business Research Centre, Business-to-Business Marketing Research Centre, Centre for Insolvency Law and Policy, Centre for Working Life Research, Consumer Research Unit, Marketing in New Contexts Group, Small Business Research Centre, Centre for Research in Employment, Skills & Society, Institute of Leadership & Management in Health.
The Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing was formed in summer 2011. The Faculty is composed of eight schools: Aerospace and Aircraft Engineering; Civil Engineering and Construction; Computing and Information Systems; Geography, Geology and Environment; Life Sciences; Mathematics; Mechanical and Automotive Engineering; and Pharmacy and Chemistry.

The School of Geography, Geology and the Environment hosts Geographical Information Systems (GIS), which was the very first degree of its kind.

The Faculty's teaching is split between undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Facilities at the Roehampton Vale campus including a Learjet 25, flight simulator, wind tunnel and automotive workshops including a range of vehicles and testing facilities.

Duke University

Duke University

Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892.In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James Buchanan Duke established Duke University, at which time the institution changed its name to honor his deceased father, Washington Duke.

The university's campus spans over 8,600 acres (35 km2) on three contiguous campuses in Durham as well as a marine lab in Beaufort. Duke's main campus—designed largely by architect Julian Abele—incorporates Gothic architecture with the 210-foot (64 m) Duke Chapel at the campus' center and highest point of elevation. The first-year-populated East Campus contains Georgian-style architecture, while the main Gothic-style West Campus 1.5 miles away is adjacent to the Medical Center. Duke is also the 7th wealthiest private university in America with $11.4 billion in cash and investments in fiscal year 2014.

Duke's research expenditures in the 2013 fiscal year were $993 million, the eighth largest in the nation. In 2014, Thomson Reuters named 32 Duke professors to its list of Highly Cited Researchers, making it fourth globally in terms of primary affiliations. Duke also ranks 5th among national universities to have produced Rhodes, Marshall, Truman, Goldwater, and Udall Scholars. 8 Nobel laureates, 3 Turing Award winners and 25 Churchill scholars are also affiliated with the university. In 2015, NPR ranked Duke first on its list of "schools that make financial sense". Duke's sports teams compete in the Atlantic Coast Conference and the basketball team is renowned for having won five NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Championships, the most recent in 2015.

Duke students often refer to the campus as "the Gothic Wonderland," a nickname referring to the Collegiate Gothic architecture of West Campus. Much of the campus was designed by Julian Abele, one of the first prominent African-American architects and the chief designer in the offices of architect Horace Trumbauer. The residential quadrangles are of an early and somewhat unadorned design, while the buildings in the academic quadrangles show influences of the more elaborate late French and Italian styles. The freshmen campus (East Campus) is composed of buildings in the Georgian architecture style. In 2011, Travel+Leisure listed Duke among the most beautiful college campuses in the United States.
Admission to Duke is highly selective; Duke received over 31,150 applications for the Class of 2019, and admitted 9.4% of applicants. According to The Huffington Post, Duke was the tenth toughest university in the United States to get into based on admissions data from 2010. The yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend the university) is approximately 50%. For the class of 2015, 90% of enrolled students ranked in the top 10% of their high school classes; 97% ranked in the top quarter. The middle 50% range of SAT scores for the prospective students accepted to Trinity College of Arts and Sciences in Fall 2014 is 680–790 for verbal/critical reading, 700–800 for math, and 700–790 for writing, while the ACT Composite range is 31–35 For those accepted to the Pratt School of Engineering, the middle 50% range for the SAT is 700-780 for verbal/critical reading, 760-800 for math, and 720-800 for writing, while the ACT Composite range is 33-35. The average SAT score is 2240.

From 2001 to 2011, Duke has had the sixth highest number of Fulbright, Rhodes, Truman, and Goldwater scholarships in the nation among private universities. The University practices need-blind admissions and meets 100% of admitted students' demonstrated need. About 50 percent of all Duke students receive some form of financial aid, which includes need-based aid, athletic aid, and merit aid. The average need-based grant for the 2013–2014 academic year was nearly $39,275. Roughly 60 merit-based scholarships are also offered, including the Angier B. Duke Memorial Scholarship, awarded for academic excellence. Other scholarships are geared toward students in North Carolina, African-American students, and high-achieving students requiring financial aid.